Associate Conference Minister Rev. Sara Marean of the New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ offered the following invocation on 1/20/2025 at the 43rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration:
God, today we are going to lift our voices and sing till earth and mountain ring! Today we are going to experience joy like a fountain and peace like a river. Today we are going to bring good news to the oppressed and proclaim this the year of God’s favor. You have brought us together in this time and this place and we sing, we shout, we lift our hearts in gratitude for this gathered body and the ways the spirit is present, moving, shaking, propelling us on toward new and wondrous things. For this is the spirit the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. felt, shared, and bestowed upon the world during his lifetime, and it is this same spirit that has been carried on in his name and memory to this day.
And, like Martin Luther King, we sing, we pray, we speak not from a place of naivete or innocence, nor a place of denial or obliviousness. For, we know the mountains we must climb, we know the battles ahead, we know all too well what faces us. But, just as those who have experienced the harsh past before us, we too will insist on joy as our right, we will count on hope as our resistance, we will lean into love as our resilience in the face of all that would try to wear us down, that would try to defeat us, that would try to tell us that we cannot, we will not and we should not. We will hear your voice in those around us today, and together we will persist.
So Holy One, be with us in these moments. Help us to hold onto the grace and power that your disciple the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. displayed through his ministry and leadership. Help us to name and lift up the countless others who have paved the way for us, and are even now fighting the good fight for justice, for compassion, for freedom, for your way of love in the face of so much hate. Help us to know, Spirit of love, that you hold us in your hands, giving our voices volume and power, and the ability to change minds, to open hearts, to be your presence for those in need. Bring us together united in one vision that this world might become the kindom you want for all of us. We pray with joy and hope in our hearts. Amen.