Connections: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2013

Watch the video above. Read the transcript below.

“‘Here comes the dreamer.’ Those were the words of Joseph’s brothers as they saw him coming. And they took him and bound him, and threw him in a pit, and sold him into slavery.

‘Here comes the dreamer.’ Words which we could also attribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., the prophetic presence in our own nation who led through word and deed in such a way that our nation was advanced in our sense of community with one another and in justice among all people.

We celebrate very soon the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and as we do, I invite each of you in your congregations to remember to pray for unity and peace among all people. To pray for justice to roll down, for righteousness to rise up, for the society in which we live to become one that surrounds every child with what is needed for that child to grow into adulthood with strength, and to contribute to the greater good, to love God and to serve human kind.

January is also the season for Christian Unity and the week of prayer for Christian Unity follows close behind the Martin Luther King holiday. The two really work together so beautifully because we as Methodist people realize that we’re not the only ones bearing the light of Christ into the world.

John Wesley spoke often of the catholic spirit, little ‘c’ catholic -  it means worldwide spirit, of the attitude of Methodists to reach out to others. ‘If your heart is as my heart, give me your hand,’ the early Methodists would say. And they worked together across division of opinion. Rather their unifying force was the force of love.

In this month of January, let us in each of our churches offer prayers for other Christians. The church across the street or down the street. The church with whom we may share a Vacation Bible School or a mission project. Perhaps the church with whom we have not yet connected. And may through that prayer we embody the unity of all God’s people.

This is the time in January for justice, for righteousness and for unity. May it be so.”