In a 1957 sermon, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke about love and about hate.
He said:
“Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys one’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes people to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.”
In recent months and years, we have seen the fruits of hatred.
Hatred has led some people to believe that what some say is true must be false, and caused those people to define their false claims as true.
Hatred has led to pardoning the guilty,
Sidestepping necessary accountability,
minimizing and dismissing claims of brutality and abuse against people of color,
denying that racism and prejudice persist among us,
and dividing people in communities to an extent where they no longer speak a common language of values and personal character.
Eternal God, who created us as one worldwide family,
Remind us that Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us
To dispel fear with sincerity, compassion, trust and patience.
To engage in an endless search for the goodness within our fellow human beings, even when that quality might seem elusive.
To shine a light into the darkness of the soul of people around us, so that their eyes will see the shining possibilities of cooperation and partnership.
To share one truth, and then another, and then another, so that there will no longer be room in anyone’s mind for false notions that would lead them astray.
To confront misunderstanding, ignorance and contempt with the power of love.
To see the Unity that You, Our Creator, bring to the universe as
enveloping every single one of us in bonds of essential equality that cannot be broken.
This is our dream, God of justice and righteousness.
This is our mission, Wellspring of hope.
Walk with us, Eternal One, on our continuing journey.
Amen.
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