Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

A call to worship in celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy of justice.

As we gather to worship once again, and with people throughout this nation we remember the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The sound of Pentecost call us to ask, “SHALL WE OVERCOME?”

Like Memorex we sing that refrain and join our hands to symbolize the dream of what we hope for: a country united, a world not divided where liberty and justice are not just for some,

And the wind of Pentecost swirls around us with the question, “WILL WE OVERCOME?”

In the midst of stand-offs and lay-offs can we “walk together children” and not get weary of the work we must do to transcend human-made boundaries and barriers? And can we lay down the weapons of our warfare and our words so that we can build the Beloved Community that provides a seat for everyone at God’s welcome table?

The flames of Pentecost rest upon us to ask, “WHEN WILL WE OVERCOME?”

If we are inextricably linked to one another in an “inescapable web of mutuality” and my peace is bound to your peace, and your freedom is bound to my freedom, and there is no peace without justice and no justice without equality of access to abundant life, then we know…

That the sound of Pentecost is calling us to declare, “WE MUST OVERCOME!”

If Black Lives really do matter as much as Immigrant lives and Trans lives and Poor Children’s lives and Elder lives and Veterans’ lives and Women’s lives and Multi-Faith lives, and

If justice is to roll down like water and righteousness like a never-failing stream, then

The Tongues of Pentecost are releasing us to speak, and to say the names of the fallen and taken ones over and over again like a flood until injustice is overtaken like the levies of the 9th Ward in NOLA so that we can say with assurance,

WE SHALL OVERCOME! WE SHALL OVERCOME! WE SHALL OVERCOME!

So let us worship our God who “has brought us thus far on the way” and remember the ministry of this “Drum Major for Justice” and let us rise as a community gathered to bring the Good News of God’s reign of salvation, justice, and peace under the Sound of Pentecost!

Amen & Aché


Rev. Ann  Jefferson

 


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