Silence and Silencing

Reference

Mark 1: 21-28

Sermon Notes

We are entering into Black History Month – where we celebrate the contributions and perseverance of Black Canadians. Online events here Anglican journal online

African American activist, contemplative and scholar Dr. Howard Thurman, from his book Meditations from the Heart:

I seek the strength to overcome evil.

I seek the strength to overcome the tendency to evil in my own heart.

I recognize the tendency to do the unkind thing when the mood of retaliation or

revenge rides high in my spirit;

I recognize the tendency to make of others a means to my own ends;

I recognize the tendency to yield to fear and cowardice when fearlessness and

courage seem to fit easily into the pattern of my security.

I seek the strength to overcome the tendency to evil in my own heart.

I seek the strength to overcome the evil that is present all about me.

I recognize the evil in much of the organized life about me;

I recognize the evil in the will to power as found in groups, institutions and individuals;

I recognize the terrible havoc of hate and bitterness which makes for fear and panic in the common life.

I seek the strength to overcome the evil that is present all about me. I seek the strength to overcome evil; I must not be overcome by evil.

I seek the purification of my own heart, the purging of my own motives;

I seek the strength to withstand the logic of bitterness, the terrible divisiveness of hate, the demonic triumph of the conquest of others;

What I seek for myself I desire with all my heart for friend and foe alike.

I seek the strength to overcome evil.