This morning, I had the privilege of attending an interfaith prayer meeting in Lakewood to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The turnout was excellent and drew from the ranks of the community’s Protestant, Catholic and Jewish communities.  Black and white, lay and clergy, all gathered to renew their commitment to the ideals that King championed over his too-short lifetime.

An accomplished religious scholar, King was one of the most thoughtful and important American political philosophers of the last century.  In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” one of his most powerful works, dated April 16, 1963, Dr. King explained that those who fought for civil rights “were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.”

King made us realize that discrimination against one group of Americans was a violation of our country’s most sacred value: equality. He also understood that a nation cannot truly be free if some of its people live in a state of economic insecurity and impoverishment, while others enjoy great affluence and comfort.  This was a theme he visited in many of his later writing and speeches, and one that surely resonates today.

As one of the speakers at the Lakewood prayer meeting wisely advised, we need to celebrate Dr. King’s life every day - not just one day; and we need to find new ways to keep his legacy alive.