Sermons

READING ~ Excerpt from “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.   April 16, 1963

You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible "devil."

I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the "do nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as "rabble rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies--a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro.

READING ~ 'New Day's Lyric' by Amanda Gorman (for the new year 2022)

May this be the day
We come together.
Mourning, we come to mend,
Withered, we come to weather,
Torn, we come to tend,
Battered, we come to better.
Tethered by this year of yearning,
We are learning
That though we weren’t ready for this,
We have been readied by it.
We steadily vow that no matter
How we are weighed down,
We must always pave a way forward.

This hope is our door, our portal.
Even if we never get back to normal,
Someday we can venture beyond it,
To leave the known and take the first steps.
So let us not return to what was normal,
But reach toward what is next.

What was cursed, we will cure.
What was plagued, we will prove pure.
Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,
Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,
Where we weren’t aware, we’re now awake;
Those moments we missed
Are now these moments we make,
The moments we meet,
And our hearts, once all together beaten,
Now all together beat.

Come, look up with kindness yet,
For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.
We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,
But to take on tomorrow.

We heed this old spirit,
In a new day’s lyric,
In our hearts, we hear it:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
Be bold, sang Time this year,
Be bold, sang Time,
For when you honor yesterday,
Tomorrow ye will find.
Know what we’ve fought
Need not be forgot nor for none.
It defines us, binds us as one,
Come over, join this day just begun.
For wherever we come together,
We will forever overcome.

SERMON

May this be the day we come together.

Come over, join this day just begun.

For wherever we come together,

We will forever overcome.

These are the opening and closing lines of Amanda Gorman’s poem, New Day’s Lyric. I love this poem. It was written on the cusp of the new year of 2022, so we are already another 12 months of coming together in all the painful and hopeful ways she describes and we are 12 more months into the future she imagines. It’s a future of hope and togetherness.

For when you honor yesterday,
Tomorrow ye will find.
Know what we’ve fought
Need not be forgot nor for none.

And then - -

For wherever we come together,
We will forever overcome.

I have chosen to pair the soul searching, heart rending, yet hopeful, words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his jail cell in Birmingham in 1963 with the soul searching, heart opening, and hopeful words of Amanda Gorman for the New Day that is a new year in 2022; still honest and true in 2023.

As we honor the life and legacy of Dr. King, I invite you to also honor the life and promise of Amanda Gorman.  They were born almost 7 decades apart - Dr. King in 1929 and Amanda Gorman in 1998 – and they seem to have the same heart and soul for the hope and promise of people coming together with the ability to overcome.

Dr. King was only 34 years old the year he wrote his now famous letter to American clergy from a cell in the Birmingham, Alabama jail.

He is more heart-broken than angry with the white liberal and moderate clergy who do not see either the imperative or the promise of supporting the liberation of and full justice for Black Americans.

He says that he is standing between two opposing forces among the Black people of America.
One force is the force of complacency.
The other is the force of bitterness and hatred.
Neither force will bring about freedom, justice and equality.

There is, he says, the third way.  The way of love and non-violent direct action.  In order for this third way to be successful, white people, especially white people of faith – both clergy and laity – must come together and work side by side for justice.  He invites, cajoles, threatens, and begs people to come together to prevent what he sees as a predictable response to continuing oppression.

“And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as "rabble rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies--a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.”

Although stated in the negative ….. this is what will happen if we don’t come together …. Dr. King’s message implies that if people DO come together in non-violent love and direct action, together we can and we will overcome.  In what seems like a discouraging and disparaging letter at first read, Dr. King is actually expressing deeply heartfelt hope for the possibility that his friends of faith will in fact come together.  It may be that some would only come together in order to prevent or delay the devastating outcome described by King.  But, it may also be that King’s words and vision are a corrective, a call to action, to a sleeping and reluctant band of clergy who could be motivated to lead the faithful on the march toward justice.  King never gave up his hope that people could come together and overcome.  He gave his life in the cause of freedom and justice – for all.

Let us not disappoint him in death as those who came before us disappointed him in life.

Things have changed since 1963, but really, not nearly enough to say that justice is achieved.  Here we are, 60 years after Dr. King wrote to our parents and grandparents from a cold and lonely jail cell still sitting on the sidelines wondering if the call for justice is still too soon or too extreme or just too much.  We are still asleep and our neighbors are still waiting for the justice our constitution promises.

Here we are 60 years later and we hear the strong youthful voice of Amanda Gorman.  Are we now ready and able to wake up?

Amanda Gorman uses poetry not preaching to convey her message.  She does not lay out the ugly devastating and probably violent consequences of remaining dedicated to individualism rather than community as a way on inviting people into the struggle.  She uses words and phrases that capture and sing.  She was not 34 when she wrote her call to action; she was 24 years old.  Yet the maturity of her words and her vision far exceed that of most 20-somethings and maybe beyond our own more seasoned sense of wisdom.  She neither denies not glorifies the past that has brought us this far in this way. It is ugly.  It is beautiful.  It hurts.  And yet, it hopes.

“We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,
But to take on tomorrow.”   ….

“For when you honor yesterday,
Tomorrow ye will find.
Know what we’ve fought
Need not be forgot nor for none.”

On this birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. I want to remember our past and trust the future more.  This is how we honor Dr. King.  We continue the difficult process of waking up and reaching for the morning sun of a justice shared by all.  None of us can go it alone.  Our faith reminds us that ours is a call to a life that affirms and promotes life – for all.

Caught in a network of mutuality, a single garment of destiny, that will not release us to individual privilege for a few while the many continue to suffer injustice, we must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.  We shall hew out of the mountains of despair, a stone of hope.

Amanda Gorman is one of this generation’s prophets.  With her words, she carries my spirit into the realm of the possible, the hopeful, the already begun not yet achieved dream of Dr. King.

This poem, like many of her poems, is so full of the hope and possibility of all that is our life together, only when we come together.

Today, the birthday of Dr. King, let your heart, mind, body and spirit sing with the voice of our young justice leaders, full of hope and promise as I recite again, New Day’s Lyric.

May this be the day
We come together.
Mourning, we come to mend,
Withered, we come to weather,
Torn, we come to tend,
Battered, we come to better.
Tethered by this year of yearning,
We are learning
That though we weren’t ready for this,
We have been readied by it.
We steadily vow that no matter
How we are weighed down,
We must always pave a way forward.

This hope is our door, our portal.
Even if we never get back to normal,
Someday we can venture beyond it,
To leave the known and take the first steps.
So let us not return to what was normal,
But reach toward what is next.

What was cursed, we will cure.
What was plagued, we will prove pure.
Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,
Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,
Where we weren’t aware, we’re now awake;
Those moments we missed
Are now these moments we make,
The moments we meet,
And our hearts, once all together beaten,
Now all together beat.

Come, look up with kindness yet,
For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.
We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,
But to take on tomorrow.

We heed this old spirit,
In a new day’s lyric,
In our hearts, we hear it:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
Be bold, sang Time this year,
Be bold, sang Time,
For when you honor yesterday,
Tomorrow ye will find.
Know what we’ve fought
Need not be forgot nor for none.
It defines us, binds us as one,
Come over, join this day just begun.
For wherever we come together,
We will forever overcome.

We will overcome.  This day has just begun.

We must be adamant about our work for justice.  We must not rest – we who believe in freedom cannot rest, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.  We must be awake to all the ills and sins that continue to plague our great nation and all of creation.  We must be persistent in our quest to come together to overcome and live in peace.

May it be so this day and every day.

Blessed Be.   I Love You.  Amen.