Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
I like to think that Martin Luther King would have loved the readings we have for today because at the heart of them, they are about forgiveness.
Joseph had a terrible thing happen to him. His brothers threw him in a pit and sold him into slavery. Yet when they came to Egypt, he was able to forgive. It took time and effort, but he forgave them and spent the rest of his life with them.
In Luke we are told to love not only those it is easy for us to love, but also our enemies, those who it is much more easy for us to hate.
These messages stand at the heart of the Gospel, but they also stand at the heart of the Civil Rights Movement.
The Civil Rights Movement was, at its core, about love. If those in the movement had hated those who persecuted them, they would have continued the rift. They would have continued to be in separation. Instead they chose to make sure they were recognized as fellow human beings, knowing full well that such recognition would help bring all people of all races together. The idea, the hope, of the Movement was to end the separation that had grown between blacks and whites and to move forward together.
This is what our faith is about. It's about God seeing the separation we had forged between ourselves and Him. It's about God coming down to bridge that divide. It's about God doing everything so that we could come together with Him and move forward together.
At the heart of the Civil Rights Movement is our faith. So keep the Movement alive. Keep working to move forward so that we can all love each other. Keep working to end racism in our hearts and in our communities.