Morning By Morning First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia Rev. Abbey Tennis January 15th, :00 AM

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1 First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia Rev. Abbey Tennis January 15th, :00 AM Description: Each day, new choices arise in our lives the choice to hold a grudge or restore a relationship, the choice to choose the easy path or the right path. Each day, we have the chance to use our gifts to make the world a better place. As we honor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. s enduring vision of a better world this weekend, how do we find the strength, morning by morning, day after day, to make the difficult choices needed to create a more loving, more just world? Call to Worship: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote: Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. We gather this morning in the name of Justice, Power, and Love. Come, Let Us Worship Together! Sermon: "I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to the point where I can't face it alone." Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., lifted these words in prayer while sitting at the kitchen table in his home at 309 Jackson Street in Montgomery, Alabama. It was January 27, With a PhD in Systematic theology under his belt already, Dr. King was serving as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and was just about 2 months into leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He had just turned 27. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to the point where I can't face it alone." How many of you have felt this way? Maybe you are feeling this way right now. Dr. King sat down at his kitchen table after receiving a death threat phone call that night. He was already used to death threats, but this one shook him deeply. He hung up the phone, 1

2 walked into the kitchen, with trembling hands put on a pot of coffee and sank down into a chair. I was ready to give up. He writes. With my cup of coffee sitting untouched before me, I tried to think of a way to move out of the picture without appearing a coward. In this state of exhaustion, when my courage had all but gone, I decided to take my problem to God. With my head in my hands, I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud. The words I spoke to God that midnight are still vivid in my memory. "I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to the point where I can't face it alone." At that moment, I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced God before. It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice saying: "Stand up for justice, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever." Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything." The outer situation remained the same, but God had given me the inner calm to face it. 1 ~~~ If Dr. King had lived, today would be his 88 th birthday. His reputation is of a man of courage and conviction, a man of strength and leadership. He was one of the main leaders of a civil rights movement that radically transformed our country, our culture, and the world. Yet we do not often look at his moments of doubt moments of weakness moments of fear and reluctance. As I reflect upon the justice work to which we are called in our own times, completing the unfinished racial and economic justice work of Dr. King and working against all of the injustices only beginning to find voice in his time women s rights, LGBTQ rights, the current state of immigrant injustice and Islamiphobia, and all the other ones, I find it comforting to learn not just about Dr. King s triumphs, but to learn about his humanity the moments when he almost gave up. The moments when he felt he could not go on. 1 Stride Toward Freedom, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 2

3 The justice work needed in our time is overwhelming, but the greatest threat to our success is not opposition, but rather the potential for us to fail at organizing powerfully, meaningfully, and sustainably the potential for us to burn out before we reach our goal. So in the description of today s service, I asked the question: As we honor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. s enduring vision of a better world this weekend, how do we find the strength, morning by morning, day after day, to make the difficult choices needed to create a more loving, more just world? And I will admit that this has been perhaps the most difficult sermon I have written for you so far. Because I resonate too much with the 27-year-old Dr. King. The scale of my work is nothing like his, and thankfully I have not received death threats for my justice work at least not yet. But our political environment is so astoundingly disheartening to me that I sometimes feel that I am at the end of powers. After long days of hard work to build the beloved community, I ll check the news at night and see that things are worse than they were when I checked in the morning. My mind can t fully process the amount of power being poured into building up systems of oppression and tearing down the rights of the marginalized by our leaders right now. My heart is struck dumb in shock and disbelief that this kind of viciousness could be codified into American life after centuries trying to extract it. My spirit is sick with worry for the world that the next generation will inherit; with the precedent this moment in history is setting. They say the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice these times certainly feel like a kink in the moral arc a blip or break in that long curved line and all of the sudden we are sliding together away from justice. As a leader who feels the wave of crushing powerlessness, as I know so many of you feel, I feel Dr. King s words in his kitchen table 61 years ago speaking to me, and to us all. "I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I've come to the point where I can't face it alone." Dr. King felt hopeless, powerless, empty, and alone, and yet we know he found the strength to continue. Several years later he wrote As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation -- either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. 2 Either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. So, how do we find the strength, morning by morning, day after day, to make the difficult choices needed to create a more loving, more just world? How can we transform this 2 27 April 1960 Suffering and Faith Chicago, Ill. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 3

4 suffering not into bitterness but into a creative force? How do we shore up our power? How do we hold onto hope? To whom can we turn when we feel that we have nothing left? I believe we have three choices: Deepen our purpose Expand our relationships Connect ourselves to history both the history we have inherited and the history we are passing on to those who will come after us. That January night, and throughout his life, Dr. King chose to deepen his purpose. Rev. Dr. King spoke of prayer as an essential component of prophetic social witness, and as a vital ingredient in the overall effort to free, humanize, and empower humanity. Dr. King believed prayer changes the pray-er. Universalist pastor Rob Bell writes: What is Prayer? Prayer is ripping open your rib cage, so that your heart can breathe. Anger, rage, joy, euphoria you name it and speak it and give words to it so that it s not churning down there in the depths of your being The good, the violent, all that you want and all that you re grateful for and all that you don t want anyone to know about. You drag it all up and you vent it and confess it and give thanks for it and rant about it as you express it in all its ragged reality. Of course this changes you. How could it not? 3 On that January evening sixty years ago, afraid for his life and the lives of his family, at the end of his powers, and with nothing left, Dr. King ripped open his rib cage so his heart could breathe. He named his fear, named his exhaustion and emptiness, named his vulnerability expressed in all its ragged reality. He laid his soul out on his kitchen table next to his untouched cup of coffee and then he felt the presence of the Divine reassuring him that he was not alone. Prayer renewed his purpose, deepened his connection with the Holy, even if you simply view his prayer as an internal monologue with his subconscious. The outer situation remained the same, he wrote, but God had given me the inner calm to face it. Three days later, his house was bombed. His family barely escaped. "Strangely enough," King later wrote, "I accepted the word of the bombing calmly. My religious experience a few nights before had given me the strength to face it."

5 The outer situation remained the same the th7æ eat on his life was real, he was not safe - but in turning to prayer, he found the inner calm to face it. Of course prayer changes you. How could it not? ~~~ I once heard that, if you find yourself weak and flickering, sometimes you need to unplug and rest for a little while. But sometimes, when we are flickering, we need to plug in closer to the source. I think of that when I find myself compulsively reading through news articles about corruption and espionage and regressive policies and outrageous cabinet appointments. It can make one feel crazy amped up on adrenaline and anger with no creative way to regain a voice in what is happening in the country. I will admit that, when I have been flickering in this way cycling through outrage without a way of making a difference I have sometimes unplugged. I have not been closely following the details of the impending Trump presidency since he was elected because I simply couldn t face each new breach of integrity and compassion. But now I am realizing that instead of unplugging myself, perhaps I need to plug in closer to the source. If I am flickering because I feel powerless while love and justice collapse around me, then maybe plugging in closer to the source would mean nurturing the power I DO have to create justice and seed love where I am. I may not have enormous power to change what is happening in Washington right now, but I do have the chance to be the best minister I can be, the best friend and family member I can be; I have the chance to support the growth of this congregation s justice work so that we can work together to make a bigger difference than any of us could alone. Like King, I can sit down at my table and pray, seeking to connect with my still small voice the voice that stays focused on my purpose no matter how much I flail. ~~~ This takes us to relationships. How else can we find the strength, morning by morning, to make the difficult choices needed to make more loving and just world for the long haul? We join together. Dr. King wrote whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula of doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh's 5

6 court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. 5 But it goes deeper than simply joining together. Developing the kind of relationships that allow us to show our full selves strengths and weaknesses, gifts and shortcomings that allow us to show our full selves and still be loved builds a kind of soul resilience within us. Finding or building communities that honor the full complexities of us as I hope this community does means that support is available when we need it if we just ask. It means that someone will hold us accountable when we falter. It means we see others for who they truly are not a projection of who we want them to be and we learn from them. And it means they are transformed by us. On a large scale or small, this is what meaningful relationships and supportive community offer us. Someone to listen when we are weak and ready to give up, and someone to tell us to hold on, - that we are not alone. Between purpose and relationship, yet somehow beyond them as well, is History. ~~~ Rituals like the celebration of Martin Luther King day allow us to draw inspiration from our history. When we look at the challenges faced by our forebears, and their ability to prevail, it can connect us into the long line of justice makers, going back throughout time. Even a leader we see as a hero like Dr. King was simply a fragile and flawed human being like any other. Sometimes he wanted to quit. Sometimes he worried that he couldn t win. Sometimes he made the wrong decision and people were harmed. But Dr. King found a way to build his resilience and to respond to his suffering not with reactive bitterness but with creative force. Perhaps no one in this room will be the famous justice hero that Dr. King was, but each one of us can build our own resilience, each one of us can choose to respond to suffering with reactive bitterness or creative force. We must do it not simply for ourselves, but for the next generation. So their future is brighter and so, when they flicker, when they falter, when they feel like they have come to the end of their powers an want to give up, they remember us. They remember our resilience. They remember our ability to rise up again and again and keep building justice and sowing love no matter what happens in the world around us. Purpose, Relationship, and History. 5 3 April 1968 I ve Been to the Mountaintop Memphis, Tenn.Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 6

7 Each united by a sense of love flowering within us, between us, beyond us, back through time and forward through the ages. I know many of you feel discouraged like I do, and like Dr. King once did. I know many of you, like me and at one time like Dr. King, are flickering and just want to unplug. I know many of you, like me an like Dr. King, are worried about the state of our country and the safety of our friends and family. But when we are looking to build our spiritual strength, the question to focus on is not what keeps you up at night? The question to focus on is what gets you up in the morning? Our music director John B will sing an old hymn for you in a moment Great is Thy Faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies appear. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. I used to think that song was about being faithful to God, and it never meant that much to me based on my relationship with the holy. But one day, I shifted one tiny word in the hymn moving Lord to Love and it became a song of spiritual renewal. A song about Love s faithfulness to me. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies appear. All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Love, unto me. No matter how discouraged or downtrodden I feel, even when old loves have fallen away and new ones have not yet arrived, morning by morning new mercies still appear. All I have needed, love has provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Love, unto me. What keeps me up at night? Injustice. What wakes me up in the morning? Love. In Dr. King s final speech, after talking briefly about threats on his life, he said these words: Well, I don't know what will happen now; we've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter to with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. 7

8 And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. 6 Dr. King was assassinated the next day. We will never know what our world would have been like, had he lived. But I suspect, if he were able to live longer, he might say something like Nelson Mandela said at the end of his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom: I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended. 7 We who believe in freedom will spend our lives climbing those great hills and mountains only to find that there are many more hills ahead to climb. We may rest for the night, admiring the beauty, looking back on how far we have come. But if we are to lead meaningful lives, our work for justice will not end. Pause. Reach within. Pull close those around you and connect to those who came before and those who will come after. Great is the faithfulness of Love unto thee. Morning by morning, new mercies will appear. Amen. 6 3 April 1968 I ve Been to the Mountaintop Memphis, Tenn. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 7 Long Road to Freedom, Nelson Mandela 8