Letter from Amy: January 21, 2026

Our intrepid hikers braving the cold!

Dear Incarnation,

Happy belated Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, friends! I loved seeing the photos from the urban hike that some members of our church took around the tidal basin and the MLK memorial.

Some of you know that I share a birthday with Dr. King. Growing up, my parents often encouraged me to honor this coincidence by living in a way congruent with King’s legacy. (Conversely, my son shares a birthday with Snoop Dogg, and I sincerely hope he feels no such obligation.)

While I cannot possibly live up to Dr. King’s legacy, I can do what Monday’s national holiday encourages us all to do: remember and reflect so that his life’s work continues to shape our moral imagination.

To that end, every year I re-read King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, and every year I feel the sting of his disappointment with “the white church and its leadership.” Lord, have mercy.

If you haven’t read this letter, I encourage you to do so. It’s an excellent introduction to King’s work, and it feels especially poignant this year against the backdrop of escalating conflicts both inside and outside our national borders.

King’s words and actions show us what it looks like when one person is determined to follow Jesus’ way of cruciform love, no matter the cost, for the sake of others. And his legacy raises questions that are worthy of our annual wrestling and reflection:

How might God be calling us to love our neighbors and our enemies, in both word and action? How might we follow King’s example of loving nonviolence? How might we refuse to see our “enemies” as objects of scorn or hatred, but as beloved people for whom Jesus died? How might we resist both complacent inaction on the one hand, and despair, violence, and outrage on the other, in the face of injustice? How might we accept suffering as God’s way of teaching and shaping us into the people he is calling us to become?

I do not know all the answers, but I invite us to consider the questions as we seek to follow Jesus more faithfully in our world. I am so grateful for our church community in which we can pray, study scripture, and ask tough questions together.

I will close with a collect for Dr. King from Our Church Speaks, an illustrated book of saints (written and illustrated by clergy in our diocese!) that I have really been enjoying over the past few months:

O God, who created all peoples in your image and raised up your servant Martin Luther King, Jr., as a voice of reconciliation: we thank you for the diversity of races and cultures in this world Show us your presence in those who differ from us, and enrich our lives with their fellowship, until your knowledge of your love is made perfect in our love for all your children, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

With love,

Amy

p.s. Yes, snow is coming! We are watching the weather and will be in touch by early morning Sunday if church plans shift — I'm preparing to stretch some dormant pandemic muscles for a participatory Zoom service if needed!