In a few weeks, on January 15, 2011, the world would have witnessed the 82nd birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., arguably the most celebrated human rights advocate in the twentieth century. The celebration is always muted, because his death has been viewed by many as egregiously premature and the result of racial bigotry and hate in a country that boasts of being the land of the free and the home of the brave. What the Civil War purported to have settled had not come full circle, and remnants of intolerance and hatred trumped all other signals of goodwill in Memphis at the Loraine Hotel.

What most persons in America remembered on that day was King’s signature speech, a mere five years earlier. In 1963 he told the nation, as thousands assembled on the national mall in Washington D.C. listened, that he had a dream for America that was deeply rooted in the American dream. His words have been repeated by the two generations that have followed since that historic day. King mobilized the nation to believe with him that his dream of a renewed nation with full acceptance of persons of all races, creeds, ideologies, and persuasions was a realistic possibility.

The ignominious incident caused many to question the reasonableness of King’s expectations. Many sought alternative paths to freedom, and the nation witnessed utter frustrations lived out through torch-lit buildings, automobiles, and communities. A dream turned into a nightmare brought a morning of hopelessness and despair.

A dream can be a momentarily liberating and cathartic experience. There are some who can recall a time when they dreamed a wonderful dream but awakened only to learn that they had forgotten the dream. It was a great dream, but the details were lost in nocturnal slumber, and some have been deeply troubled by such unwelcome amnesia.

The idea of forgotten dreams does not apply to nocturnal dreams alone. There are many who have abandoned the dreams of their youth and forgotten them. Some never abandoned their dreams and achieved many of their goals. Others were side tracked. They woke up one day, years later, realizing that they had forgotten the dreams altogether.

Challenging the world to share in his dream, Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired and challenged the nation to rise to a higher calling. He challenged America to become a nation that recognized the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. He spoke against unjust wars, unjust laws, and injustice in the courts. He worked to eliminate poverty, organize workers, and to eliminate racism and sexism on every front.

Yet, as time passes, it becomes increasingly evident that, while America remembers his speech, it obviously has not fully embraced the dream or has abandoned it altogether. We remember the speech and its words of peace, but our nation is still embroiled in wars beyond our shores – just or unjust. Yet, Dr. King dreamed of an America at peace with itself and the world.

We remember the speech and its words of racial unity, but the protest marches in Jena, Louisiana remind us that all is not well in Zion. We remember the speech and its words of brotherhood under God, but we are witnessing a nation that is grappling with the role that religion ought to play in our lives. We have become very comfortable in the midst of attempts to remove fundamental symbols of our religious values from our expressed statements of who we are as a people.

We are encouraged by a new generation today, however, that is embracing the hope offered by the president who looks at Dr. King's dream and says, "Yes, we can." This same generation rolls up its sleeves and prepares to take the ideas of Dr. King and put them into action in the spirit of community epitomized by the Secretary of State in her book, It Takes A Village. Thousands of committed individuals have become active participants in the TEACH AMERICA program across America, with the hope that King’s dream of an America where every child would be granted that inalienable right to a sound and functional education becomes a reality. The dream was demonstrated by the overwhelming response of Americans to the disastrous earthquake in Haiti that claimed more than 230,000 lives.

But that’s only part of the story! There’s yet much work to be done, and a lot to be accomplished. Tamar Jacoby in her book Someone Else's House notes that while we have gained much since Dr. King's historic speech, much has yet to be accomplished. The King dream in its fullest, says Jacoby, is to realize King's "vision of a single, shared community in which both blacks and whites would feel they belong," and race is not a consideration.

While our community embraces the dream in theory, for the most part, we have not decided to fully embrace what Dr. King dreamed. We have torn down some of our barriers. We have desegregated, but we have not integrated. We live in desegregated neighborhoods, but for the most part we remain separated from our neighbors of a different color. We’re living in a world of mixed messages of social, see-saw values.

Very briefly, we can be reminded of this dream that has the potential of moving our nation forward. It involved revolutionary economic ideas. In fact, King’s ideas were so radical that many felt their wealth threatened by his dream, very similar to Christ’s announcement of the Jubilee: King's dream would require churches to plunge themselves into economic development and housing opportunities for the poor. We have not embraced that part of the dream yet, some churches are doing mere lip service to address the problems of the poor in America; we're mostly concerned with building the treasury and bigger buildings.

The dream would prohibit us from engaging in wars, unless our liberty was being threatened; not just our oil interests.

The dream would be opposed to all violence and killing, including: murder, lynchings, the death penalty, abortions, and black on black crime, and drive-by shootings. The dream is for us to have one nation under God, and for us to boldly say what's written on our money, "In God we trust!”

The dream did not begin with Martin Luther King, it is a dream given to the world by Christ himself, when he announced that one day every valley shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low!

As we celebrate King’s 82nd birthday, and as we march toward our destiny, it is important that we again familiarize ourselves with the dream of Dr. King and countless others who have lifted their voices to say, "I have dreamed a dream."

We must hear Frederick Douglass dreaming of our eventual freedom from slavery. We must hear Booker T. Washington dreaming of the skilled and trained Negro workforce.

We must hear W.E.B. Dubois dreaming of the day when our thinking and intelligence would be self-evident.

We must hear Marcus Garvey dreaming of the day when we would be proud of our blackness.

We must hear A. Phillip Randolph dreaming of the day when the working man of color would get his fair share.

We must hear Thurgood Marshall dreaming of the day when justice will run down like waters from the Supreme Court

We must hear General Colin Powell dreaming of a day when we shall study war no more.

We must say in the words of James Weldon Johnson:

"God of our weary years, God of our silent tears. Thou who has brought us thus far along the way.

Thou who has by the might, led us into the light, keep us forever in the path we pray.

Lest our feet, stray from the places our God where we met thee.

Lest our hearts, drunk of the world we forget thee.

Shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand. True to our God; true to our native land!”

Amen.