James 2:1 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
James 2:2 For if there come unto your assembly a
man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in
vile raiment;
James 2:3 And ye have respect to him that
weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and
say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:
James 2:4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves,
and are become judges of evil thoughts?
Have you
ever known the hurt of being slighted because you were poor when a rich man is
paid special homage and you saw the difference in the way you were addressed
and in the way he was addressed?
Ever
felt the sting of being laid aside and ignored?
In the famous words of Dr. Martin Luther King: “I
have a dream. I have a dream that one day all Christians will walk in the
freedom purchased through the Blood of Jesus Christ.”
I won’t soon forget the time when my wife and I
traveled through Mississippi on our way to Florida some time back in the 60’s,
we stopped at a little country store, filling station and restaurant way out in
the cotton fields along the highway.
Two water pipes stuck up out of the ground with spigots, a sign above each
spigot, one said “Coloreds”, one said “whites”, my wife says “Whats this?”
and with a sick feeling to the pit of my stomach I explained to her what it was
like in Mississippi. I pointed to the two tiny tables in the back of the
restaurant and explained to her that that was where they ate, the front of the
restaurant held several booths and a counter.
The colored persons had to walk around the restaurant to the back and enter
through a broken down screen door with a sign over it “Coloreds Only”.
My wife said “But there are only two tables” and I explained to her that they
had to wait or do without if the tables were occupied.
She was a California girl and she didn’t know this existed. For the first time
in my life I was ashamed of my race and my soul was grieved, I knew it existed,
having been born and raised in the south, but I had never had to confront it
before or been questioned about it.
I suppose the common bond of the soldier had torn most of the segregationist
attitude away that I was born and raised with.
The concept of the above scripture somehow reminds me of that long ago moment
spent at the side of the road in Mississippi. I hated segregation then and I
hate it now. Dr. King had a dream and
since then those signs have come down. Like Dr. King I have a dream and a
vision, they killed doctor King but they could not kill his dream.
God
deliver us from all forms of segregation.
