God we gather to honor the legacy of your son…the great purveyor of peace and justice Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
On this day, let our minds and hearts be not far from Dr. King’s eschatological notion of a Beloved Community…that magical and majestic space where all people are ushered into a community of love and justice
But also let us not fail to realize that such a Beloved Community begins deep within us
We must learn to love our neighbor as our self
Even more we must learn to love our enemies
Even more we must learn to love our enemies as our self
For in loving our enemies as our self we begin to realize that our enemy is most often within our self
The Beloved Community begins within
Let us realize that we are the racism and prejudice we wish to see overcome
Let us realize that we are the mysogyny, sexism and patriarchy we wish to see eradicated
Let us realize that we are the classism and economic inequalities we wish to see made right
Let us realize that we are the homophobia and genderism that we wish to see eliminated
O God may we be brave and humble enough to realize that we are just as much the source of evil as anyone we try to hate
So in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. let us love our enemies as our self and…as we clean up our own lives…may we see the fruition of peace there in the Beloved Community…where we can join all of humanity in declaring that we truly are free of evil at last
We pray these things for our hardened hearts who often fail to see our culpability in the crimes against humanity we wage every day
In the name of Jesus of Nazareth who Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so majestically served
Amen
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