Prayer for Peace & Justice: Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Today, Rev. Brandon Harris delivered the following prayer honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King but not, as Rev. Harris said, the sanitized version of his life, but the radical King. The Georgetown community was joined in today’s Prayer for Peace & Justice by the congregation from The House of Hope Atlanta in Decatur, Georgia who happened to be on a campus tour at the time (pictured above). The House of Hope was formed more than 138 years ago and counts among its former pastors none other than Dr. Martin L. King, Sr.
This evening is the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” sermon at the historic Mason Temple Church of God in Christin Memphis, Tennessee. Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of his assassination and the subsequent riots in D.C.
O God of Justice & Truth
Who calls us by name and liberates us from the oppression of apathy, disdain, prejudice, and leads us into the light of freedom.
Have mercy on us
Have mercy on us for ignoring the prophet’s call to do justice, to love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.
Have mercy on us for preferring sanitized messages of justice … we love to hear the words O God of a land where children are judged by the content of their character but we fail to make that world a possibility.
Have mercy on us when we prefer statements of diversity and inclusion, mouthing words of peace while our actions fail us.
Help us to heed the words of your servant Dr. King who reminded us that “Love that does not satisfy justice is no love at all. It is merely a sentimental affection, little more than what one would have for a pet.”
Have mercy on us for our silence in the face of injustice, failing to speak up while black men are begin gunned down by those sworn to protect us.
Forgive us while our educational systems fail to educate all of our children, while poverty enslaves those around us, and for failing to truly live as a genuine community of love and mercy.
In your mercy God
Liberate us
From the captivity of pride
Liberate us from the sins of our foreparents who set up systems of oppression that we benefit from
Liberate us into freedom
The freedom to seek the common good
The freedom to love others as you have loved us
The freedom to be brave to speak truth to power
The freedom to care the least, the last, and the left out
The freedom to care, genuinely care for the world around us
Lead us O God, Into Justice, Into Righteousness, Into Life that empowered by your spirit
We may live a life of goodness, truth, and justice for if we can help somebody along the way then our living will not be in vain.
Amen