 Friends, the grace of Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Today we celebrate and honor the life and social impact of one of the most influential and enduring leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Whenever I reflect on the significance of MLK Day, I find myself awed by the continued relevance of his message of acceptance, equality, unity, and justice, particularly in the wake of the divisions that exist and continue to widen in our world. The social, relational, and spiritual impact of the chronic animosity and divisiveness experienced in our churches, communities, nation, and world is draining and can lead to hopelessness. Dr. King experienced the despairs of a never-ending struggle to arrive at the beloved community in which everyone is cared for, absent of poverty, hunger, and hate. He always kept faith, never gave up hope, and acted out of love. I've always admired Dr. King's spiritually grounded, gritty, and truth-telling oratorical power and eloquence. He reminded a very divided nation in his day that all God's children are persons of sacred worth with a divine right to achieve their God-given potential. He moved governments to justice with the power of his words. His words captured the pain and the hopes of people and lifted the country to new heights of peaceful possibilities. Scripture says that our words had the power of life and death. They can lift or crush people's hopes. They can heal or wound. They can unify or divide. They can create new worlds or destroy an existing one. Jesus said that what comes out of our mouth proceeds from our heart. Dr. King's words mattered then and they still matter today, just as do yours and mine. But Martin Luther King Jr. was not all about talk. He was also a person of action. His vision for the beloved community is still a beacon of light, a possible dream that lies on the horizon, a community built on love for which we must continue to actively strive for as disciples of Christ and members of the global human community. In my MLK Day message last year, I suggested that one way we can honor the healing and unifying words and work of Dr. King is to prayerfully examine our own words and work, to ensure that our words and our work value and care for those with which we speak, to seek to grow connections with each other, to build trust and offer hope, and most importantly, that they reflect the spirit of Christ that lives in us. This year, I invite all of us to honor Dr. King's legacy by putting our words into action and actively work for justice and mercy for all. Justice and mercy are more than an academic exercise, or an optional ethical extra for a disciple of Christ, or the last question for human reality. Justice and mercy are deeply grounded in God's moral character and love for all humanity and creation. They are corrective to all cruelty and justice, oppression and exploitation. Whenever a child, youth or adult is baptized in church, we vow as disciples of Christ to renounce the spiritual forces of witness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of our sin. We accept the freedom and power God gives us to resist evil injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves. We will honor our baptismal vows as disciples of Jesus Christ and the ongoing legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King this year by doing whatever we can, no matter how small it may seem to resist the evils of racism, inequity and injustice. I pray that together our words will lead us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling in Jesus Christ, showing ourselves to be God's peace-making children that are for God's healing for a broken and divided world. May it be so on this MLK Day and always peace.