Flickering lamp beside the golden door

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,

Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

These words challenge me in these days. As I reflect upon such beautiful poetry, I am drawn to the prophet Isaiah and his words used by Jesus in his first sermon. It was a sermon he preached in his home-temple shortly after his return from his wilderness. While he was in the wilderness, he witnessed first-hand the deceptive power of Satan. With words and the stroke of pen, Satan could compromise the human condition and our relationship with the God of peace and justice – the God of grace and righteousness. Remember with me the words from Jesus’ first sermon.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

Because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

And recovery of sight to blind,

To let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the

Lord’s favor. Luke 4:18-21

As I read and reflect on this significant sermon in the history and tradition of our faith, I can begin to understand that our faith is not one of words, but of action. As I read these words, I am reminded of the value and importance of each person along our ‘teeming shores.’ When I read and re-read these words, I am reminded of a more recent prophet, Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.” The things that Jesus spoke about in his opening sermon are consistent throughout his life and his ministry. He took to heart one of the fundamental tenants of Jewish faith, “For the Lord your God is awesome…the Lord that is great and mighty executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. Therefore, you shall also love the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” Deuteronomy 10:18, 19.Jesus preached about the things that matter. He, like Martin Luther King, Jr. understood the interconnection of our human family and the ‘tie that binds’ us to the God who created us, loves us, and longs for us to see the ‘huddled masses, yearning to be free.’ Jesus spoke about the wretched, the sick, the alien and the stranger and welcomed them. Jesus invited the prisoner and the captive to share in the beauty and gifts of the world that his Father/Mother created for all to enjoy. This mattered to Jesus.

This poem is a gift to America from Emma Lazarus.   These words are inscribed on the pedestal of Lady Liberty, a light in the darkness, given to America by France. I don’t know much about the poet, but her words are words of welcome to the alien, the stranger, the wretched, the poor, and the tired, and those who long to be free. At one time, the world believed that there was something fundamentally beautiful and inviting about our ‘teeming shores’. However, in recent days there has been a flurry of activity that betrays our greatest values as a nation. In recent days, our faith convictions are being challenged and ‘the lamp beside the golden door’ is barely flickering and the promise of Lady Liberty to all the world have become empty words – a nice poem with no conviction -- another broken promise of the ages.

 Martin Luther King, Jr. once wrote, “We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] or perish together as fools.” Today, Lady Liberty stands as a ‘fool’ in the harbor of New York. If we believe that what has come to past to be normal and acceptable then we are the ones whom Jesus is speaking about when he angrily cries out, “…You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to hell?” Matthew 23:33. Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.” Are we hiding our light as a nation and a people under a bushel? Are we letting ‘few in numbers’ to blow out our flame? Have we become so complacent that we cannot shine nor will we speak? Is this what we have become?  Today, the ‘lamp beside the golden door’ is barely burning, and I wonder who will speak to the pending darkness.