In the beginning God had a dream. It was born from the fertile darkness of the deep. From our communal black beginnings the dream grew as space broke open and light entered in.
From the beginning, God’s dream imagined light and darkness; both equal parts of a whole and holy creation.
God’s dream is a united and uniting creation.
God dreamed us into being.
God dreamed us into peaceful co-existence.
God dreamed us into both darkness and light together.
God’s dream is in creation’s DNA.
But some have forgotten God’s dream. We suffer from a collective dementia of God’s dream. We seem incapable of remembering that in the beginning God declared every single part of creation good. Fear clouds our memory.
We have forgotten God’s dream.
When we use sacred language that equates lightness with goodness and darkness with evil, we have forgotten God’s dream.
When we value the life of a light skinned man more than the life of a dark skinned man, we have forgotten God’s dream.
Billions of years before a young preacher from Georgia dreamed a dream for a nation dangerously divided, God dreamed of unity for all of creation.
It takes courage to remember God’s dream.
It takes courage to set before an angry people the dream that only love can fulfill.
It takes courage to defend God’s dream when there are some who work to destroy it.
It takes courage to proclaim that God’s dream cannot be bought or sold in the marketplace of democracy.
God’s dream cannot be separated from creation because God’s dream is creation.
When we deprive God’s dream from creation, then we see an imbalance of power and the most vulnerable are subjected to abuse. We see this when the rich of this world destroy not only the poor, but creation itself.
The dream is in the DNA of all of God’s brown, black and white people.
The dream is in the DNA of all of God’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and straight people.
The dream is in the DNA of the immigrant, the farm worker, the sex worker, and people enslaved by poverty.
The dream is in the DNA of the prisoner, the peacemaker, and the prophets occupying the streets.
The dream is in the DNA of our young brown and black youth killed by senseless violence.
The dream is in the DNA of the young and old, of women and children who lack quality housing and education.
The dream is in the DNA of the earth’s own body, God’s own body, the mountains, the plains, the seas, the skies and all that live within.
But the dream must be remembered by the collective consciousness of all of creation.
On August 28, 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and he faced a world suffering with the dementia of a dream, a world that had forgotten it was good.
On that day, King looked out over the multi-colored sea of God’s good creation, gazing upon black, brown, and white bodies, tired and hot from struggling and marching together for freedom.
Midway through his speech he paused and looked down. God tapped him on the shoulder and whispered, “Martin, you go ahead now. You tell them about my dream.”
Leaving the script, King lifted his eyes and said, “I have a dream today.”
It is God’s dream breathing in and through each one of us, breathing throughout all of creation, generation to generation.
Rev. Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund 