Genesis 37:18—20 They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. They said to each other, “Here comes that dreamer. Now is our chance; let us kill him and throw him into one of these pits and say that a wild beast has devoured him. Then we shall see what will become of his dreams.”
What will become of his dreams?
The age-old question remains even until this day: if you slay the dreamer, can you kill the dream? We need to seek spiritual discernment about this question and its relevance to our times.
The passage of scripture refers to Joseph, the second youngest son of Jacob. If you recall, Jacob wrestled with an angel, who told Jacob to “loose him.” Jacob told the angel, “I won’t loose you till you bless me.” So, a legacy comes down from Jacob to Joseph. Most of us know the rest of the story of Joseph in Egypt.
As a child, I got excited about Jacob’s determination. If Jacob, who had lied and stolen, could demand his blessing, then maybe a little “colored” girl in Omaha, Nebraska could too. (I take “blessing” to mean a gift that has been provided for each of us, that has been set aside—promised to each one of us.)
Today I want to focus on a 20th century dreamer by the name of Martin Luther King Jr. By extension, I wish to include all of us who are beneficiaries of his legacy, which is the “dream”.
This dreamer was slain April 7, 1968. What did that do for his dream?
First, let me pause long enough to articulate the dream. So what is the Dream? Mass media has redefined the dream into a commercialized sound bite for anyone who can afford the price of admission. In fact, it is not simply about King’s famous words, “I have a dream that my four little children…”
I know you know that sound bite, which implies integration into a burning house. King himself dispelled that notion. However, I think many of us were not awake for that conversation.
In fact, King defined mission of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as being to save the soul of America. He was not seeking integration in and of itself, but rather as part of a larger vision of an ideal, which he and others have referred to as Beloved Community.
In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, King said that he “had the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.” His speech serves as a plain and simple road map for those of us who are fortunate to be alive in the 21st century.
During the last three years of his life, King embraced a larger international vision of economic justice for poor people of all races, regardless of where they lived. He was clear about opposing violence perpetrated by the United States in Southeast Asia and Latin America—and I believe he would feel similarly about Iraq if he were alive today.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man of courage and vision. It takes both to have a dream and articulate this dream, without wavering, to those who are on the wrong side of history.
What has become of our dreams? How are our dreams the fruit of the legacy of King’s dream? How will our dreams measure up in history? How well will they stand the test of time? Will they serve as seeds for the fruit of future dreams? Or have they been fatally corrupted by materialism and self-interest?
Most people who don’t practice spiritual discernment believe that once you kill the dreamer, you kill the dream. We have not used our spiritual eyes to decipher the deeper meanings of the events of the past 39 years.
How does a dream not die with the dreamer? It does not happen just by doing—by acting and marching and so on within the temporal realm, the physical plane of existence. As we begin to re-collect ourselves, we must revisit the methods and tactics of our indigenous ancestors and remember the battle is not just a physical, temporal battle we face, but also a spiritual one. On an individual and collective level, it is a struggle for our souls.
If we were called to account for our actions to date, I believe we would be found wanting. Absent without leave, derelict in our duty.
We have succumbed to the “I’ll believe it when I see it” philosophy. We have become a culture that believes that if you can’t touch it, see it, and smell it, then it doesn’t exist.
Our ancestors held to a different philosophy that we have not laid claimed to. By this I mean all of our ancestors: the indigenous people throughout the world from whom we have descended.
Indigenous wisdom says, “There is more than meets the eye.”
Let us do the work the way our ancestors would have us do it.
And let us remember the spiritual law: “As above so below.”
Notice that the question “what will become of his dreams” is in future tense. It is a question that each generation, and specifically each person, must answer for herself.
A lot is riding on our answer.