Thursday, January 24, 2013
For MLK Interfaith Event at Heinz Chapel on the University of Pitt Campus
Greetings,
my name is Joel Gilbertson-White. I am the coordinator for the
Unitarian Universalist Campus Community at First Unitarian Church of
Pittsburgh. My other role at First Unitarian is working as our
Social Justice Coordinator, so it gives me great pleasure to be here
tonight, for the invocation of this Interfaith event commemorating
the life of Martin Luther King, Jr -- a leader who played a pivotal
role in helping bend the arc of the universe toward justice.
This is a critical time for justice – as much as ever, people's lives are on the line – in Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, the United States, and the world. And you are the young adults and the people who care, with energy, passion, and strong dreams about things that really matter. I pray each of us will firmly remember our time together today, on January 18, 2013, and hear this day call to you to bring the people in your life together for the issues that most make you come alive – be it racial equity, gender equity, a just distribution of wealth, safe streets, marriage rights, or any of scores of other issues that would benefit from our attention.
And as we do that, I beseech that you consider your passions more than your thoughts of duty to action that you've been told you should, or that you think you should be doing. Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman played an influential part in the ministry of Dr. King. He said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” May this be our year to more fully come alive, and bring others to life!
This is a critical time for justice – as much as ever, people's lives are on the line – in Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, the United States, and the world. And you are the young adults and the people who care, with energy, passion, and strong dreams about things that really matter. I pray each of us will firmly remember our time together today, on January 18, 2013, and hear this day call to you to bring the people in your life together for the issues that most make you come alive – be it racial equity, gender equity, a just distribution of wealth, safe streets, marriage rights, or any of scores of other issues that would benefit from our attention.
And as we do that, I beseech that you consider your passions more than your thoughts of duty to action that you've been told you should, or that you think you should be doing. Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman played an influential part in the ministry of Dr. King. He said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” May this be our year to more fully come alive, and bring others to life!
I
will close with this charge from the classical Sanskrit Poet
Kalidasa,
“Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
“Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In
its brief course lie all the verities
and
realities of your existence:
The
bliss of growth,
The
glory of action,
The
splendor of beauty;
For
yesterday is but a dream,
And
tomorrow is only a vision;
But
today, well lived, makes every yesterday
A
dream of happiness
And
every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look
well, therefore, to this day!
Here
and now is the only time for accomplishment. May today's
accomplishment be the commitment of our hearts and minds to Rev. Dr.
King's vision, and making plans to make the dreams real. May our
gathering together in community be a blessing to the world. Amen.
Labels: anti-oppression, favorite scriptural passages, inter-faith, prayer, prophetic voices, racism
