"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality."
Thank you, Dr. Martin Luther King, for your witness + resources for the church seeking justice & peace
Fellow Pilgrims,
Today, in the U.S., we celebrate the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior. In the title of today’s post, I’ve quoted from his 1964 Nobel Prize acceptance speech:
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
Today, as we walk the pilgrim way, it may appear that evil is triumphant, but Martin Luther King knew that love is the final word, and he did what we are called to do with that knowledge; he worked to bring faith into sight.
In this collage, I’ve invited us to view Rev. King through a monstrance, used in the Roman Catholic tradition for venerating the eucharistic host. In King’s witness, may we see the body of Christ, and may we be strengthened and fed for the work of love and justice. The words of the prayer repeated in the collage is for the blessing for a monstrance:
Almighty everlasting God, be pleased to bless and to hallow these vessels made to expose, for the faithful, the body of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
May King’s witness invite us, on this day, not to despair, but to bear witness to God’s justice and love.
One reason I love my work at Northern Seminary and at Seminary Now is mission commitment to the whole of Christian faith—truth to be believed but also to be embodied. Justice and righteousness are one.
In hope, I’m sharing a few resources from Seminary Now for churches and leaders seeking to follow King’s witness and deny that evil will finally be triumphant. Below, a list of courses available on matters of justice and reconciliation.
And, a few glimpses from those available streaming courses.
My colleague at Northern Seminary, Marshall Hatch, teaches “Black Church Studies.”
Nicole Lim, director of Freely in Hope, teaches “Advocating with survivors of sexual violence.”
Robert Chao Romero teaches “Brown church.”
Sarah Shin teaches “Beyond Colorblind: Redeeming our Ethnic Journey”
These four videos are just the tiniest glimpse into Seminary Now resources for justice and reconciliation. All courses stream on demand, and a subscription gets you access to everything.
I close, today, with a prayer from Dr. King:
O God, we thank you for the lives of great saints and prophets in the past, who have revealed to us that we can stand up amid the problems and difficulties and trials of life and not give in. We thank you for our foreparents, who've given us something in the midst of the darkness of exploitation and oppression to keep going. Grant that we will go on with the proper faith and the proper determination of will, so that we will be able to make a creative contribution to this world. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Grace & peace,
BFJ
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