Last week, I attended the annual community service in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As always, it was an inspiring event, one that I have regularly attended and at which I have spoken occasionally across the years. A few thoughts and observations from this year’s event:
- The service is the most diverse event at which our community gathers, and it is diverse in many respects. There is racial diversity, town-gown diversity, with many folks from the community and from Mary Baldwin attending, age diversity with students from the university as well as older folks and children from the community attending, ecumenical diversity with folks from across the religious community participating and attending – I found myself for the second year in a row seated next to A.J. Heine, rector at Trinity Episcopal Church!
- Dr. King’s legacy lives on through the power of his words, oratory, and life that continue to inspire and move us almost sixty years after his death; they are as relevant to the challenges of today as they were to the challenges of his day.
- The students do not hesitate to speak the truth as they perceive it and to call out the injustices they see; their passion for justice is inspiring and humbling!
- Edward Scott, as master of ceremonies, keeps us focused on the issues at hand and Dr. King’s legacy, while also commending and encouraging the various participants.
- We would benefit by gathering more often with such a cross-section of our community.
- Throughout the program and in the quotes of Dr. King, there were echoes of Scripture to encourage us, challenge us, and at times unsettle us.
- On a cold January night at a time when the NCAA National Championship Football game was being played, First Presbyterian Church was packed with folks for whom that remembrance and gathering was a greater priority!
- If the event is just a remembrance and a feel-good moment, then Dr. King would be disappointed. The challenge for all of us – whether you attended or not – is to live into that vision of the beloved community and to work to make it a reality. That work continues throughout the year and dovetails with our commitment as a Matthew 25 congregation to address issues of systemic poverty and structural racism.
- We remember and honor the heroes of the civil rights movement like Dr. King, which leads me to wonder how future generations will look at our response to the rise of authoritarianism, Christian Nationalism, racism, and injustice in our own nation and around the world these days. Are we rising to the occasion and practicing what we preach?
May Dr. King’s vision of the beloved community come to greater realization in our lifetimes, and may we be instruments by which that holy work is done, for it is indeed holy work – God’s work through us!
