17 Oct Prayer for the Church
Lord…
We thank you for your church, founded upon your Word, that challenges us to do more than sing and pray, but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon you. Help us to realize that humanity was created to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity. Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace. Help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until that day when all God’s children — Black, White, Red, Brown and Yellow — will rejoice in one common band of humanity in the reign of our Lord and of our God, we pray. Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I think in general we all know and understand that Martin Luther King Jr. was a reverend, but I don’t typically stop to think about the fact that it meant along with everything else he was doing, he was leading a congregation, writing sermons and prayers every week. He served as the pastor of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church from 1954-1960, where he doubtless preached and prayed many times a week. The particular prayer that is given in the video above is one that I view as one of his most powerful.
Dr. King is asking God to help us be the answer to our own prayers. He is asking for the strength to go out and do the work, the hard things that Dr. King himself was so used to doing, in order to help humanity join together under the reign of God. Another amazing leader (Mahatma Gandhi) is quoted as saying, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” I think this is also the message that Dr. King is reminding us of as he asks God to challenge us to do more than “sing and pray.”
Amazingly enough, or maybe not so surprisingly, this is also the message of Scripture. Psalm 34:14 reminds us to, “Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.” Today, may we find the commonality in these messages, and may we simply do good. May we look for peace, and may we bring it to those around us. And in doing so, may we be the hands and feet of God on Earth.
