Invocation delivered at the ninth annual Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr Hall of Fame awards at City Hall, Providence, Rhode Island.
Once the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr, sang of an “inescapable network of mutuality.” And reminded us how we are caught in it, tied together within that “single garment of destiny.”
This evening let us remember the connections, and how we come into this place surrounded, to use another metaphor, by a great cloud of witnesses, witnesses to something profound and true. Something, if you will, holy.
On this ninth annual celebration of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr Hall of Fame, as we honor Lio Di Maio, Miguel Luna and Billy Taylor, let us remember the deep spirit that informs our gathering, what moved in Dr King’s heart, and in these men’s hearts, and within all those who came before, and, I hope, within all of us for all our tomorrows; that spirit of love which passes all understanding, but which gives us meaning and purpose in our lives. And, what happens within that love, the call to act, the call of justice expressed in ten thousand different ways. All of them worthy.
In 1853, the Unitarian divine Theodore Parker, preaching a sermon on justice and conscience proclaimed, “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; (but) I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.”
This dream of love manifest as justice is a mighty stream, and many have been caught in its waters. Reverend Parker’s admirer the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, cited that line many times, most memorably in 1965, two weeks after Bloody Sunday, standing on the steps of the Alabama State Capital, he repeated the ancient truth to all of us of love and justice.
“I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth crushed to earth will rise again. How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever. How long? Not long, because you shall reap what you sow…. How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Love and justice. The arc toward our healing. In 2008, our president, Barack Obama, speaking on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Dr King’s assassination added one more thing, which makes me think of Reverend Parker and of Dr King and of Billy and of Miguel and of Lio, and, of all of us.
The president told us, “Dr. King once said that the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. It bends towards justice, but here is the thing: it does not bend on its own. It bends because each of us in our own ways put our hand on that arc and we bend it in the direction of justice….”
It bends because of Theodore, because of Martin, because of Barack, because of Billy, because of Miguel, because of Lio, because of any one of us who allows the great current of love to manifest, and to reach out our hands, to act, to bend that arc, to do the work of God.
It is, at its best, what informs all we do, and what makes this nation, our republic great.
May we let that spirit inform all that happens this evening, and, if we’re lucky, in all our days ahead.
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