Martin Luther King Day, Inauguration

This week my thoughts and prayers are with our president.

Watching the inauguration Tuesday was incredible-even more so was looking at the faces of the other people who were also watching. I watched it on CNN.com, and the shots of the faces of the crowd were more moving than the words that anyone spoke.  

On Sunday, we heard stories about vocation in our Scriptures. I was reflecting with you about how it seems like our nation is living into the vocation it set for itself at its founding, as a place of freedom and equality. 

And in Martin Luther King week no less-about 45 people gathered for the Waltham Interfaith Service on Sunday (for a link to the article in the Tribune and a photo of our own Otho Kerr, see below) and we heard prayers and thanksgivings for King's work.  At our education forum on Sunday, Norm Faramelli shared part of King's "I have a dream" speech (the part we don't hear as often): 

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

There is still so far to go in the cause for equality for everyone-racism is a sin that we are still susceptible to-but our new president is a sign of a promise that many of us never thought we'd see in our lifetime. So much work has been done, by Dr King and the civil rights movement, by those before him and those who went after, to make this moment possible.  The poet Elizabeth Alexander's Praise Song articulated how each small movement of "repairing the things in need of repair" is part of the praise of the day, but also worthy of praise in itself.  She read,

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.. . . What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance. . .  In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

Our country has a hard task ahead of itself-inequality continues in so many ways, and war and economic anxiety threaten us all. Jobs have been lost, retirements postponed, illnesses gone untreated. But today, as Alexander said, "Anything can be made, any sentence begun." 

What is the sentence we are beginning to speak? With our tongues, with our lives?  President Obama spoke of the call to service, giving to our community.  For the Christian, that is nothing new; the recognition that we don't live for ourselves is part of the fabric of our faith.  What is interesting about now is how that dialogue is happening in a national way. I saw an ad for Starbucks today promising me a free cup of coffee to pledge 5 hours of volunteering time. (What would be really interesting is if Starbucks pledged to pay every single one of their coffee growers and sellers a living wage!) 

Good for Starbucks-but even better for those who, like many of you, have served and will continue to do so.  But it's as good a time as any to ask the question-how will we be changed by this new day (if in fact it is one, and I do think it is)?  How will we serve? How will we celebrate? How will we live?  How will we help to redeem that bad check that Dr King talked about, to examine and repent for the sins of prejudice that wound?  How will the "sharp sparkle of today" give birth to a wider generosity tomorrow?