Echoing a call sounded 40 years ago by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and this week by President Barack Obama, Bishop Anthony Kopka Sunday rallied Stratford residents to come together in community service.
—I ask fellow town residents to join us in offering greater community service in the Town of Stratford. Individually and collectively let us do more from forest to shore,— Kopka, of St. Joseph’s of Stratford National Catholic Church, said during the Stratford Clergy Association’s annual service to honor King, hosted this year by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Bridgeport.
—How many of us in Stratford will strive to do more from forest to shore?— Kopka asked from the pulpit. —My fellow town citizens, I ask you to join my fellow clergy and me in committing to do more from forest to shore, through community service and our neighborly love for each other.—
Kopka, speaking two days before Obama took the oath of office as the nation’s 44th president, pointed out that the first black to hold the highest elected office in the land chose volunteering as the way to spend the holiday that honors King, and in a speech Obama urged others to do the same.
—With the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States —” 40 years from the time of Rev. Dr. King’s death —” we have new hope that life can be better for all Americans,— Kopka said.
America can have a new beginning, Kopka said, because the citizens of this nation can choose to unite under Obama’s leadership to build on the legacy and accomplishments of King.
—Stratfordites, may we always pursue with one another both friendship and understanding,— Kopka said. —Remember, any one of us is capable of offering love to our neighbors and service in the community.—
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Ansonia resident Peter Morse became a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church two years ago and is in the choir.
—It was a fabulous service,— said Morse. —There were a lot of wonderful things said and it all came together very nicely.—
Morse said of the Bishop’s speech, —He was fabulous,— and it is such an amazing time with the inauguration near.
—After all these years we had a woman and a black man running for president,— Morse said. —And one will get nomination and will the election; I was excited through out the election process.—
More added, —To have it happen right after Martin Luther King Day is an incredible thing to see.—
If you want to be important, wonderful! If you want to be recognized, wonderful! If you want to be great, wonderful! But, recognize that ‘he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.’ That’s a new definition of greatness … the thing that I like about it —” by giving that definition of greatness —” it means that: Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.
You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second Theory of Thermal Dynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love, and you can be that servant.
Those words were penned and proclaimed by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his sermon entitled, —The Drum Major Instinct.— You can see those words and hear him —preach it— on the King Center Web site.
The call to serve is also being made by President Barack Obama to the American people. President Obama asked that the celebration of the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., be joined to his inauguration in order to make the community service and social justice accomplishments of the Rev. Dr. King a preeminent focus for Americans.
So we, the members of the Stratford Clergy Association, have agreed to do just that and we invite members of our congregations and our community to join us. On behalf of those clergy, I ask fellow town residents to join us in offering greater community service in the Town of Stratford. Individually and collectively let us do —more from forest to shore.—
In one of his last sermons the Rev. Dr. King spoke about what he believed made up a —full life.— He said of his own eventual passing that, —I’d like somebody to mention on that day: Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others.— In the —Drum Major— sermon he said, —I won’t have money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things in life to leave behind; but I just want to leave a committed life behind.—
Forty years later, we continue to say that he —gave his life serving others— and that he has —left a committed life behind.— His legacy of faith, courage, sacrifice and service; and his accomplishments for justice, peace and a better life for the poor and for the persecuted are what we honor today. May we give thanks to God for this legacy and for these accomplishments and then pledge to continue them.
With the election of an African-American to the Presidency of the United States —” 40 years from the time of the Rev. Dr. King’s death —” we have new hope that life can be better for all Americans. At the inauguration of this new president America can have a new beginning, because we citizens of this great nation can choose to unite under the leadership of President Barack Obama to build on the legacy and accomplishments of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Each of us can accept the Rev. Dr. King’s call to high school students in Philadelphia, when he asked —What’s Your Life’s Blueprint?— He said, —You have a responsibility to seek to make your nation a better nation in which to live. You have a responsibility to seek to make life better for everybody. And so you must be involved in the struggle for freedom and justice.—
Will you accept as your own responsibilities to make our nation a better nation and to make life better for everybody? It is all part of the Rev. Dr. King’s definition of greatness that he learned in the ninth chapter of the Gospel according to Mark where Jesus says to His disciples: —Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your servant.— When each of us serves one another, we can have genuine hope for a better nation and a better life for everybody. We are —great— when we serve each other and as Dr. King said, —Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.—
This kind of community service is based on love. A love that —seeks to preserve and create community— as Dr. King said in his speech entitled —Stride Toward Freedom.— He said: —… we speak of a love, which is expressed in the Greek word, agape. It is a love in which the individual seeks not his own good, but the good of his neighbor.—
That principle is based on the ancient Commandment of God: —Love your neighbor as yourself.— It is a code of conduct that is derived from the codes of the earliest civilizations that states one has a right to just treatment, just as one has the responsibility to treat others justly. It is what we know as the Golden Rule: —Do to others as you would have them do to you.— It is, therefore, an ancient truth; but one that has not yet been embodied and personalized by members of society thousands of years later.
Will we also accept failure for not abiding by this ancient civil right and responsibility? Or, will we try to love and serve our neighbors in our community? How many of us in Stratford will strive to do —more from forest to shore?—
In furthering his explanation of agape —” or the love we are to have for others —” the Rev. Dr. King said in his —Stride Toward Freedom— speech, —It is the love of God operating in the human heart.— He also said: —In the struggle for human dignity, the oppressed people of the world must not succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter or indulging in hate campaigns. To retaliate in kind would do nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate.—
He continued, —Love in this connection means understanding, redemptive good will.— About this agape love he said that it —…makes no distinction between friend and enemy; it is directed to both— and that it —discovers the neighbor in every man it meets.—
My fellow town citizens, I ask you to join my fellow clergy and me in committing to do —more from forest to shore— through community service and our neighborly love for each other.
To help us accomplish this in the times that disagreements may deter us, let us accept as our guiding principles the Six Principles for Nonviolent Social Change promoted by the King Center. They are derived from Rev. Dr. King’s essay, —Letter from Birmingham Jail.— Succinctly they are: 1. Information gathering, 2. Education, 3. Personal Commitment, 4. Negotiations, 5. Direct Action, and 6. Reconciliation.
In particular, during any kind of disagreement, let us be mindful of the following two principles:
In the fourth principle of Negotiations, we are challenged to look for what is positive in every action and statement made by anyone in disagreement. One can do this by not seeking to humiliate anyone who is in disagreement. Instead, one can call forth the good in the opposing person and look for ways in which the person on either side of an argument can come away with winning points.
In the sixth principle of Reconciliation, we are challenged to always seek friendship and understanding with all others. Stratfordites, may we always pursue with one another both friendship and understanding.
Remember, any one of us is capable of offering love to our neighbors and service in the community. As the Rev. Dr. King said, —You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.—
If we want to be sure to succeed and not fail, then, may we turn to God for help. In God we can certainly have a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love. Through and with God we can serve one another. United in God, we can offer —more from forest to shore.— Yes we can!
