• Calls to Worship
• Prayers of Confession
• A Litany of Thanksgiving and Praise
• A Litany of Celebration
• An Affirmation
• Closing Prayer 

Calls to Worship

Call to Worship

Sisters and brothers, rejoice.
We live sustained by God's presence and love.
Thanks be to God.
As we mourn the wounds of God's children,
God weeps with us.
As we give thanks for brothers and sisters who have lived in faith,
God gives thanks with us.
As we struggle for justice,
God struggles with us.
As we strive for peace,
God strives with us.
As we work to build the beloved community,
God works with us.
As we offer our gifts to all,
God blesses us.
Sisters and brothers, rejoice.
Sustained by God's presence and love we worship God.

Call to Worship

God created all the races and nations of the world and willed that we live together in peace and harmony. 

We were made to be family. 

There is strife in the human family; injustice abounds as racism, classism, sexism, cultural imperialism and other isms.  We are a divided people. 

We have been called to let justice roll down like waters.   

We must work passionately to bridge the gulf between us, overcome the injustices that oppress us, and restore community among us. 

We must be determined enough to change what we can.  We must have the courage to accept what we cannot change.  Above all, we must be wise enough to know the difference 

Call to Worship 

(from Psalm 82 and Amos 5) 

A VOICE: God said: "How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?" 

A VOICE: God said: "Give justice to the weak and the parentless child; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute." 

A VOICE: God said: "Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." 

A VOICE: God said: "I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Take away the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps.  But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream."

ALL:  Rise up, O God, judge the earth; for all the nations belong to you!

Prayers Of Confession  

Prayer Of Confession  

Most Holy and merciful God: we have condemned racial injustice in our pronouncement, yet we cling to the privileges derived from social inequities.  All to often we are blind to our complicity in maintaining systems of oppression and deferring the hopes and dreams of the oppressed for freedom.  Give us the courage to name our sin, give us the strength to claim responsibility for our actions.  Give us the grace to pay the price for changing our behavior.  Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. 

Prayer Of Confession

Most holy and merciful God: we acknowledge and confess our slowness to do good, our blindness to injustice, and our complicity in deferring the dreams and hopes of the oppressed.  We have refused to heed your call to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with you, our God. 

We condemn racial injustice in our pronouncements, yet we cling to the privileges derived from inequity.  When we ought to be ashamed of our failures, we prefer to cling to private, selfish, imprisoning desires.  We participate in our own oppression. 

Help us to name our sin, to claim responsibility for our actions, and to change our behavior.  In accordance with the commands of Jesus Christ our savior, shake us from our sleep with you imperative to do justice; move us to action with the compassion of your grace; and give us courage to pay the price, however painful or costly, that the justice you will, may be done, on earth as in heaven.  Amen. 

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. 
It is right to give God thanks and praise. 

God of all races and nations,
we praise you for all your faithful servants
who have done justice, loved mercy,
and walked humbly with their God.
For apostles, martyrs, leaders, and saints,
and for humble folk whose names were never in the news,
but are recorded in your book of life, 

We give you thanks, O God. 

Especially this day we thank you for Martin Luther King Jr.,
for his courage and conviction, for his passion for peace,
and for his tireless quest of a nation that keeps faith with its promises, 

We give you thanks, O God. 

For Coretta Scott King and the King family; for the memory of Martin Luther King Sr. and Mrs. King; for Medgar Evers, Rosa Parks, James Meredith, Malcolm X, and countless others who stood in the front lines and marched, integrated schools and restaurants, or sat in buses and refused to move, 

We give you thanks, O God. 

For nameless multitudes who suffered the tortures of slavery and the tyranny of oppression, who were beaten, raped, and lynched; and for the nameless multitudes today whose lives are stunted and cut short by economic and social structures of brutality. 

We grieve and promise to work for justice, O God. 

And for children, women, and men of every race who are denied education, health care, jobs, housing, and hope in our land, 

We grieve and promise to work for justice, O God. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. 

Amen. 

Litany of Celebration

LEADER: Martin King had a dream.  The ideals of justice and freedom and the belief that all are created equal in the eyes of God are noble principles.  But they are meaningless unless they become the personal possession of each one of us. 

ALL: For Zion's sake I will not keep silent.  I will struggle with myself.  I will not rest until the dream of justice and freedom becomes my personal dream.  I must realize that I am not an innocent bystander.  I can help realize the dream by my action, or delay it by in inaction. 

LEADER: Martin's dream of a day when people from all races and nations, eve the offsprings of slaves and former slave owners, can sit at a table as brothers and sisters and find ways of transforming their differences into assets.  That was Martin's dream.  What is your dream? 

ALL: My dream is that one day soon I will find a way to stop just celebrating the dream and start living it.  It must become a part of my daily life; or nothing much will change. 

LEADER: The dream is not about an ideal world; it is about the real world.  Martin King's poetic refrain, "I Have a Dream," is a call for us to remember the real world where injustice abounds.

ALL: When I am in the shelter of my home I must remember the homeless.  When I eat, I must remember the hungry.  When I feel secure I must remember the insecure.  When I see injustice I must remember that it will not stop unless I stop it.

LEADER:  I have a dream! 

ALL: I also have a dream.  I have a dream that the Holy Spirit will arouse in me that very flame of righteousness that caused Martin King to become a living sacrifice for the freedom and liberation of all of God's Children.  Then I will be able to resist racial injustice everywhere I see it, even within myself.

I refuse to believe that we are unable to influence the events which surround us. 

I refuse to believe that we are so bound to racism and war, that peace, brotherhood and sisterhood are not possible.  

I believe there is an urgent need for people to overcome oppression and violence, without resorting to violence and oppression. 

I believe that we need to discover a way to live together in peace, a way which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of this way is love. 

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.  I believe that right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. 

I believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. 

I believe that what self-centered people have torn down, other-centered people can build up. 

By the goodness of God at work within people, I believe that brokenness can be healed.  "And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and everyone will sit under their own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid."

Closing Prayer

Gracious God, you create us and love us; you make us to live together in a community.  We thank you for Martin Luther King, Jr. and all your children who have been filled with your vision for our lives and who have worked to make bring your vision into reality.  Fill us with your vision.  Guide us to live by your vision, working to build the beloved community where everyone is welcomed, all are valued, power is shared, privilege is no more, and all your children know wholeness and well-being.  Through Jesus Christ we pray.  Amen.