01/19/2026
On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington. Here is an excerpt from the speech:
"As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
Dr. King was, among many things, an American Baptist pastor. He knew his Bible. The last line of that paragraph is from Amos 5:24. Here is the context of that verse, a message from the Lord to Israel, in Amos 5:21-24:
"I hate, I despise your feast days,
And I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.
Take away from Me the noise of your songs,
For I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
But let justice run down like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream."
In other words, God does not want His people to focus on pretty songs and big festivals and expensive offerings. (As my high-school-aged son would say, God does not want to be glazed.) God wants His people to establish justice and live within the confines of God's righteousness. Earlier in the chapter, the Lord through Amos establishes what injustice looks like:
"Therefore, because you tread down the poor
And take grain taxes from him,
Though you have built houses of hewn stone,
Yet you shall not dwell in them;
You have planted pleasant vineyards,
But you shall not drink wine from them.
For I know your manifold transgressions
And your mighty sins:
Afflicting the just and taking bribes;
Diverting the poor from justice at the gate.
Therefore the prudent keep silent at that time,
For it is an evil time." (Amos 5:11-13)
In other words, we who claim to be God's people must protect the weak, the marginalized, and the least of these from the strong and avaricious. Protect tent-dwellers from those in stone houses.
When Dr. King marched, he was not engaging in a feel-good kumbaya exercise. He was following in the footsteps of Jesus, who engaged with, ate with, conversed with, and healed everyone His community despised: lepers, Samaritan women, tax collectors, Roman officers . . .
We do not meet many Samaritans in modern-day El Cajon and San Diego. But we meet many elderly people moving heaven and earth to pay rent. Immigrants from DR Congo, Eritrea, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. Working people from Guadalajara, Oaxaca, El Salvador, and Haiti. Homeless neighbors in situations of deep despair.
Going back to Amos 5:13, we who consider ourselves "good Christians" must move beyond the prudence of silence to the hard and dangerous work of bringing the Lord's Prayer into action: "On earth as it is in heaven." And the Lord's Prayer project is indeed dangerous. Jesus was killed. Dr. King was killed. So many others have paid a price for the establishment of justice. But what else can we do? If we are God's people, we follow where God leads.
But let justice run down like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream.
