Today’s Daily Lesson is in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is a prayer I gave at an MLK service last year in Lubbock’s Memorial Civic Center:
Dear LORD,
We gather here this evening in your name and with Thanksgiving for the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
We are grateful for his light and life and the courage with which he lived out his convictions. He was the messenger of a dream -- a dream which changed not only the South, and not only America, but indeed the whole world, inspiring people in places far and wide to discover their own dignity within and empowering them to rise up and be the change they wish to see in this world. What a star he was under. We do thank you for him.
Forgive us, O God, when we cheapen the work and witness of your servant, Dr. King. Chastise us for our complacency in celebrating his ministry while shrinking from our own. Rebuke us whenever we and our leaders build monuments to prophets past while disregarding their message for times present.
There is still work to be done, we know. The dream has not yet been realized. Mercy and truth have not yet met together. Justice has not yet run down like waters, nor righteousness like a mighty stream. And so, provoke us yet again. Stir up your people once more. Unsettle us with the holy dissatisfaction of Dr. King, all the other prophets of the past, and our Lord Jesus of Nazareth, that we ourselves might no longer be content with the way the world is but anxious and agitating for the way the world ought to be.
This is the meaning of MLK Day, and the meaning of this service in his prophetic name. May it prove as much, and even more. Amen.
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