ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
January 17, 2022
Prayer for the Week
Theodore Parker wrote, “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would borrow from those words when he proclaimed, “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
When the days are long and movement appears almost undetectable, we must look to you, O Persistent God. We honor those who refused to give up when hope appeared crushed as the status quo was revered and protected. We give thanks for those who found a way when there was no apparent way. By faith, they walked and marched and sang. Your presence was seen in the vision and the methods, the destination and path chosen. They did not seek to crush their enemy, but change hearts and alter the trajectory of a society. We are inspired by the lives of those who gave so much to the ways of nonviolence, and we seek the same tenacious faith that gave witness to that ever so small bend in the moral universe. Amen.
