Adult Sunday School - September 24

August 28th marked the 60th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's iconic "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The observance gives us an opening to consider what progress our nation has made toward achieving that dream in the six decades that followed. We'll explore how progress is defined and measured, by ourselves and by God, and ask where we go from here. 

If you wish to start thinking about our topic in advance, here is the lesson for Sunday, September 24. 

Where Are We, Six Decades After Dr. King's  'I Have a Dream' Speech? 

In the News 

Last weekend, thousands assembled in front of the Lincoln Memorial to mark the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Back on August 28, 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. captivated his listeners with his inspiring oratory, in his 17-minute "I Have a Dream" speech, which contained the memorable line, "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." 

For many Americans, that is the only line from the speech with which they are familiar. But pastor and author Mika Edmondson wrote that King began his speech with "an unflinching confession of America's past" history of racial terrorism and injustice targeting the formerly enslaved and their descendants. King lamented that a century after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, "the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land." 

The estimated 250,000 people who gathered on the Mall six decades ago came to lay claim to their part of the American Dream they felt had been promised but then denied to them. 

According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, 52% of Americans say there has been a great deal or a fair amount of progress on racial equality in the last 60 years, but the same percentage say efforts to ensure equality for all haven't gone far enough. Broken down by race, 58% of white adults, 47% of Asian adults, 45% of Hispanic adults and 30% of black adults say there has been a great deal or a fair amount of progress on racial equality in the last 60 years. 83% of black adults say efforts to ensure equality for all, regardless of race and ethnicity, haven't gone far enough. 

The March on Washington was one of the factors that led Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act (1964), the Voting Rights Act (1965), and the Fair Housing Act (1968). Many more African-Americans graduate from college than did in 1963, a number have been elected or appointed to office or hold leadership positions in other professions and businesses, and incomes have increased significantly for many black Americans.

"We have made progress, over the last 60 years, since Dr. King led the March on Washington," said Alphonso David, president and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum. "Have we reached the mountaintop? Not by a longshot." 

Today, about four out of every 10 African-Americans are poor enough to qualify for government programs to assist poor families. That's higher than the 34% of African-Americans living below the poverty line in 1968, and at least 19 percentage points more than any other racial group in America. Today's black poverty rate of 21% is almost three times that of whites. For every $57.30 black households earned in 2018, white families took in $100. For every $100 white families accumulated in wealth, black families only gained $5.04. 

We see racial disparities in other aspects of society, such as higher maternal death rates and lower life expectancy among blacks, higher student debt for blacks than for whites. 

Emmanuel L. McCall, former national moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, said, "There's a retrogression that's been going on, a reversal of the gains we earned in the '60s and '70s." 

Several writers have suggested that by focusing on King's inspiring vision for the future, many miss his analysis of the barriers that must be overcome to progress toward that future. King was concerned that a single line in his "I Have a Dream" speech might define his entire legacy, and be misinterpreted and taken out of context, even to support causes antithetical to his beliefs and teachings. 

Rev. Joel A. Bowman Sr., wrote (https://baptistnews.com/article/more-than-a-dream-the-undiluted-legacy-of martin-luther-king-jr/) that "many people have bought into a whitewashed version of King's legacy. Therefore, it is critically important that King's true, undiluted legacy be presented to Americans of all backgrounds." 

"King was not as 'safe' as many people currently make him out to be." Bowman asserted. "In my estimation, he was assassinated because he was seen as a threat to the established social order of his day." 

All of King's children and several leaders who helped organize the 1963 and 2023 marches met last weekend with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland and other government officials about their concerns, including voting rights, policing, criminal justice, fair housing, discrimination in education, jobs and public facilities. 

The White House released a statement from the office of Vice President Harris 

(https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/08/28/statement-by-vice-president kamala-harris-regarding-the-60th-anniversary-of-the-march-on-washington/), which said, in part: "The March on Washington was a call to action for our nation. … The March on Washington was historic, but it was neither the beginning nor the end of the movement for civil rights. The fight … for civil rights continues today. … let us rededicate ourselves to the fight for equity, opportunity, and justice." 

Ken Sehested, founding director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, said, "There is a delusion in people's memory about that march … based on the assumption that we have done our due diligence already, that all the repentance that needs to happen has already happened." 

Edmondson advises that instead of paying lip service to Dr. King as we pass the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, we should acknowledge "the painful history behind the speech," and "face the past with honesty and humility." In addition, Edmondson recommends that we examine the practical concerns raised in

his speech carefully, seeking to understand how we who are followers of Jesus should respond to those issues. Finally, Edmondson suggests that the church should study the theology that undergirds the "Dream" speech. 

Todd Thomason, (https://baptistnews.com/article/60-years-later-only-our-action-can-keep-the-dream-alive/) a minister and advocate for justice, urges that "The 60th anniversary observance … should serve as a much needed wakeup call for us to shake off our apathy and our disillusionment and get back to work." 

More on this story can be found at these links: 

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Legacy 60 Years After the March on Washington. Pew Research Center (https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/08/10/martin-luther-king-jr-s-legacy-60-years-after-the march-on-washington/)Reclaiming MLK Jr.'s 'Dream' 60 Years Later. Christianity Today (https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/september/mlk-reclaiming-martin-luther-king-jr-dream-60-years later.html?share=YBo8hgwrXXfcsF5CbQskfOb9wMRd87Cu&utm_medium=widgetsocial)Thousands Convene for March on Washington's 60th Anniversary Demonstration. Politico 

(https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/26/tens-of-thousands-expected-for-march-on-washingtons-60th anniversary-demonstration-00113104)Thousands March to Mark the 60th Anniversary of MLK's 'I Have a Dream' Speech. NPR 

(https://www.npr.org/2023/08/26/1196190910/march-on-washington-mlk-dream-speech-anniversary)Black Americans Mostly Left Behind by Progress Since Dr. King's Death. The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/black-americans-mostly-left-behind-by-progress-since-dr-kings-death-89956) 

Applying the News Story 

Have you ever taken a wrong turn when you were traveling and ended up far from your intended destination? What must you do to get back on track? 

We've all been there. One misstep leads to another. One bad decision mushrooms into others. But it's hard to admit we've made a mistake. The longer we wait to admit our error, the further off course we get. 

Just as individuals can get off track in their personal lives, so can nations, businesses and organizations. When we become aware that our nation is headed in the wrong direction, the sooner we admit it, the sooner we can retrace our steps and begin moving forward to our intended destination. 

The 1963 March on Washington served as a call to America to live up to its ideals of liberty and justice for all. Martin Luther King sought to persuade the nation that the only way to make progress toward a healthier society was to confront its painful history of oppression. 

Moving forward in the right direction, toward the goal of becoming Christlike in our attitudes and actions, can't happen unless we turn around when we have taken a wrong turn. So part of our discussion will deal with confession and repentance, so that we might be healed and restored. 

The Big Questions 

1. What are the metrics we should use to measure human progress? How should our faith guide our selection of those metrics?

2. What accounts for the level of poverty and other problems found in many parts of the black community? Failure of individuals to accept personal responsibility for their lives, inequitable societal structures, neither, both, or something else? 

3. What should be the role of government in providing relief for the poor and redress for injustice? What role should the church play? What role should Christians -- as individuals or in association -- play? What support for your point of view do you find in the Bible? 

4. Give an example of how someone might co-opt and use Jesus' words against the very causes and values he espoused. 

5. How will we know that we have reached a time when, as a nation, we no longer need special programs and efforts to help achieve and guarantee racial justice and equity? Or are we already past that point? Do you expect to see such an accomplishment in your lifetime? 

Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope 

Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion: 

Proverbs 28:13 

No one who conceals transgressions will prosper, 

but one who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. (No context needed.) 

Psalm 32:3-5 

While I kept silent, my body wasted away 

through my groaning all day long. 

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; 

my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. 

Then I acknowledged my sin to you, 

and I did not hide my iniquity; 

I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," 

and you forgave the guilt of my sin. 

(For context, read Psalm 32:1-5 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+32%3A1- 5&version=NRSVUE).) 

Both of these texts show that refusing to confess and forsake transgressions leads to consequences. 

The psalmist begins his song by celebrating the happiness that accompanies forgiveness and cleansing from sin (vv. 1-2).

Questions: What are some of the consequences of concealing or hiding one's sins? What do the texts say happens when people confess their sins? How is confession an act of faith? 

2 Samuel 12:13 

David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan said to David, "Now the LORD has put away your sin; you shall not die." (For context, read 2 Samuel 12:1-14 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/? search=2+Samuel+12%3A1-14&version=NRSVUE).) 

Only when Nathan confronted David with the truth did he admit that he had sinned by stealing Uriah's wife, having sex with her, and killing her husband in an elaborate cover-up. 

Nathan came to David with a story about a rich man who had many flocks and herds, who took the only little lamb a poor man had to make a meal for a visitor. David pronounced a severe judgment on the rich man, not realizing that he was condemning himself for doing essentially the same thing. "The man who has done this deserves to die," he said. "He shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity" (vv. 5-6). 

Questions: What particular offenses did David think the rich man had committed, and why did he think they were so egregious that they were deserving of capital punishment? 

While Nathan's parable was directed at one individual, how might it also apply to a powerful, wealthy group that takes advantage of a weaker, poorer group of people? How might David's suggested penalty of a fourfold restitution for the hypothetical rich man translate, if applied to a powerful, wealthy group that has taken advantage of a weaker, poorer group? 

2 Chronicles 7:14 

… if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (For context, read 2 Chronicles 7:12-18 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Chronicles+7%3A12- 18&version=NRSVUE).) 

God makes this promise to Solomon at the dedication of the temple he built for the Lord. Here we see the importance of corporate repentance, humility, prayer and conversion (turning from wickedness to seek God's face). 

Individuals need to engage in these spiritual disciplines, to be sure, but we also need to mourn over wrongs we have done as a nation. As Pastor Mika Edmondson put it, "Many fear that reckoning with America's racial sins may erode patriotism or national morale. But as Christians, we know healing is not found in hiding from the past. Denial of our racial past or attempts to revise it are strategies to justify ourselves, to clean up our own reputation by minimizing America's misdeeds or by national mythmaking. But we will only find God's mercies for healing and hope as we confess and repent in faith."

The same can be said about the church's need to repent over wrongs we have done as the people of God. The call in this text is very specific: It is to God's people who are called by God's name. We might unconsciously try to rewrite that phrase, so that it reads, "If other people, who have the wrong theology or political beliefs or skin color or ethnicity, etc., humble themselves … and turn from their wicked ways …" But the assurance of 

answered prayer, forgiveness and healing of the land is for those who are called followers of God, on the condition that they humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways. 

Questions: What holds us back from confessing the sins our nation has committed (every nation has sinned against God in some way)? What sins in particular do you believe God would have our nation confess and repudiate? What sins in particular do you believe God would have the Church confess and repudiate? 

1 John 3:16-18 

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us -- and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. (For context, read 1 John 3:11-18 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+3%3A11- 18&version=NRSVUE).) 

Those attending the 1963 March on Washington and those who gathered last month were not seeking platitudes and empty promises. They wanted and needed action on issues important to their very survival. There comes a time when "thoughts and prayers" do not suffice. 

John writes that from the beginning, we have heard the message "that we should love one another" (v. 11). When we love each other, we are truly alive, and without love, we are dead (v. 14)! According to John, eternal life is not just something we receive after our life on Earth is done, but it abides in those who show they love each other by laying down their lives for one another and by helping those in need as they have the means to do so (v. 15-17). 

Questions: What specifically should believers do, beyond words and speeches, to help the poor and needy? How might we take action, both as individuals, and as the Church? 

For Further Discussion 

1. Pastor and author Mika Edmondson wrote, "One of the most fundamental aspects of King's theology was what he often called 'somebodiness.' This was a biblically rooted belief in the fundamental value and dignity of every human life. 

The doctrine of "somebodiness" appears in many iterations in black culture, particularly in the black church.

 In the early 1940s, the poem, "I Am Somebody" (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pittsburgh courier-i-am-somebody-b/1206542/), by civil rights activist, Rev. William Holmes Borders Sr., appeared in The Pittsburgh Courier, containing these statements, among others: 

I AM SOMEBODY -- 

I am a trustee in slavery -- I protected my master's wives and daughters while he fought to keep the chains of slavery about my body. … 

I am a Christian in "Tom," for indeed I practiced the religion of Jesus at points better than my master from whom I learned it. 

I AM SOMEBODY. 

Rev. Jesse Jackson often recited another poem by the same name in his speeches and sermons. Those assembled would echo each phrase after him, in the call and response style familiar to many in the black church tradition, making the sentiments he expressed their own. 

I am (I AM!) … Somebody (SOMEBODY!!). 

I may be poor … but I am … Somebody. … 

I may be uneducated … but I am … Somebody. … 

I may be unskilled … but I am … Somebody. 

I may be on dope … I may have lost hope … 

But I am ... somebody. 

I am ... black ... beautiful 

... proud ... I must be respected ... 

I must be protected. 

I am ... God's child. 

The Wired Word team member Joanna Loucky-Ramsey learned this musical version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5bkNcOS2D0) of the concept (Video 1:27) when she worshiped at a predominantly African-American church in Portland, Oregon. A quick internet search turned up two other musical renditions: I Am Somebody Because God Loves Me (Video 3:49) (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=ydBzrlRf-Xo) and one written by a teacher (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3010082089234055), with the line, "We may be small, but our dreams are big!" sung by her kindergarten students (Video 0:56). 

 "King … was raised on biblical passages like Genesis 1:27 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/? search=Genesis+1%3A27&version=NRSVUE) and Galatians 3:28 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/? search=Galatians+3%3A28&version=NRSVUE)," Edmondson explained, "believing that all people are made 'in the image of God' and that all believers, regardless of race or gender or social status, 'are one in Christ Jesus.' He understood that in the sight of God … everybody was somebody. This belief in the inestimable value of human life drove King to fight for equal rights and freedom." 

Although the term, "somebodiness" isn't found in the Bible, what other biblical texts, besides Genesis 1:27 and Galatians 3:28, lend support to this theological idea? Why would this concept have been of particular importance to enslaved persons and their descendants? 

2. Select one or more of these quotes from Martin Luther King to discuss: 

If peace means keeping my mouth shut in the midst of injustice and evil, I don't want it.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. 

It's a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. And many Negroes by the thousands and millions have been left bootless as a result of all of these years of oppression and as a result of a society that deliberately made his color a stigma and something worthless and degrading. 

Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. 

If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective. 

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. The time is always right to do what is right. 

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. 

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think. We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. 

Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. 

We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will. And we shall continue to love you. A right delayed is a right denied. 

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. 

Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. 

True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice. 

3. Reflect on this, from The Wired Word team member Frank Ramirez: "I know that some take delight in toppling the King [Martin Luther King Jr.], and remembering him in the worst light. No question that he was mortal and flawed. But this past week I preached on 1 Kings 3, Solomon's Dream. Solomon, in response to God's offer, mentions, among other things, '... the steadfast love to your servant my father David because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you' (1 Kings 3:6 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Kings+3%3A6&version=NRSVUE)). Now we all know about Bathsheba, and David serving the Philistines, and his request to Solomon on his deathbed to take revenge on all the enemies he had sworn not to kill, but this scripture shows that we're not just remembered for our flaws. God sees us in a better light." 

4. The Wired Word team member Mary Sells highlighted "the importance of visionary leaders who provide possibilities and goals to move toward when facing big obstacles. Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Jesus giving a new way for how to get right with God. Other leaders throughout the Bible found ways to give hope and something to work toward. I also think that relates to dreams -- you have to dream of new

possibilities or you accept passively the current state of being." 

Who are the visionary leaders emerging in our society and in the Church who see with eyes of faith God's beloved community which may not yet be fully apparent? 

5. Sometimes bad decisions are normalized so that we live with the outcomes for a long time. When, if ever, have you or a group with which you are associated (your church, company, industry, community, nation) made a decision that caused you or others discomfort or harm for a while, then new information or a fresh look made it possible to choose a different and better way for you and others? What choices were made, and what impact did they make? 

Responding to the News 

Pray that God will raise up godly leaders who will inspire others to work to build structures to support God's beloved community, in the nation, in the world, and in the Church. 

Prayer suggested by Psalm 139:23-24 

Search us, O God, and know our hearts; 

 test us and know our thoughts. 

See if there is any wicked way in us, 

 and lead us in the way everlasting. Amen. 

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