Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right
Little darlin', it's been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darlin', it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right
Little darlin', the smile's returning to their faces
Little darlin', it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Little darlin', I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darlin', it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
Here comes the sun, and I sayIt's all right
Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
Here comes the sun
It's all right
It's all right
It may appear strange that I am using the music of George Harrison to reflect upon where we are in the nation. The music speaks in a way that probably would have surprised George Harrison also.
I viewed some of the Democratic National Convention that occurred this past week. I was surprised by its spirituality, energy, and content, especially its emphasis on inclusivity. To me it was like the sun breaking after a long winter of discontent, frozen people, and politics. It has been a long time since I could walk away from the convention with a sense of satisfaction. There was no sense of apathy, rather a sense of shared values of community and moving forward to claim a new day characterized by shared values like freedom. The smiles on the faces were inspiring and energizing. It has been years since the party has been so clear regarding what is at stake and its commitment to stop the tyranny and replace it with places at the table for the diverse communities and people who comprise the nation.
Speakers I heard were enthusiastic, informative, and committed to a vision of a society that cares for people. I know much of the rhetoric will not translate into action. President John F. Kennedy did not accomplish all that his ideals, charisma, and rhetorical skills caused us to believe would happen. He was inspiring, however. And that made us stand with straightened backbones as a people and nation.
Kamala Harris has been inspiring. She has rallied people across the nation. Remember what people were feeling about the Democrats just a few weeks ago. Something happened and there is a wind beneath her wings that keeps carrying her from place to place with grace and confidence. I say this as a registered Independent. I say this because something has been loosed among us and we must not resist this gift or moment. Maybe, it is the nation’s burning bush calling us to let our people go. Kamala Harris has stated: “this November, we will come together and declare with one voice, as one people, we are moving forward with optimism, hope and faith as guided by our love of country, know we have so much more in common that what separates us.”
Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick said, “Faith is vision plus valor.” It is holding reasonable convictions, in realms beyond the reach of final demonstration, and, as well, it is thrusting out one’s life upon those convictions as though they were surely true.”
We often lack the valor, the courage to do the right thing. Yet, the right thing must be done. Proverbs 29:18 states. “Where there is no vision, the people perish . . .” I preached about this idea. After the service, Patricia Nacey, the mother of Peter Fitzsimmons, sighed, “And would it be true that without the people the vision perishes?” What a remarkable insight. Without our active participation on whatever level is comfortable for us, the vision perishes.
Why is this critical? Former coach and now Vice-Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party stated that you don’t develop a playbook and not intend to use it. Your colleagues don’t develop Project 2025, a scathing and demonic attack on our institutions, systems, governance at all levels and you pretend to distance yourself from it. I use demonic intentionally. I am speaking about the possibility of a president and vice-president with very weak minds and personify evil to take control of our government. This is serious as Kamala Harris said in her acceptance speech.
In Memphis on the eve of his assassination Dr. King spoke these words.
“Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world."
These were familiar words to him. They were the words that led him to Montgomery, AL, rather than to a more prestigious and better paying job elsewhere.
And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me "Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?"
King then took an imaginary flight to all the great civilizations of the past and concluded that his contemporary time was the time he would choose.
Now that's a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. That's a strange statement.
It was a strange statement, his telephone had been wire tapped, a campaign to discredit him had been unleashed, threats of his assassination were in the air. Yet, he would choose to live in those times.
But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding.
Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up….
Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that we've got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. . .. Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. . .. Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.
During the Depression with bank foreclosures, long bread lines, and people languishing in misery, Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick declared: “It’s a great time to be alive.”
June Jordan authored a poem commemorating the 1956 Women’s March in South Africa where 40,000 women and children risked their lives in protesting the apartheid regime. The concluding stanza reads:
And who will join this standing up
and the ones who stood without sweet company
will sing and sing
back into the mountains and
if necessary
even under the sea
we are the ones we have been waiting for
Something is happening in our world.
Now is our time to become part of creating a new nation, the nation that must be and I feel wants to be. Now is the time for us.
. . . the measure of my freedom is the measure of my responsibility. If I can do as I please without any sense of responsibility, then my alternatives are zero. I must select, must choose the option which will make possible the largest fulfillment of my own life plus the other lives of which I am the shared expression. One option is always available to me – I can choose the things for which I shall stand and work and live and the things against which I shall stand and work and live. To yield this right, is to fail utterly my own self and all others upon whom I must depend. The highest role of freedom is the choice of the kind of option that will make of my life not only a benediction breathing peace but also a vital force of redemption to all I touch. This would mean, therefore, that whatever I am, there the very Kingdom of God is at hand.
– Howard Thurman
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