Many people were kind enough to say encouraging things on Sunday after I preached this. Sadly I’ve got some problems with the video and don’t know whether I can make that appear later.
In the mean time, here’s the text:
And the eyes of everyone were upon him.
In the name of God, Creator, Saviour and Liberator. Amen.
I have already spoken to some of you of the most powerful moment in my recent three month sabbatical. It was the moment on the US election day when I found myself in Washington DC and someone had taken me sightseeing. As the votes were being counted, I found myself standing on the very spot that Martin Luther King preached his famous “I have a Dream†sermon to the thousands who had flocked to the National Mall.
As I stood on that spot gazing out into the night, I could imagine the crowds heading off into the distance coming to hear their champion of civil rights lay out his hopes for a better world.
As I stood there and night drew in I could feel America holding its breath wondering whether the people there had done something most people in that former crowd would scarcely have been able to image – that America had re-elected a black president. It was a moment when I found myself unexpectedly in tears. Tears for the loss of Martin Luther King, tears of joy that though there is much still to do, aspects of his dream have become today’s reality and tears for America – a country where the idea that the blue sky just around the corner is, if not constitutional, almost a theologically defining belief.
The next day I set out to explore the city and returned to the National Mall. As I walked up and down seeing the sights, (more…)
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