Friday, January 18, 2019

Do We Have a Dream? Sermon - Parashat Beshallach and MLK weekend - January 18, 2019


I have a dream that my four children will one day
Live in a nation
Where they will not be judged by the color of their skin,
But by the content of their character.”
This declaration of a broad vision for humanity was
Central to the dream that the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Articulated in his speech on August 28, 1963 at the March on Washington.
What would Dr. King say if he knew of current examples
 Of intractable hatred and racism?
We have heard about a Yale graduate student
Who happens to be black
Who was napping in a dormitory lounge
And accused of not belonging there by another student
Who called the police.
Then the graduate student was not believed by the police officers who confronted her
even when she took them into her own dorm room.
A current lawsuit by General Motors workers
At a plant in Toledo, Ohio
Cites the appearance of “Whites only” signs
Outside restrooms,
Nooses being hung in various places in the plant,
And one black supervisor being told
“Back in the day, you would have been buried
With a shovel.”
And there was the incident in late December
Of a black man staying
at a Doubletree Hotel in Portland, Oregon.
He was standing in the hotel lobby
Talking on the phone with his mother
When he was unexpectedly told
by a white security guard
that he was trespassing and
he was escorted out of the building.
It is an unfortunate truth that
Some people still have a problem
With difference.
An outward appearance
that some people see as “other”
Continues to instill fear that the person
Who is “different” poses a threat.  
After the shootings at Tree of Life Synagogue,
we know this all too well, but it was the victims
at the congregation that were seen as “different” and “dangerous.”
Perpetrators of acts of racism and violence
have no concern for the hurt they may cause.
All that matters is their perspective
That their targets don’t deserve human consideration. 
That runs counter to Dr. King’s dream.
In my reading of comments about the long-term impact
of the leadership of Dr. King,
One value that was often cited in the way he approached
the struggle for civil rights was empathy. 
If we know that someone is the victim
of hurt or prejudice,  
we need to feel it so we will do something
to make a change.  
In Dr. King’s vision,
Love is not reserved for just some people;
it is for everyone.
Justice is not reserved for only some people,
it is for everyone.
And the possibility of living a good life,
one of opportunity and even prosperity,
needs to encompass all people
So that the world can reap the benefits of true equality and understanding.
One of the great recent examples of empathy happened in the aftermath of the shootings at Tree of Life synagogue.
 The Rev. Eric S. C. Manning leads
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the congregation where nine church members were shot to death on June 17, 2015 during a bible study class.   
Within a few days after the shooting in Pittsburgh,
Pastor Manning reached out to Rabbi Jeffrey Myers
of Tree of Life synagogue and told him he wanted to come to mourn with the community.  And so he did.
And in doing so, he demonstrated
The empathic impulse in humanity. 
We know that firsthand here at Temple Beth-El
 from the large crowd of local community members
Who attended our memorial service on October 28.
   The love, the concern, and the mutual support in the wake of both of those tragic events have overtaken fear and created deep human connections that were not there before.   People found a way  to reach out to each other, to feel each other’s pain, and to rejoice in the triumph of unity that can emerge when we extend hands and hearts in love and hope. 
  The Song at the Sea in the Torah reading for this Shabbat is a celebration, but one tinged with sadness.  The rabbis imagined the angels rejoicing in heaven at the deaths of the Egyptians in the Sea.   God rebuked the angels, saying, “My children are dying, and you sing praises?”  
   But the Israelites, down below, still rejoiced, because a God that believed in freedom for humanity had triumphed over an earthly ruler who saw himself as a god who perpetrated slavery and cruelty. 
    And it is still love, empathy, and acceptance that can lead us to become a united human family.
I remember
Being a member of my Temple junior choir
Participating in a city-wide faith community music festival in 1967
Which featured singers from Jewish and Christian congregations
From across the community,
Including at least one African-American church,
In Kansas City.
One of the songs we sang in the performance
Included these lyrics:
“Many the ways all of us pray to One God
Many the paths winding their way to One God
Brothers and sisters....there were no strangers
After the work was done
And your God and my God are One.”
That song by Dave Rotheray and Paul Heston
Offered a hopeful message
One that sought to promote interfaith understanding
And a vision that resonated with the dream
Of Martin Luther King, Jr.
We knew at that music festival 52 years ago
That our presence together
Might bring the world just a little closer to justice,
Acceptance and equality.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated about a year after that music festival. 
But the dream lived on then as it does now.   
Let us not forget what it feels like
to be the victims of hatred,
but let us also remember
What it feels like to rejoice and to join with others in celebration knowing that
freedom, justice and love will ultimately prevail. 

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