Bishop Rob Wright: Here Comes the Dreamer
'Here comes the dreamer'
Genesis 37:19
Memphis, Friday, April 5, 1968 - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who preached nonviolence and racial brotherhood, was fatally shot in Memphis last night by a distant gunman who raced away and escaped. (New York Times, 1968)
Yesterday the Episcopal Church with people globally gave thanks for the life and ministry of a man who taught nonviolence and was murdered for it.
Georgians should take a special measure of pride that this Christian leader was birthed, reared and educated among us. World-changing difference can be birthed, reared, taught and made by us!
King was no spiritual superhero. But he had holy and heroic expectations for the human race -- beginning with the baptized. He said in 1963, "If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust."(Letter from the Birmingham Jail)
Truly prophetic! They killed a dreamer in Memphis 45 years ago, but the Dream Giver is ever living. Easter is ever possible.