On this day we want to spend some time individually, or as we gather in groups, thanking God for Martin Luther King, Jr. and his legacy, and praying that his dream of a prejudice-free land and world would come to fruition in our day and time.

As a boy I grew up in the midst of a terrible racist environment, and I hated it. I don’t like to admit this but I had relatives, as well as friends of my family, who were prejudiced against people of color from any background or culture and talked about their feelings passionately and openly. There were even people in my church family who felt this way. I thank God that my immediate family was not prejudiced and that my mom and dad always taught me and my brothers that we needed to treat everyone fairly and equally.

I remember when the first African American student came to my school (up until that time our school was exclusively Caucasian) during the 4th grade. His name was George. George had been a part of our class for about 2 months when our teacher announced that he didn’t have a ride to the School Halloween festival. She asked, “Who would like to ask your parents to pick up George and give him a ride to the Halloween Festival?” I immediately lifted my hand because George and I had become friends (some of you are perhaps chuckling that I would venture to bring anyone to a Halloween festival). After the class was over, some of my classmates approached me and told me that I was going to get into trouble because I had volunteered my parents to bring George to the Halloween Festival. I told them that that wasn’t true, because my family didn’t think and feel like they did. Praise God, I was right.

As a teenager I often worked for farmers, other than my dad, in the watermelon and tobacco fields (back then I was making a whopping $2/hour). Invariably, at lunch time, the Caucasians would go into the farm house to eat while the African Americans were served their meals outside. I always ate outside because: 1) I didn’t think that it was right for some people to get to eat inside while others had to eat outside, and 2) I always had more fun outside during the lunchtime breaks horsing around and throwing balls with my friends. Also, when people of color (whether they were African-American or Hispanic) worked for my dad, they were always welcomed into our home.

Athletics (not the church) was really the key to breaking through the racial barriers during my day and time. For the early years of my life, we had a “white school” and a “black school” in my town. But the schools merged/integrated when I entered the 5th grade, and never really had any significant issues. Right away I began to be placed on teams with boys who not only were of a different skin color, but they came from very different environments (some came from the “projects”). Some of my best friends were formed on those athletic teams through elementary, middle and high school, and we would spend time visiting one another’s homes. In fact, my last year of college I roomed with Earnest, an African American young man that I’d played basketball and football with throughout high school. His mom was like a second mother to me, and my mom was the same to him. I’m sure that I probably lost some relatives when I made the choice to room with Earnest (but they would have disowned me anyhow if they’d known that my first college roommate, Danny, was Jewish).

And then, you may have heard me tell the story of what happened after I’d become a Christian and started preaching in the local prison and wanted to baptize about 25 prisoners in my church. A leader from the church I was attending asked me if any of the prisoners that I wanted to baptize were black. I told him that about 15 of the men were and that I’d been praying for the Lord to bring some people of color into our congregation. He promptly told me that if any of those prisoners (white or black) walked into his church it would be over his, and the other leaders, “dead bodies”. Well, I figured that the Lord might want to eliminate some ungodly church leaders, so I called the pastor. Unfortunately the pastor was unwilling to override that leader’s stance. That incident caused me to say, “I’m never going to become a pastor” (which shows you what a sense of humor God has). So I had to baptize the prisoners in the prison pool. I’m glad to say that that church is no longer led by prejudiced individuals, and that people from every color and culture are now welcomed as members of that congregation. And I’m also glad to say that in the Celebration Congregation we’ve always loved, welcomed, affirmed and appreciated people from every culture and color. One of the reasons that we moved our church family to the Airline Drive campus years ago was because we wanted to be closer to the inner city and we wanted our church to “look like heaven.”

I share all of the above to say that although I don’t fully realize what our African American people have gone through in the history of our nation, I’m aware to some degree of the prejudice, hatred and injustice that was experienced for decades and centuries by people of color (and that still exists to some degree in some sectors of our nation). And that makes me want to stop thank God for courageous people like Martin Luther King, Jr, who were willing to stand up for justice, fairness and equality for all. And it makes me want to pray passionately and persistently that the day will come in our nation and other nations when Martin Luther King Jr’s dream will fully be realized. He said:

“I have a dream that my four little 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. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day . . . little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”

I see that dream coming true 49 years after Dr. King shared it. May that dream be fully realized in our nation and world in the days ahead.