Prayer at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Birmingham, Alabama on the Occasion of the 35th Anniversary of the bombing
\nBy James R. Barnette<\/p>\n
[Dr. Barnette is Minister to Samford University and is Interim Pastor at the Southside Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.]<\/p>\n
O God who sees us through the wilderness,<\/p>\n
We acknowledge with weary hearts
\nthat one score and fifteen years was not too long ago.
\nIndeed, O God, one score and fifteen years is frightfully recent.<\/p>\n
And so, call us back to just yesterday-
\nJust yesterday when a dream deferred exploded
\nJust yesterday when a voice was heard in Ramah
\nJust yesterday when worship turned to wailing
\nJust yesterday when white dresses were blood-spattered<\/p>\n
Just yesterday when we wept and raged
\nJust yesterday when You wept and raged with us.<\/p>\n
And yet, O God, even in that wilderness
\nof smoke and stone
\nof blood and brokenness
\nof hared and cowardice<\/p>\n
You turned our hearts toward Canaan,
\nAnd you promised again
\na day of reckoning, and
\na day of being reconciled.<\/p>\n
But we confess, O God, that the smoke has not cleared,
\nThat still we see Lady Justice through a glass too darkly,
\nThat we still have miles to go
\nbefore our throats are cooled by the milk of justice
\nbefore our tongues savor the sweet honey of righteousness
\nbefore you let it all roll down in a thundering stream.<\/p>\n
And until that Day, O God,
\nRemind us that the day is young,
\nThat just yesterday
\nDenise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley
\nCame here to help lead a worship service
\nand instead helped lead a Movement.
\nAnd that just yesterday
\ntheir deaths breathed new light
\ninto our Journey toward Canaan.<\/p>\n
We gather tonight, O God, to take another step toward that Blessed Land.
\nAnd so, in shared step we say together,<\/p>\n
Amen, and Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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