“He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord”  – Luke 4:18,19.

                Howard Thurman was a theologian and minister.   Thurman’s commitment to a society that was spiritually and physically integrated, along with his commitment to the principles of Gandhi’s non-violence served as a great influence to  Dr. Martin Luther King.

                 While  Howard Thurman  was Dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University he sent Martin Luther King and his wife Coretta Scott King his 1955 volume on spirituality entitled, Deep River.     In the book he wrote “To the Kings – the test of life is often found in the amount  of pain we can absorb without spoiling our joy.”  I think that Thurman in this note to the Kings was able to convey a perfect definition of true hope that he saw manifested in Dr.Martin Luther King and other great spiritual leaders.

                We are bidding the Season of Christmas farewell for another year.  And yet, this message of hope is one that the long-awaited Messiah came to proclaim.  Jesus came to reach out to all persons, in their joy and sorrow with the purpose of sustaining their hope and reminding them that every person is a beloved child of God.  As Christians, we are called to continue this work – the story of Christmas was  just the beginning of all our stories.  Howard Thurman, a mentor of the late Martin Luther King expressed all our roles as disciples, as lights of hope and liberators in his following poem:

     THE WORK OF CHRISTMAS

            When the star in the sky is gone,
When the Kings and Princes are all home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The Work of Christmas begins.
To find the lost,
 To heal the broken,
 To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To teach the nations,
 To bring Christ to all, 
To make music in the heart.

 Much peace in 2012 as you continue the Work of Christmas in the coming year.