Editor's Note: The following sermon was given on January 21, 2013 at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday Commemorative Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

Introduction

As we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we likewise recognize the fact that 50 years after he delivered a speech that served as the prophetic supposition for an entire generation, I am here to declare today that from the barrio to Beverly Hills, from Atlanta to Anaheim, and from Modesto to Miami, the Dream still lives.

For I come to you today as a child of God, a child of immigrants, and a child of Dr. King's Dream. For that matter, I am often asked, "What is a Hispanic Born-again Christian? How will you define your community?" The answer lies embedded in a simple recipe. A Hispanic Christian is what you get when you take Billy Graham and Martin Luther King Jr. put them in a blender and place salsa on top.

My friends, there's a fine line between the prophetic and the pathetic. In the midst of a pathetic reality we find a prophetic declaration uttered by the mouth of the Apostle John pointing to the answer for a hopeless world. John 1:29 says, "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'"

Later on that same John, now in his 90's, saw the revelation on the island of Patmos and declared, "Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever!'"

How do we live out Dr. King's dream in our 21st century reality? ...

Samuel Rodriguez is the president of The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and the Senior Pastor of New Season Christian Worship Center in Sacramento, CA. He is also the author of Be Light: Shining God's Beauty, Truth, and Hope into a Darkened World.