Walking on the Moon and Dreaming – Ken Williams

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Sunday morning July 21st I looked out my office window to see the day was starting cloudless, a little unusual for upstate NY, and stared at the beauty of a full moon. The giant ball swinging in earth’s gravity 240,000 miles away appeared orange as it was setting. It dawned on me (pun intended) that according to an article I read a couple days before, July 21st was the date that the first man walked on the moon. I enjoyed the memory of being one of the hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide glued to a T.V. watching this incredible feat.

That Sunday morning, I sat at my desk and googled to find more details of this remarkable accomplishment and was reminded that it was September 1962, that President John F. Kennedy confidently stated, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things [including Civil Rights for all] not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” Seven years later, on July 20, 1969, two of the Apollo 11 mission astronauts used their lunar module to land on the moon. July 21st, 1969, now over 55 years ago, Neil Armstrong stepped out of the lunar module onto the moon and stated, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” This was the result of 400,000 people uniting to do the hard thing that many said couldn’t be done.

August 28, 1963, became historic when Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. His vision and leadership brought hundreds of thousands together to do the hard work needed to insure all people in our country have the full benefit of our civil rights.

I recall the words and passion of these two visionary leaders and hope for the same today. Some may argue that walking on the moon was too expensive, and the money could have been spent more prudently. But what value do we put on the synergistic accomplishments of working together giving and receiving in harmonious unity? Giving due consideration to opposition is wise but if it’s a distraction from doing the hard thing simply because it’s hard, it must be ignored.

Sadly, the 1960’s are remembered as a time of violence and division as well as a time of successful accomplishments. Tragically, President Kennedy, his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated this decade. Those who unified to accomplish the hard things were silenced by the voices of fear and violence. The Vietnam war further divided us.

I long for visionary leaders but recognize that they, plus the unified sacrifices of supporters, and all our science combined cannot solve humanity’s problems. The kingdoms of this world fight wars and create rumors of wars. We cannot make world peace any more than we could bring ourselves into being. Jesus is the only way to world peace. He is the only way we can unite to live eternally in love, peace, and joy with our Triune God.

Nations follow the adversarial spirit of this world and continue to reject God’s invitation to accept his peaceful Kingdom. He commands his citizens turn the other cheek and this feels dangerously foolish, but Jesus’ lived all he commands us. During his 30 plus years on earth our Incarnate God turned his other cheek, forgave those who hurt him, and loved his enemies. Before his crucifixion, he told Pontius Pilate, Roman governor of Judea, that his Kingdom is not of this world, if it were of this world his servants would fight like the citizens of all this world’s kingdoms. God’s children, citizens of his Kingdom, not of this world, live as Jesus lived while he was with us here on earth.

Nearly 2,000 years ago 120 of Jesus’ disciples accepted our Triune God’s invitation to live eternally in the love, peace, and joy with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This little flock combined their resources and worked together in unity to do the hard thing of following Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit and glorifying the Father by expanding God’s Kingdom on earth.

Despite the hard things faced in church history, God’s children unite to follow visionary leaders who have surrendered to our Lord Jesus, just as he surrendered to the Father. Jesus’ followers remain faithful by participating with the Holy Spirit in putting the spotlight on Jesus’ beautiful gospel. Turning the other cheek would be foolish if it were not for Jesus. He leads his kingdom by empowering us to live as he lived. This demonstrates that walking on the moon or dreaming beautiful dreams of humanity giving and receiving Jesus’ love, his peace, and his joy one to another will be realized in eternity with our Triune God.

Ken and Nancy Williams served for some 25 years in pastoral ministry, and then almost another 20 years serving and mentoring other pastors.  With the heart of a pastor Ken continues to write and blog from upstate New York where he and Nancy live close to their grandchildren.