A prayer for today, adapted from Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham City Jail”
Holy God, we stand before you in repentance and prayer.
We know from experience that freedom is never free.
Throughout history, the struggle for freedom has not been well-timed.
More often than not, those who strive hear the response, “Wait!”
It is easy for those who do not suffer to urge patience, to speak of timing.
Yet there must come a time when the cup of endurance runs over, when we become unwilling to be plunged into an abyss of injustice, and the bleakness of corroding despair.
Let us not be more devoted to order than justice; let us not suggest that the quest for justice might ever await a more convenient season.
As people of the Gospel, let us devote ourselves to the positive peace which is the presence of justice, of righteousness, of solidarity in the Body of Christ.
Amen.
Rev. Eliza Tweedy is pastor and teacher of First Church Congregational, United Church of Christ in Rochester NH
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Thank you for the challenge!
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Amen, and thank you!
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The challenge to working for justice is always to do it peacefully. Waiting patiently on God’s time and His answer our prayers is difficult, though we must continue to pray like it all depends on God and continue to work as though it all depends on us.
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Denise, yes. And I think the challenge for many of us is to define what is peaceful. I think it is often seen as a lack of disruption, rather than as a lack of violence. So I hope this is a reflection that is always upon our hearts.
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