Gathering Music
We Need a Revolution – Miller – Inspired by Dorothy Day
Introduction to the Service
Jonathan Golden
Opening Song
Lift Every Voice and Sing
James Weldon Johnson
- Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring,
ring with the harmonies of liberty;
let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies,
let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us;
sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
let us march on till victory is won. - Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,
felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our forebears sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered;
we have come, treading our path thru the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. - God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
thou who hast by thy might led us into the light,
keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee;
lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee;
shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand,
true to our God, true to our native land.
Opening Prayer
Hyunjun Jung
Adapted from Thou, Dear God: Prayers that Open Hearts and Spirits (edited by Lewis V. Baldwin, Beacon Press, 2012)
Leader: O God, we thank you for the lives of great saints and prophets in the past, who have revealed to us that we can stand up amid the problems and difficulties and trials of life and not give in. We thank you for our foreparents, who’ve given us something in the midst of the darkness of exploitation and oppression to keep going. Grant that we will go on with the proper faith and the proper determination of will, so that we will be able to make a creative contribution to this world.
All: Amen.
Scripture Reading
Amos 5:14 -15, 21-24
Dohee Woo
14 Seek good and not evil,
that you may live,
and so the God of hosts will be with you,
just as you have said.
15 Hate evil and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
21 I hate, I despise your festivals,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them,
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
I will not look upon.
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs;
I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
24 But let justice roll down like water
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Leader: The Word of God for the people of God.
All: Thanks be to God.
Sermon
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “American Dream” speech (excerpts)
Readers: In King’s own voice – https://archive.org/details/the-american-dream-mlk-jr – Part 2: 1:37-3:36
Lynn Van Nosdall, Carrie-Lee Farham, Abraham Sudeep Oommen, Zahra Darwish, Dobyo Amos, Lerato Pitso, Grailin Simmons, Janice Marie Beauchamp
Musical Response
Only Love – Tice/Miller
Violence only leads to violence.
Hatred only leads to hate.
Violence only leads to violence.
Hatred only leads to hate.
Only love, only love,
Only love leads to love, only love.
Only love, only love,
Only love leads to love, only love.
Blessing
King’s Speech excerpt: https://archive.org/details/the-american-dream-mlk-jr – Part 4, 3:14 to end
Sending Song
We Shall Overcome – Negro Spiritual
- We shall overcome, we shall overcome,
we shall overcome someday!
Oh, deep in my heart I do believe
we shall overcome someday! - We’ll walk hand in hand.
- We shall all be free.
- We shall live in peace.
Drew Theo Chapel 