now is the time…
“We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt…”
I watched the speech again this morning. Then, I set it up on the breakfast table so my kids could watch it too.
John Ortberg alerted me to a shift that happens in the speech about half-way through. At the 5:20 mark, Dr. King quotes the prophet Amos and says
“No, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
The crowd applauds, Dr. King ‘concludes’ and says,
‘let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends.’
Then something happens. In Taylor Branch’s astounding 3 volume biography, he says that Mahalia Jackson, who was standing off-camera calls out to Dr. King and says, ‘tell them about the dream… Tell them about the dream…’
Something happens at 5:45. Dr. King shifts. His whole posture changes. For the first 5 minutes he has been glancing at his notes. His words are well-prepared.
But now he looks up and he doesn’t look at his notes again. He looks at the people. This is not ‘off-the-cuff’. This is from the heart. It inspires us. It gives us hope.
Sometimes in a sermon, there is a moment when the Holy Spirit seems to take over. To be honest, I hope it happens every time. I always walk into ‘the pulpit’ with every word I want to say carefully printed on 5 sheets of paper. I am on ‘over-planner’. I’ve done my homework, but I pray that at some point, the Holy Spirit would empower my words and connect them to the hearts of the people. I might say all the words that I planned or the Holy Spirit might have a few that I was not expecting.
I believe the Holy Spirit took over when Dr. King started talking about the dream. Dr. King had a split second choice– do I let them in to my heart? do I tell them about the dream? Obviously he had been dreaming it for a while, but in about 5 minutes he let a generation of people peer into his soul. It wasn’t ‘prepared’ but he had been thinking about it for a lifetime. The Holy Spirit took over.
Where is God whispering to you, ‘Tell them about the dream…”?
Who needs to hear it?
January 17, 2011 @ 7:09 am
Wow! I never knew the details of the story but I knew that he had used the dream part of the speech before at a rally in Detroit. I had a audio book of his greatest speeches (oh my). He was a great leader who used his oratory skills to help our nation see the plight we were in through images they could visualize. May the spirit empower our speaking to move beyond the head to the hearts of God’a people.
Thanks for sharing this blog today. It means a lot.
January 18, 2011 @ 5:20 am
This is great! I am seeing it a day late, but since it’s a snow day, I can still show the kids today!
I love the thought of the Holy Spirit and Dr. King’s will joining together to change the course of history. Powerful to imagine what our prayerful choices can set in motion, whether through a speech to a nation, a sermon to a congregation, or through words of healing into a child’s wee spirit or a friend’s hurting heart.
It reminds me of that passage in Nehemiah, where he prays (presumably) for God to bless and empower his words to the king. And He did!
The king said to me, “What is it you want?” THEN I PRAYED TO THE GOD OF HEAVEN, and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.” (Neh 2:4-5)