Prayer Service for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day · 2020-01-16 · Prayer Service for Martin Luther...

Prayer Service for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Note: The italicized sections below are stanzas of the Civil Rights hymn, “We Shall Overcome.”.

Leader: We thank you, O Lord, for the leadership and vision of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the struggle for justice

and peace for all human beings. Help us listen with our hearts to his words. Help us sing out with conviction that,

with Your grace, we will help overcome the structures of sin that separate people.

Reader 1: “I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical

idealism, but of practical realism. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, love is an absolute

necessity for the survival of our civilization. To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in

the universe. Someone must have sense enough and religion enough to cut off the chain of hate and evil, and

this can only be done through love.”1

All: The Lord will see us through

The Lord will see us through

The Lord will see us through some day

Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe

The Lord will see us some day

Reader 2:“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right

temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”2

Reader 3:“This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new

strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low

hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the

creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.“3

All: The truth shall make us free

The truth shall make us free

The truth shall make us free some day


The truth shall make us free some day

Reader 4: “It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network

of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are

made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality.”4

Reader 5: “I choose to identify with the underprivileged. I choose to identify with the poor. I choose to give my life

for the hungry. I choose to give my life for those who have been left out of the sunlight of opportunity. I choose to live

for and with those who find themselves seeing life as a long and desolate corridor with no exit sign. This is the

way I’m going. If it means suffering a little bit, I’m going that way. If it means sacrificing, I‘m going that way. If it

means dying for them, I’m going that way, because I heard a voice saying, ‘Do something for others.’”5

All: We’ll walk hand in hand

We’ll walk hand in hand

We’ll walk hand in hand some day


We’ll walk hand in hand some day

Reader 6: “Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us

move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity

to make America a better nation.6

All: We will live in Faith

We will live in Faith

We will live in Faith today


We will live in Faith today

Reader 7: “Now let me say that the next thing we must be concerned about if we are to have peace on earth and

good will toward men is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life. Every person is somebody

because they are a child of God . . . And when we truly believe in the sacredness of human personality, we won’t

exploit people, we won’t trample people with the iron feet of oppression, we won’t kill anybody.”7

All: We shall live in peace

We shall live in peace

We shall lie in peace some day


We shall live in peace some day

Leader: Let us renew our commitment to live in peace and work for justice:

All: O God, grant us the courage and strength to live out our commitment to create a world in which peace

flourishes and “justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”*

Amen. *Adapted from Amos 5:24

1 Martin Luther King, Jr., in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,Volume IV: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957-December 1958.Edited

by Clayborne Carson, Susan Carson, Adrienne Clay, Virginia Shadron and Kieran Taylor. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).

2 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, December 10, 1964 in Oslo, Norway

3 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, December 10, 1964 in Oslo, Norway

4 Rev. Martin Luther King, “A Christmas Sermon on Peace,” 1967

5 Martin Luther King, Jr., in The Autobiography of Martin Luther King,Jr., ed. by Clayborne Carson (New York: Time Warner Co., 1998).

6 I’ve Been to the Mountaintop. In support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968

7 Rev. Martin Luther King, “A Christmas Sermon on Peace,” 1967

PRAYER SERVICE

1 / 5 Copyright © 2014-2017, Education for Justice, a project of Center of Concern.

PRAYING WITH MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.CALL TO PRAYERLeader: Let us lay aside the cares of the day and connect with God’s grace, which nourishes us to care for those in need.

We gather today to reflect on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., a man whose commitment to ridding the world of social sin resulted in discrimination, defamation of character, and ultimately his death. Dr. King is one of the most influential men of our times. His life and ministry continue to remind our nation and the world that the acts of injustice we confront daily require the faith-filled and faith-guided engagement of our heads, hearts, and hands.

“Thou, Dear God,” a collection of Dr. King’s prayers edited by Lewis Baldwin, provides a glimpse of King’s prayer life that often goes unnoticed. Prayer was the “sacred heart of his faith,” the foundation of his call-ing to serve as a prophetic social witness in an overall effort to free, humanize, and empower humanity. Dr. King “knew how to pray in all seasons of life.” From the pulpit to the kitchen table, he “laid his soul bare before God, praying for strength and guidance” during times of solidarity, aloneness, and adversity.

As we reflect on a few of Dr. King’s prayers, let us call to mind that, like generations of peacemakers who pre-ceded him, he prayed with hope. His prayers affirm his faithfulness to black and oppressed cultures. He prayed with the hope that all oppressed people would be delivered from the Egypt of slavery and from the wilderness of segregation, and that they would one day reach the promised land of freedom, justice, human dignity, and equality of opportunity.

Reader 1: The Higher Principle of Love (A prayer recited after King’s address, “The Birth of a New Age,” at the 50th anniversary convention of the Alpha Phi Fraternity, Buffalo, New York, 1956.)

“God grant that the resources that you have will be used to do that, the great resources of education, the re-sources of wealth, and that we will be able to move into this new world, a world in which men will live together as brothers; a world in which men will no longer take necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes. A world in which men will throw down the sword and live by the higher principle of love. The time when we shall be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man into the bright and glittering daylight of freedom and justice. That there will be the time we will be able to stand before the universe and say with joy—The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and our Christ! And he shall reign forever and ever! Hallelujah!”

Pause for silent and/or shared reflection.• What new insight have you gained from Dr. King’s prayer?• Does his message seem align with Catholic social thought? If so, in what ways?• In the 21st century, what does it mean to “throw down the sword and live by the principle of love?”

PRAYER SERVICE


Reader 2: Forgive Us for What We Could Have Been but Failed to Be (One of the prayers that King recited during his radio broadcasts from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, 1953.)

“O thou Eternal God, out of whose absolute power and infi-nite intelligence the whole universe has come into being. We humbly confess that we have not loved thee with our hearts, souls and minds, and we have not loved our neighbor as Christ loved us. We have all too often lived by our selfish impulses rather than by the life of sacrificial love as revealed by Christ. We often give in order to receive, we love our friends and hate our enemies, we go the first mile but dare not travel the second, we forgive but dare not to forget. And so as we look within our-selves we are confronted with the appalling fact that the history of our lives is the history of an eternal revolt against thee. But thou, O God, have mercy upon us. Forgive us for what we could have been but failed to be. Give us the intelligence to know thy will. Give us the courage to do thy will. Give us the devotion to love thy will. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen.”

Pause for silent and/or shared reflection. • What new insight have you gained from Dr. King’s prayer? • We are offered the opportunity to participate in God’s “intention” for the world. How well have we used or

abused this opportunity?• What is your understanding of social sin? Think of an example of social sin; what would it mean to go the extra mile?

Reader 3: Help Us to Work with Renewed Vigor (This prayer was delivered on September 6, 1953, as part of King’s broadcast from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.)

“Most gracious and all wise God, before whose face the generations rise and fall; Thou in whom we live, and move, and have our being. We thank thee (for) all of thy good and gracious gifts, for life and for health; for food and for raiment; for the beauties of nature and human nature. We come before thee painfully aware of our inadequacies and shortcomings. We realize that we stand surrounded with the mountains of love and we delib-erately dwell in the valley of hate. We stand amid the forces of truth and deliberately lie. We are forever offered the high road and yet we choose to travel the low road. For these sins, O God, forgive. Break the spell of that which blinds our minds. Purify our hearts that we may see thee. O God in these turbulent days when fear and doubt are mounting high, give us broad visions, penetrating eyes, and power of endurance. Help us to work with renewed vigor for a warless world, for a better distribution of wealth and for a brotherhood that transcends race or color. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen.”

Pause for silent and/or shared reflection.• What new insights have you gained from Dr. King’s prayer? Who, in today’s world exemplifies his message?• When he speaks of the spell that blinds our minds, what is he referring to? What spells blind your mind?

PRAYER SERVICE


Reader 4: A Great Nation: The Democratic National Convention (King offered this prayer before giving testimony to the Platform and Resolutions Committee during six days of hearings at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois on August 11, 1956.)

“Oh God our gracious Heavenly Father we thank Thee for the privilege of assembling here this morning. We thank Thee for all the opportunities of life, and we stand together today and discuss vital matters confronting our nation and confronting our world. We ask Thy guidance be with us in all our deliberations and help us at all times to seek to do those things which are high, noble, and good, and to make our nation a great nation, a nation that follows all of the noble precepts of the Christian religion and all of the noble precepts of democracy. Grant, O God, that as we move on we will move toward that city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. Amen.”

Pause for silent and/or shared reflection.• What new insights have you gained from Dr. King’s prayer?• What are the vital matters confronting our nation and the global community?• What are the precepts of the Christian religion and democracy that he refers to?• Do you play a role in making America a great nation that follows the precepts that both Dr. King and Jesus embodied? What is your role?

Reader 5: I Can’t Face It Alone (After receiving a telephone call from a white racist who threatened his life, his home, and his family, King said this prayer in the kitchen of his residence at 309 South Jackson Street in Mont-gomery, Alabama on January 28, 1956.)

“Lord, I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they, too, will falter. I am at the end of my pow-ers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.”

Pause for silent and/or shared reflection.• What new insight have you gained from Dr. King’s prayer?• Think of a moment in your life when you could not find God—when you stood alone in fear. At that moment, did you call out to God? What did you do? In that despairing moment, were you able to find the outstretched?

Reader 6: Help Me to See That I’m Just a Symbol of a Movement (The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr: Symbol of the Movement, January 1957.)

“O God, help me to see myself in my true perspective. Help me, O God, to see that I’m just a symbol of a movement. Help me to see that I’m the victim of what the Germans call a zeitgeist and that something was getting ready to happen in history. And that a boycott would have taken place in Montgomery, Alabama, if I had never come to Alabama. Help me to realize that I am—because of the forces of history and because of the fifty thousand Negroes of Alabama who will never get their names in the papers and in the headlines. O God, help me to see that where I stand today, I stand because others helped me to stand there and because the forces of history projected me there. And this moment would have come in history even if Martin Luther King had never been born.”

Pause for silent and/or shared reflection.• What new insight have you gained from Dr. King’s prayer?• Dr. King is quite clear that it is not a single leader who can bring about needed change. The leader can articulate the change that must come. Who are the leaders of today who call for systemic change that is consistent with the Gospels? • What is the difference between direct action and social change? Why are both necessary for justice?

PRAYER SERVICE


A LITANY OF CELEBRATION

Leader: Dr. King had a dream. The ideals of justice and freedom and the belief that all are created equal in the eyes of God are noble principles. But they are meaningless unless we embrace these ideals.

A1l: I will not keep silent. I will struggle with myself. I will not rest until the dream of justice and freedom becomes my personal dream. I must realize that I am not an innocent bystander. I can help bring about the dream by my action, or delay it by inaction.

Leader: Dr. King’s dreamt of a day when people from all races and nations, even the offspring of slaves and former slave owners, can sit at a table as brothers and sisters and find ways of transforming their differences into the common good. That was Dr. King’s dream. What is your dream?

All: My dream is that one day soon I will find a way to stop just celebrating the dream and start living it. It must become a part of my daily life or nothing much will change.

Leader: The dream is not about an ideal world. It is about the real world. Dr. King’s poetic refrain, “I Have a Dream,” is a call for us to remember the real world where injustice rules.

All: When I am in the shelter of my home, I must remember the homeless. When I eat, I must remember the hungry. When I feel secure, I must remember the insecure. When I see injustice, I must remember that it will not stop unless I stop it.

Leader: I have a dream!

All: I also have a dream. I have a dream that the Holy Spirit will arouse in me that very flame of righteousness that caused Dr. King to become a living sacrifice for the freedom and liberation of all of God’s children. Then I will be able to resist racial injustice everywhere I see it, even within myself. (Adapted from the United Presbyterian Church Prayer on Martin Luther King, Jr.)

CLOSING PRAYER

Leader: God of Hope, as we venture forth to be women and men of service, Go before us as our Guide.

Renew us with the spirit of service and sacrificial love Exemplified in the life of Dr. King.

May we be vessels of hope and justice in a world Inundated with countless forms of violence and injustice.

May we never stand on the sidelines As we witness injustice done upon our sisters and brothers,But walk with eyes open to the needs of our communities, With ears open to the needs of our world, And with hands open in helpful service to our neighbors.

Then we will not only be blessed, but be a blessing to our world. This is our prayer. Amen.

PRAYER SERVICE


FAITH IN ACTION

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is:

What are you doing for others?” ~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Each year, people of all ages, from coun-tries around the world, pause to reflect on Dr. King’s life and his challenge to stand with those whose dignity and basic human rights are being violated by institutions of greed and power. Let us emulate the lives of Jesus and Dr. King by stepping outside our comfort zones and work collectively to

stand in solidarity with the vulnerable in our communities and world.

What can you do?

• Host discussions on Dr. King’s life and principles of nonviolence and how these principles relate to:

• The wave of refugees and unaccom-panied children and women seeking refuge

• The current escalation of violence in Sudan, Honduras, and Mexico.

• The root causes of poverty and ways to respond to the most vulnerable in your community.

• Send a letter to your member of Congress and ask them to support unaccompanied children at the border: http://bit.ly/1mJtw9m.

AN AFFIRMATION OF FAITH BASED ON THE WRITINGS

OF DR. KING I refuse to believe that we are unable to influence the events which surround us.

I refuse to believe that we are so bound to racism and war, that peace, brotherhood and sisterhood are not possible.

I believe there is an urgent need for people to overcome oppression and vio-lence, without resorting to violence and oppression.

I believe that we need to discover a way to live together in peace, a way which re-jects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of this way is love.

I believe that unarmed truth and uncon-ditional love will have the final word in reality. I believe that right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

I believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.

I believe that what self-centered people have torn down, other-centered people can build up.

By the goodness of God at work within people, I believe that brokenness can be healed. “And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and everyone will sit under their own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid.”

(Adapted from the United Presbyterian Church Prayer on Martin Luther King, Jr.)

1 / 6 By Dianna Ortiz, OSU

PRAYER SERVICE

PRAYING WITH MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

CALL TO PRAYERLEADER: Let us lay aside the cares of the day and connect with God’s grace that nourishes us to care for those in need.

We gather today to reflect on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., a man whose commitment to ridding the world of social sin resulted in discrimination, defama-tion of character, and ultimately his death. Dr. King is one of the most influential men of our times. His life and ministry continue to remind our nation and the world that the acts of injustice we confront daily require the faith-filled and faith-guided engagement of our heads, hearts and hands.

Thou, Dear God, a collection of Dr. King’s prayers edited by Lewis Baldwin, provides a glimpse of King’s prayer life. This aspect sometimes goes unnoticed. Prayer was the “sacred heart of his faith,” the foundation of his calling to serve as a prophetic social witness in an overall effort to free, humanize, and empower humanity. Dr. King “knew how to pray in all seasons of life.” From the pulpit to the kitchen table, he “laid his soul bare before God, praying for strength and guidance” during times of solidarity, aloneness and adversity.

As we reflect on a few of Dr. King’s prayers, let us call to mind that like generations of peacemakers who preceded him, he prayed with hope. His prayers affirm his faithfulness to black and oppressed cultures. He prayed with the hope that all oppressed people would be delivered from the Egypt of slavery and from the wilderness of segregation, and that they would one day reach the promised land of freedom, justice, human dignity and equality of opportunity.

READER 1: The Higher Principle of Love (A prayer recited after King’s address, “The Birth of a New Age,” at the 50th anniversary convention of the Alpha Phi Fraternity, Buffalo, N.Y., 1956.)

God grant that the resources that you have will be used to do that, the great resources of education, the resources of wealth, and that we will be able to move into this new world, a world in which men will live together as brothers; a world in which men will no longer take necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes. A world in which men will throw down the sword and live by the higher principle of love. The time when we shall be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man into the bright and glittering daylight of freedom and justice. That there will be the time we will be able to stand before the universe and say with joy—The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and our Christ! And he shall reign forever and ever! Hallelujah!

Pause for silent and/or shared reflection. • What new insight have you gained from Dr. King’s prayer?• Does his message seem align with Catholic Social Thought? If so, in what ways? • In the 21st century, what does it mean to “throw down the sword and live by the principle of love?”

“The Christian is called, with the grace of God invoked in prayer,to a sometimes heroic commitment.

In this he or she is sustained by the virtue of fortitude,whereby — as Gregory the Great teaches — one can actually

“love the difficulties of this world for the sake of eternal rewards.”~ Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth)—Pope John Paul II, 1993


PRAYER SERVICE

READER 2: Forgive Us for What We Could Have Been but Failed to Be: (One of the prayers that King recited during his radio broadcasts from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., 1953.)

O thou Eternal God, out of whose absolute power and infinite intelligence the whole universe has come into being. We humbly confess that we have not loved thee with our hearts, souls and minds, and we have not loved our neigh-bor as Christ loved us. We have all too often lived by our selfish impulses rather than by the life of sacrificial love as revealed by Christ. We often give in order to receive, we love our friends and hate our enemies, we go the first mile but dare not travel the second, we forgive but dare not to forget. And so as we look within ourselves we are con-fronted with the appalling fact that the history of our lives us the history of an eternal revolt against thee. But thou, O God, have mercy upon us. Forgive us for what we could have been but failed to be. Give us the intelligence to know thy will. Give us the courage to do thy will. Give us the devotion to love thy will. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Pause for silent and/or shared reflection. • What new insight have you gained from Dr. King’s prayer?• We are offered the opportunity to participate in God’s “intention” for the world. How well have we used or abused this opportunity?• What is your understanding of social sin? Think of an example of social sin; what would it mean to go the extra mile?

READER 3: Help Us to Work with Renewed Vigor (This prayer was delivered on September 6, 1953. as part of King’s broadcast from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga..)

Most gracious and all wise God, before whose face the generations rise and fall; Thou in whom we live, and move, and have our being. We thank thee (for) all of thy good and gracious gifts, for life and for health; for food and for raiment; for the beauties of nature and human nature. We come before thee painfully aware of our inadequacies and shortcomings. We realize that we stand surrounded with the mountains of love and we deliberately dwell in the valley of hate. We stand amid the forces of truth and deliberately lie. We are forever offered the high road and yet we choose to travel the low road. For these sins O God forgive. Break the spell of that which blinds our minds. Purify our hearts that we may see thee. O God in these turbu-lent days when fear and doubt are mounting high give us broad visions, penetrating eyes, and power of endurance. Help us to work with renewed vigor for a warless world, for a better distribution of wealth and for a brotherhood that transcends race or color. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen

Pause for silent and/or shared reflection. • What new insights have you gained from Dr. King’s prayer?• Who today exemplifies his message?• When he speaks of the spell that blinds our minds, what is he referring to? What spells blind your mind?

READER 4: A Great Nation: The Democratic National Convention (King offered this prayer before giving testimony to the Platform and Resolutions Committee during six days of hearings at the Democratic National Convention, in Chicago, Ill., on August 11, 1956.)

Oh God our gracious Heavenly Father we thank Thee of the privilege of assembling here this morning. We thank Thee for all the opportunities of life, and we stand together today and discuss vital matters confronting our nation and


PRAYER SERVICE

confronting our world, we ask Thy guidance be with us in all our deliberations and help us at all times to seek to do those things which are high, noble and good, and to make our nation a great nation, a nation that follows all of the noble precepts of the Christian Religion and all of the noble precepts of democracy. Grant, O God, that as we move on we will move toward that city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. Amen

Pause for silent and/or shared reflection. • What new insights have you gained from Dr. King’s prayer?• What are the vital matters confronting our nation and the global community?• What are the precepts of the Christian religion and democracy that he refers to?• Do you play a role in making America a great nation that follows the precepts that both Dr. King and Jesus embodied? What is your role?

READER 5: I Can’t Face It Alone (After receiving a telephone call from a white racist who threatened his life, his home, and his family, King said this prayer in the kitchen of his residence at 309 South Jackson Street in Montgomery, Ala., on January 28, 1956.)

Lord, I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.

Pause for silent and/or shared reflection. • What new insight have you gained from Dr. King’s prayer?• Think of a moment in your life when you could not find God—when you stood alone in fear? At that moment, did you call out to God? What did you do? In that despairing moment, were you able to find the outstretched?

READER 6: Help Me to See That I’m Just a Symbol of a Movement

O God, help me to see myself in my true perspective. Help me, O God, to see that I’m just a symbol of a movement. Help me to see that I’m the victim of what the Germans call a zeitgeist and that something was getting ready to hap-pen in history. And that a boycott would have taken place in Montgomery, Alabama, it I had never come to Alabama. Help me to realize that I am because of the forces of history and because of the fifty thousand Negroes of Alabama who will never get their names in the papers and in the headlines. O God, help me to see that where I stand today, I stand because others helped me to stand there and because the forces of history projected me there. And this moment would have come in history even if M.L.King had never been born.

Pause for silent and/or shared reflection. • What new insight have you gained from Dr. King’s prayer?• Dr. King is quite clear that it is not a single leader who can bring about needed change. The leader can articulate the change that must come. Who are the leaders of today who call for systemic change that is consistent with the Gospels? • What is the difference between direct action and social change? Why are both necessary for justice?• So many have sung these lines: “They will know that we are Christians by our love.” Must not that love come wrapped in action to bring peace and justice to our wounded world? What can you do to further the experience of that love? • How does action based in love confront those who promote injustice?


PRAYER SERVICE

A LITANY OF CELEBRATION

LEADER: Dr. King had a dream. The ideals of justice and freedom and the belief that all are created equal in the eyes of God are noble principles. But they are meaningless unless we embrace these ideals.

ALL: I will not keep silent. I will struggle with myself. I will not rest until the dream of justice and freedom be-comes my personal dream. I must realize that I am not an innocent bystander. I can help bring about the dream by my action, or delay it by inaction.

LEADER: Dr. King’s dream of a day when people from all races and nations, even the offspring of slaves and former slave owners, can sit at a table as brothers and sisters and find ways of transforming their differences into the common good. That was Dr. King’s. What is your dream?

ALL: My dream is that one day soon I will find a way to stop just celebrating the dream and start living it. It must become a part of my daily life or nothing much will change.

LEADER: The dream is not about an ideal world. It is about the real world. Dr. King’s poetic refrain, “I Have a Dream,” is a call for us to remember the real world where injustice rules.

ALL: When I am in the shelter of my home, I must remember the homeless. When I eat, I must remember the hun-gry. When I feel secure, I must remember the insecure. When I see injustice, I must remember that it will not stop unless I stop it.

LEADER: I have a dream!

ALL: I also have a dream. I have a dream that the Holy Spirit will arouse in me that very flame of righteousness that caused Dr. King to become a living sacrifice for the freedom and liberation of all of God’s children. Then I will be able to resist racial injustice everywhere I see it, even within myself.-- (Adapted from the United Presbyterian Church Prayer on Martin Luther King, Jr.)

AN AFFIRMATION OF FAITH BASED ON THE WRITINGS OF DR. KING

I refuse to believe that we are unable to influence the events which surround us.

I refuse to believe that we are so bound to racism and war, that peace, brotherhood and sisterhood are not possible.

I believe there is an urgent need for people to overcome oppression and violence, without resorting to violence and oppression.

I believe that we need to discover a way to live together in peace, a way which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of this way is love.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. I believe that right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

I believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.

I believe that what self-centered people have torn down, other-centered people can build up.

By the goodness of God at work within people, I believe that brokenness can be healed. “And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and everyone will sit under their own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid.”

-- (Adapted from the United Presbyterian Church Prayer on Martin Luther King, Jr.)


PRAYER SERVICE

FAITH IN ACTIONMLK DAY OF SERVICE

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: “What are you doing for others?”

Each year, Americans across the country answer that question by coming together on the King Holiday to serve their neighbors and communities. The MLK Day of Service is a part of United We Serve, Presi-dent Obama’s national service initiative. It calls for Americans from all walks of life to work together to provide solutions to our most pressing national problems.

The MLK Day of Service is a way to transform Dr. King’s life and teachings into community service that helps solve social problems. That service may meet a tangible need, such as fixing up a school or senior center, or it may meet a need of the spirit, such as building a sense of community or mutual responsibility. Here are some project ideas to fit various ambitions and community resources. There is always room for your own ideas.

Host discussions on: • Dr. King’s life and principles of nonviolence and how these principles relate to ending gun violence• Issues related to immigration• The root causes of poverty and ways to respond to the most vulnerable in your community

Provide Job Readiness Training in:• Resume writing• Interview skills • Dressing for success

CLOSING PRAYERAs we venture forth to be women and men of service, go before us as our Guide. Renew us with the spirit of service and sacrificial love exemplified in the life of Dr. King. May we be vessels of hope and justice in a world inundated with countless forms of violence and injustice. May we never stand on the sidelines as we witness injustice done upon our sisters and brothers but walk with eyes open to the needs of our communities, with ears open to the needs of our world, and with hands open in helpful service to our neighbors. Then we will not only be blessed, but be a blessing to our world. This is our prayer. Amen.


PRAYER SERVICE

FAITH IN ACTION CONTINUEDMLK DAY OF SERVICE

Provide Food Assistance: • Serve meals at a homeless shelter • Bring meals to homebound neighbors • Organize a food donation drive

Improve Children’s Quality of Life:• Build a playground • Organize a day camp for children with working parents • Devise craft projects for children in hospitals

Provide Assistance to Families and Neighbors:• Help low-income families find free tax preparation services and take advantage of the Earned Income

Tax Credit• Shovel elderly neighbors’ walkways, clear leaves or help with other yard maintenance• Participate in or create a neighborhood watch program

Improve Health Outcomes: • Arrange a health fair • Organize a blood donor drive• Register bone marrow and organ donors

Beautify the Community:• Remove graffiti from a building and paint a mural of people working together for the common good• Create community green spaces by planting trees, grass and flowers• Reclaim a park or abandoned space for community use

Prepare the Community for Emergency and Crisis Situations: • Distribute fire safety information and check for working smoke detectors• Make and distribute disaster preparedness kits for the elderly and most vulnerable in your community • Host workshops on how to prevent foreclosure in communities disproportionately affected

Keep the Community Connected:• Create gathered and online community discussion forums. Get residents signed up for the online

discussion and informed about the time and location of the gathered forums • Teach neighbors how to surf the Internet and use email• Make a public space accessible for the disabled neighbors• Develop your own ideas by considering your community’s particular needs

(Adapted from United We Serve http://www.serve.gov/)

A Reflection on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Recommended for January 20

Leader: As people across the United States remember and honor the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his struggle for justice and the dangers it entailed, it provides us with a reminder that the work of the church has always required courage. With Doctor King's historic struggle for civil rights in mind, let us reflect on the strength it takes to move from thought and belief to action.

Reader: On Sunday, Sept. 16, 1963, the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was bombed by violent white racists. It was a protest against a settlement made between the African-American community and the city of Birmingham that would end segregation.

Reader: Many of the stained glass windows of the church were destroyed by the blast. A familiar one, depicting Jesus knocking on a door, was left with the face of Jesus missing. Other faces were lost that day. Four young children were killed by the blast as they walked into Sunday school to hear a sermon entitled, "The Love That Forgives."

Reader: Not long before this, Rev. Martin Luther King had been jailed in Birmingham for failing to procure a "parade permit" for a protest against segregation. He received a letter while he was in jail from eight clergy, among whom was a Catholic bishop, asking for moderation. The letter stated, "We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely."

Reader: Dr. King addressed the concern that his work was "untimely" in the following way: "I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: ‘All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth.'"

Reader: Dr. King continued, "Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people."

Reader: Dr. King concluded that, "Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of people willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and

https://www.chausa.org/prayers/calendar-of-prayers/?date=January%2020,%202019

https://www.chausa.org/prayers/calendar-of-prayers/?date=January%2020,%202019

transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood and sisterhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity."

Reader: There was never a response to Dr. King's letter from that group of clergy. However, on Jan. 17, 2011, on the observance of Dr. King's birthday, a group representing Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals, and Pentecostals did finally respond. They committed to do three things.

• Remember with profound gratitude the courage and sacrifice of those who had come before them in the struggle for racial justice.

• Repent of the fact that faith communities, while outwardly committed to justice, had not followed through to root out the vestiges of racism that remain, choosing to be comfortable rather than prophetic.

• Renew their commitment to the struggle for racial equality.

Reader: The group referenced the window damaged in the blast where the face of Jesus was missing and its replacement, a figure of Jesus, arms raised, resisting injustice and at the same time offering forgiveness. The window was a gift to the church from the people of Wales in the United Kingdom.

Leader: Please take a moment to reflect on the need for remembrance, repentance and renewal.

• Who do we remember now who has advocated for us and who helped us to get to this place in our lives?

• In what ways do we need to continue the process of change for ourselves, re-shaping ourselves from people of comfort to people of prophecy?

• Where in my life or work might I renew a commitment to be a prophetic voice?

Leader: Let us pray together … Lord God, we stand on the shoulders of giants who have sacrificed for the sake of the Gospel message. We stand here, responsible for the governance of your healing ministry, aware of much good work that is done, and much more yet to do.

Give us a share of the spirit that guided Dr. King and others like him to be voices for the voiceless. Do not let us settle into "appalling silence," but instead, have the courage to do what is necessary for those most in need — those whom your son Jesus loved the most. By our words and actions, may we become the face of Jesus in our time and place. We pray in his name. Amen.

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