My brother’s keeper

In her message to the National Prayer Service, the Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins called the president and the nation to greet the worst of times with loving generosity of spirit:

America’s true character, the source of our national wisdom and strength, is rooted in a generous and hopeful spirit.

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, . . .
Send these, the homeless, tempest‐tost to me, …”

Emma Lazarus’ poetry is spelled out further by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty‐eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy . . . I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made.”

Often addressing President Barack Obama directly, she ranged across native American myth, Biblical prophets, Muslim scholarship and historic values. She called upon the president to lead us on the right path, and cast these as times that can teach us what we really are as a nation:

A land of abundance guided by a God of abundance, generosity, and hope – This is our heritage. This is America’s promise which we fulfill when we reach out to each other.

The entire sermon is here (.pdf).