Sharing In His Dream

This morning I celebrated chapel with the Upper School, i.e. the High School students. I've found that when I am able to deliver a lesson to them that it can be a mixed bag. I know that some of them are listening but I wonder how many are taking to heart what I said. The most difficult part of this job is to demonstrate emotion and sincere interest in what one is doing when the same is not always returned to you. I decided over the weekend that the only thing I could deliver a lesson on was the life, death, and dream of Martin Luther King Jr. I have to admit, as I do in the lesson, that I feel a disconnection with him because I was not alive during his lifetime. However, I feel the power of his dream today and I wanted these students to get a glimpse of that dream in what I said to them. Below is the text from my lesson.

When I began to think about Martin Luther King Jr. Day and what meaning it has for me I had to admit that I felt a genuine disconnection. I wasn’t alive when he worked, and I still wasn’t alive when he was killed. So I began to focus instead on the idea that people have gone before me, people I have never met, who have helped me. This goes beyond family, beyond friendship. It speaks to that common humanity we share, the capacity to love and to be loved, and the ability to care for others regardless of the harm it may bring to us.

That is the essential Christian message that King preached, that regardless of what we saw on the outside, what mattered was the image of a creator common to all of us. The beauty of our wonderful 21^st century is that we are noticing race and color less and less. Make no mistake, there is still racism and prejudice in our world, but we have also redoubled our efforts to fight against it. How do I know that we are making progress? Something interesting happened to me my first month here.

I was walking from the campus center back to the Upper School. All of a sudden I heard a voice yell “Fr. Joel!” I turned around because I was curious to see if Fr. Joel was behind me so I could say hello. All I saw was a student who waved at me. I asked her if she knew who I was. She said “sorry Chaplain Alex, from behind you look like Fr. Joel.”

Now I’m no police sketch artist but from the front or back I know I don’t look like a 5’10” 60 year old man descended from Sweden. Then it hit me. All she saw was the black clothing. She didn’t notice the color. It hadn’t occurred to her.

This has enormous meaning for me. Considering that 60 years ago I would never have been allowed to wear this cassock, or even hope to be ordained, her color-blindness touched me to the core.

You could venture to say that we are learning to see through new eyes. But just because racism has become one of the most identifiable adversaries of peace, it doesn’t mean it is the only one. Anytime we choose to judge someone based on their appearance or any other preconceived notion we rob them of their humanity and we blind ourselves a little more.

Now some of you may be asking what any of this has to do with me? The answer is simple. As the future leaders of this world you will be given the power to change the world, to rally us around the beauty of our differences and the humanity we have in common.

Martin Luther King Jr. died for a dream that we would be judged first and foremost by the content of our character. That is a tall order for all of us to live up to, but one that I am sure everyone here can participate in helping to come true. There is still work to be done. And if you have been waiting for an invitation to join that work. You have been given one today.