“We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.”
I’ve been musing about a few questions that I raised in Sunday’s sermon about the multigenerational strength of Martin Luther King Jr.’s family of origin- and their multigenerational investment in Ebenezer Baptist Church. I asked, “Where are the children raised by NP today? Did we pass on a sense of loyalty anything like that found in the Black Church? Did we teach our NP kids to never give up? Is there something new we might need to reach our young people today?”
On Monday, it was interesting to hear Joe DeVoe, President of the MV Chapter of the NAACP, talk about a recording he heard of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaking to a middle school class. Joe said that King encouraged those middle schoolers to believe in their own dignity and worth, to strive to achieve excellence in all their endeavors, and to make a commitment to the eternal values of beauty, love and justice.
It seems to me that the first of these three things we do pretty well. But when it comes to the other two messages, we may convey them in a variety of ways but I’m not so sure we directly articulate those expectations, that we “make it plain”. I’d love to hear what core beliefs you think it’s important to “make plain” to our young people of all ages- not just in deeds, but in words!
Adrienne Floyd, the speaker at the Merrimack Valley NAACP MLK event, encouraged us all to do something to uphold MLK’s vision of a just society in the days to come. What’s our next step as a whole church? I hope you Zoom in this Sunday to hear about one option from the Rev. Tess Baumberger. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for the soundtrack for the week, Carolyn Zimmer sent me this version of the James Taylor song that which Alice, Erin, John and Keith gave us on Sunday. It’s called Shed a Little Light and is sung here by The Maccabeats and Naturally 7. It begins this way:
“Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King and recognize there are ties between us, all men and women, living on the earth, ties of hope and love, sister and brotherhood.
And we are bound together in our desire to see the world become a place in which our children can grow free and strong.
We are bound together by the task that stands before us and the road that lies ahead, we are bound, we are bound…”
Yours on the road that lies ahead,
Rev. Lee
P.S. Zoom-only church for Jan 23rd and 30th. Hybrid services starting again Feb. 6th. As always, stay tuned!