Dr. Rodney Waller, the featured speaker at the 21st annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Breakfast, compared the life of Dr. King to Joshua, who was chosen to lead the people of Israel when Moses died. The annual celebration is sponsored by the NAACP Middlesex County Branch, Unit 7091.
The following excerpts are from Dr. Waller’s address to those assembled at the American Legion Post 82 in Saluda on Monday, Jan. 19, to remember Dr. King.
When Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, “it was not simply the death of a man. It felt like the interruption of a movement,” said Dr. Waller. “For many, hope staggered, dreams trembled. The future felt uncertain.”
That tragic moment mirrors the Bible’s passages in Joshua 1:1-5, said Dr. Waller. “Joshua chapter one opens not with celebration, but with loss. Not with triumph, but with transition. Not with certainty, but with questions.
“Israel’s great leader Moses is dead. The voice that confronted Pharaoh is silent. The hand that parted the Red Sea no longer lifts.
“And the people of God stand still — caught between grief and destiny.
“And it is right there, in that fragile, uncertain, painful moment, that God speaks. Not to dismiss the past. Not to dishonor the fallen.
“But to declare that the mission must move forward,” said Dr. Waller.
Modern times
“And today, as we honor the life of Dr. King, we find ourselves standing in a similar space, between memory and movement, between tribute and transformation, between what has been and what must still be done. The question before us is not whether Dr. King had a dream.
The question is whether we are willing to walk it out (continue it).”
The people of Israel also had to decide whether they would “remain standing still or move forward into God’s promise,” said Dr. Waller.
Carrying
“Dr. King gave his life to interrupt the conscience of a nation. And every year this holiday asks us a haunting question: Are we merely remembering the dream, or are we responsible for carrying it forward?
“Dr. King himself warned us that remembrance without responsibility is dangerous.” He once said, ‘We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today.’ In other words, “justice delayed is justice denied, and faith postponed is faith abandoned.”
Reflection
“This day exists not only to honor who Dr. King was, but to confront who we are becoming,” Dr. Waller continued.
“Like many transformative figures in history, Dr. King lived and led during a time of sharp contradiction. It was a season where laws were changing, but hearts were not. Where progress was promised, but resistance was persistent. Where hope was preached — but hatred was practiced.”
Dr. Waller added, “It was, as Charles Dickens once described another era of upheaval writing, ‘The best of times and the worst of times … the spring of hope and the winter of despair.’
“Those words still fit,” said Dr. Waller. “We live in a time where opportunity and oppression exist side by side. Where technology advances, yet humanity struggles. Where equality is written into law, but inequity is written into lived experience. This is why Dr. King’s voice still matters.”
Survival
SurvivalThe people of Israel carried “deep historical wounds,” of bondage designed to “break their spirit,” said Dr. Waller. “Like Israel, we too have a painful past; one not written in abstraction, but in blood, tears, and resistance. And even after emancipation, oppression merely changed uniforms. Dr. King understood this reality clearly. That is why he said America had given Black people ‘a bad check, marked insufficient funds.’ ”
The Bible’s Joshua one does not introduce a defeated people but a surviving people, said Dr. Waller. “Dr. King often reminded America that Black survival itself was an act of resistance. Despite every attempt to silence, erase, or marginalize us we were still here.”
Building
God reminds Joshua in verse 5: “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.”
Dr. Waller pointed out that Joshua was not starting from scratch, but building on history.
“Neither are we. Every right we have came from someone who marched. Every opportunity came from someone who sacrificed. Every door that opened was pushed by faithful hands.
Our testimony is not meant to make us comfortable — it is meant to make us courageous.
“If we truly honor Dr. King, we must do more than celebrate survival — we must steward it. This point calls us to teach the next generation the truth about where we’ve been. Protect the gains that were hard-won, refuse despair, because despair forgets testimony.”
Struggle
Dr. Waller continued, “God’s presence does not eliminate struggle. It guarantees purpose in the struggle.
“Dr. King understood this when he said, ‘Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of people willing to be coworkers with God.’
“The dream will not survive on speeches alone. It will live when faith organizes, hope mobilizes, and love acts.
“Can the dream really live beyond the dreamer? I came to tell you yes, because history did not stop with Moses, the movement did not end with Martin Luther King Jr., and hope did not die at the Lorraine Motel.
“The dream lives when God’s people refuse to stand still.”
About the speaker
Dr. Rodney D. Waller is the senior pastor of First African Baptist Church of Richmond, reportedly the third oldest African-American church in the United States. He has served this church for 27 years and been its leader for 16 years.
