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Monday, January 21, 2008
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Today is the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. I am at work today (no rest for the weary around here), but this has been on mind since last week, because of the election, of course, and one of his sermon's was the topic of yesterday's Homily at church (ohh, going regularly is one of my New Years Resolutions - I mentioned yesterday that I've been thinking a lot about faith lately, right?). Here is a link to the text of the sermon that was discussed yesterday: The Drum Major Instinct. The Pastor yesterday made sure to point out that this sermon was given exactly two months before he died, on February 4th, 1968.
I think the topic of this sermon, while different from the usual clips we get from Dr. King around this time of year, is of particular interest to me, given my mood lately. If you don't have time to read the whole thing (it is long), here are two passages that have given me pause:
"And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, (Everybody) because everybody can serve. (Amen) You don't have to have a college degree to serve. (All right) You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. (Amen) You only need a heart full of grace, (Yes, sir, Amen) a soul generated by love. (Yes) And you can be that servant."
The second one:
"If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. (Yes) And every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize—that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards—that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. (Yes)
"I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. (Yes)
"I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.
"I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. (Amen)
"I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. (Yes)
"And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. (Yes)
"I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. (Lord)
"I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. (Yes)
"Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. (Amen) Say that I was a drum major for peace. (Yes) I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. (Yes) I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. (Amen) And that's all I want to say."
I hope that wasn't too preachy for any of you. Just because I'm going to church these days, doesn't mean you all have to come with me. It's just timely, given the day.
Ohh, and I think the words in italics were spoken by the congregation, but maybe they were part of Dr. King's sermon? I guess I could just listen to the audio, if I really wanted to know!
- Lizzardie, at 2:13 PM
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