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And I want to first extend a hearty good morning . Hey man, everybody's here in awoke. I like that again. I say good morning. And it is a delight to be here with you on

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this day as you gather to celebrate the life and legacy of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior. And now I'm about to mess this up. Probably I want to thank, I want to thank uh

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Doctor Zeri. They're close enough uh for the invitation uh to be with you today here at A P T si want to thank the Reverend Sarah GTA uh for extending herself, extending the invitation. And thank

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you for the conversations that we've shared over the past few weeks. And I want to thank thank uh brother Eric, brother Eric back here. Oh OK . Uh Brother Eric uh for your hospitality, for

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your patients with me and for all that you have done to prepare us and get us to this day . I want to also give a shout out to uh the Dean Reverend Doctor Margaret Aer. We are

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doing some wonderful things in terms of establishing partnerships with H T N and A BT S. So so glad to be here and, and uh need to acknowledge, want to acknowledge very dear friend William West

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. I have known him since he was, I don't want to tell my age, do I? So we won't see how long I've known him, but I've, but I've, I've known him for

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, for a pretty good while now and I actually could go on and name several other folk. And while I am Baptist at a United Methodist Institution, don't know if you knew that Bobby Kay, uh

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I'm Baptist at a United Methodist Institution. I have learned how to be brief, but I'm still Baptist . So uh I think it might be best at this point simply to say to the rest of the

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community. Thank you for having me here today. Um It's mine to, to read the scripture and , and I need to take out my phone. The one technology is wonderful, right? Makes life

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really easy. All right. Uh Our, our text for this morning is coming from the book of uh Zachariah, coming from the book of Zachariah and selecting for your for your hearing this morning. Uh

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Chapter seven verses eight through 10, hear you these words of God and the word of the Lord came again to Zachariah. This is what the Lord Almighty said. Administer true justice, show mercy and compassion

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to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor, do not plot evil against each other, the word of God for the people of God and the church.

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Amen. Now, I need to tell you what's up, sir. He's an H T graduate. Um, his son is at H T now. So, um, I'm a Baptist preacher again.

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I've stated I have been United Methodist for over 30 years. Uh, prior to coming to H T I passed a United Methodist church and there were some , probably didn't know I was United Methodist and I've

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been labeled to, to Methodist to be Baptist by some Baptists to Baptist to be, to be Methodist . I've loved the U CCS because they really don't care. I love them. Um, but that

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, that Baptist flair comes out and I understand the president said you have about 20 minutes and if you take a little bit more and today is a special day, it's ok. Well, you extended yourself

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, sir. And I was a black Baptist and I need some. Amen. Amen if I don't get no amens, you know, we say make it plain preacher. So we gotta go back and

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, and go through it again and, and if you still don't get no amen, we gotta come back and try it again. And before you know it, it's like one o'clock and we still trying

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to get our point across because there are no amen . So, so can we get some amens this morning? Amen. Amen. Amen. We are in this particular place today to celebrate the, the

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legacy of the Reverend, the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Junior, the man who began his journey as a civil rights activist in 1955 during the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.

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While history remembers Miss Rose parts during the year of the boycott, there were a number of African American and, and many who were women who were pulled off buses and arrested. This event ignited the fuse

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that uh that became the civil rights movement and garnered historic changes. Uh Now there is much that can be said about the reverend Doctor Martin Luther King junior . I can talk about the organization of the Southern

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Christian Leadership conference that was established by King in 1957 . We can talk about the fact that in 1963 he helped to organize the, the march on Washington where we, where we remember the historic speech,

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I have a dream leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. We can talk about the 1965 march in Selma. We can talk about his addressing the plight of the poor of all races

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and opposing the war in Vietnam. I remember as a child watching television and watching the news and remembering see, remember seeing uh cops uh with fire hoses who spraying down the marchers as they marched peacefully for

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the injustice that was affecting a people and a nation . I remember uh the evening when they announced, uh Martin Luther King Junior dead on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. The history is

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, is wrong and it's riddled with hatred and injustice and, and it's laden with stories of a man who fought against an unjust system in spite of the haters who would stand in his way. And some

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of those haters were sometimes those of his own community . However, however, the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King junior above all was a preacher and some would emphasize he was a black baptist preacher and yes,

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and he was that, but he was that and so much more. Uh you see, he understood the value of all of humanity despite race, creed , color, national origin or sexual orientation. For

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in, in his own words, I can hear him say 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

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affects one directly affects all indirectly to have that kind of vision in the late fifties and the early to mid sixties in the midst of the kind of hatred that would declare a people. Even Dr Martin Luther

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King less than human because of the color of our skin. To seek a method of protest that sought not to harm another to, to risk death for the sake of black people, particularly and for all

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of humanity overall, that was a vision that could only come from God laden and lavished in love, the kind of love that transforms and, and conquers creating lasting change and, and understand I did say

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lasting change. Uh Now, uh I say lasting change because that does not necessarily mean permanent change. And it also definitely does not mean perfect change. So let's understand today that there is still work to

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be done. Implication, the implication that change is not perfect or necessarily permanent uh is indicative as we as is found in our selected book from which our selected passage comes for the morning. And, and

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I'm not that preacher that always preaches with three points . Uh Sometimes I just get up, I just go with flow. Uh But since I'm in a seminary setting, I'm going to use three points.

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And then my, my first point uh this morning 0.1 0.1 is there is work to be done because we are not a perfect people, there is work to be done because we are not a perfect people

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. Our text is coming from the book of Zachariah . And Zechariah is a, is a wild book . It's filled with all kinds of dreams and they , they're crazy dreams and, and sometimes they seem

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like they're all scattered and they, they, they , they're all disconnected and, and sometimes they, they just don't make much sense but, but it's reflective and we understand that the God speaks through dreams

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. He he spoke to, to Joseph in a dream. He spoke to Jacob in a dream, he spoke to Pharaoh in a dream and, and perhaps he speaks to some of you uh through your

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dreams. Uh I would tell you he speaks through me in dreams, but I dare not tell you about the dreams. You might make me feel like I'm a little bit crazier than Zachariah because my dreams

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are probably crazier than some of the dreams that, that, that Zachariah put out. But what we do want to understand is that if we look at that early part of, of Zachariah, we understand

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that that uh Zachariah had a series of eight dreams and those eight dreams had relevance and those dreams can be, can be paired and that first pair would be the, the first and the, and the

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last dream and the first and the last dream is regarding the 70 years of captivity in Babylon. It's , it's that, that, that, that, that, that, that indication that, that uh

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uh the Israelites have now been freed and, and they can return home. It's the, the Persia when they overthrow Babylon and, and, and God is about to restore Israel and fulfill the promises for

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the Israelites. The second dream can be paired as the se the second is pairing is the second and the seventh dream. It's a reflection of the past sins of, of Israel. And uh it,

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it, it, it's a point of uh and , and noticing that the nations uh uh will occur and, and look at Israel and, and it's uh talks about it, it references the, the

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causes of their, of their exile. The third pairing, the third pairing, the third and the sixth dreams reflecting the new Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem that, that beacon light uh to all other nations

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uh helping them to understand uh uh purification of sin through scripture. Last dream. The last pairing uh dreams four and five indicating that the success of the two reigning leaders would only be possible with a dependence

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on God and not political structures. Uh I don't know, we live in a time when uh this nation's political uh pundits need to understand that their success . Uh uh This crazy. Anyway, I'm going

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someplace I probably ought not go. Uh This leads us now to our text for the morning. Uh chapter seven verses eight through 10. And prior to dealing with uh chapter verses eight through 10, I

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want to just briefly talk about the first uh seven verses of that seventh chapter. Uh It's in this seventh chapter that, that the Israelites began to, to ask uh uh should we continue fasting and,

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and, and mourning as we have done for the past 70 years, you know, uh church folk , church folk have rituals, right? Uh And there's some rituals that we do just because we've done

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it year in and year out and it's what the church does. Uh So they ask, uh should we continue mourning and, and fasting as we have in previous years. And, and God responds,

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God responds and he responds with, with a question . And uh uh the question is when you fasted and when you prayed and when you mourn was really for me, when you uh did not fast and

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you were drinking, uh was it for me or was it about your festivals and your feasting? Understand , understand. And that leads us to point to God gives an answer and he lets them know what

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is required of them. Uh point to know what God requires of you. We spend too much time on the wrong stuff and for the wrong reasons, God essentially says, check yourself. And then Zachariah

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says, this is what the Lord Almighty says, administer true justice, show mercy and compassion, one to another. Do not oppress the widow or the father is the alien or the poor in your heart

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. Do not think evil of each other. In 2024. It seems that we still can't get it right. We are an imperfect people. It's past time and it's time. It's past time to,

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to cease the the judgment uh understanding. Scripture says the measure with which you uh ju uh judge others is the measure by which you will be judged. We need to understand. It ain't over yet and

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we are not yet perfect. It's time to stop the hate. It's past time to, to stop the violence that devalues human life for any reason. Understanding we are all God's creation. And Martin Martin

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Luther King junior got it in his heart and out of his love for God and humanity. When the clarion call came for him to to lead, he said, yes, he said, yes, perhaps

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not fully knowing the cost but invested by love for God and humanity. He was willing to endure. Understanding in his own words that perhaps there was some consolation at some point. He says, we,

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we may be consoled that God has two lights, a light to guide us in the brightness of the day when hopes are fulfilled and circumstances are favorable and a light, a light uh to guide us in

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the darkness of the midnight. Uh when we are broadhead and somber and the slumbering giants of, of gloom and hopelessness rise in our souls. Martin Luther King had a heart filled with hope in the midst

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of all things. He in the midst of, of the joy and in the midst of the of the challenges, he still hung on to hope. 0.3 hold on to the hope, hold on to

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the hope. As Doctor King marched in Selma, as he marched, marched throughout throughout Georgia and uh in the streets of Mississippi and, and other segregated states, cities and towns. Uh He didn't march

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alone. He understood that he had o others. By, by his side, there was a a John Lewis who who marched to, to get into some good trouble. Uh There was Whitney Young junior

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and James Farmer, there was Bayard Rushton and, and James Baldwin, there was rabbi Dresner and rabbi Herschel. There was the nation of Islam. The movement of Dr King was broad and rooted in freedom

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for, for African Americans and the humanity of all of God's people. As we look at the end of the book of Zachariah, we learn that the people were not perfect and like the, the dreams

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of, of Zachariah and they were scattered, they were unsettled, they were disconnecting and, and it's a reflection of what life is like. It's a reflection of what we have to endure as we travel

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through this world. It's sometimes disconnected. It's, it's sometimes scattered and, and often times it just doesn't make sense. But if we, if we can remove all of the minutia and the, and

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the pettiness and concentrate on the majors which according to God through, through Zechariah is to act justly administering true justice and understand true justice is not about equality . It's about equity to show love and, and

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mercy and compassion to others. Uh uh That's uh empathizing with those who are hurting and who are in pain. It's forgiving those who have, have, have harmed you and, and not hold any,

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any grudges to not oppress the widow and the fatherless , the alien of the poor and in our hearts , not think evil of one another. If we can do that. There is hope, there is

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hope for that New Jerusalem. There is hope for that city with streets paved with gold. There is hope for that river of water. That is the the water of life running through the city that is

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clear as crystal. Uh for Martin Luther King, it was a mountain for Martin, for Martin Luther King. It was, it was a mountain. He, he made it to the mountain top and

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that was his dream. My question to you as we come to a close is can you hold on to the hope? Can you will you in this year of 2024 in a world where hatred seems to

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be thriving in 2024 where there's a world where the devaluing and taking of human life seems to be as common as chewing gum. Can you will you in 2024 where there are issues of social injustice and they

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are as rampant as mosquitoes in the Texas heat. Can you will you out of love for God and , and love for humanity with the knowledge that we live in an imperfect world? Can you will you

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act justly administering to justice wherever and with whomever you find yourself. Can you will you show mercy and compassion to one another? Even the alien, perhaps the immigrant in your neighborhood. Can you will you

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stand up for the homeless, the marginalized, the the disenfranchised, whoever they might be and wherever you might find them. Can you will you love God or will you love as God through Christ? Jesus

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loves you doing evil to know why will you will you uh can you continue to dream? Can you continue to dream, doing the work and holding on to the hope, the kind of hope that through

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God's love will enable you to conquer a world, dream, dream on with a conquering love, a love that has the possibility to transform the world I