Rev. Leigh Dry of Hopkinton (Methodist)

Inspired by the Inauguration 2009 Sermons and Orations Project of the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center, the Globe invited local clergy to e-mail the texts of inauguration-related sermons and prayers for posting here on the Articles of Faith religion blog. You can find all of the submissions by clicking on the Inauguration Sermons category in the blog’s right rail.

Sermon by the Rev. Leigh Dry, pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Hopkinton.

"All week, a song has been playing in my head. It is not a hymn, but a folksong from the sixties. Perhaps you know it.

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Bob Dylan wrote these lyrics in September and October of 1963. He opened his concert on November 23, 1963, just one day after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Reflecting on that moment, Dylan said, "I thought, 'Wow, how can I open with that song? I'll get rocks thrown at me.' But I had to sing it, my whole concert takes off from there. I know I had no understanding of anything. Something had just gone haywire in the country and they were applauding the song. And I couldn't understand why they were clapping, or why I wrote the song. I couldn't understand anything. For me, it was just insane."

Sometimes we find ourselves doing things in the moment that we don’t really comprehend. We’re not really sure why the thing we might say, or the lyrics we might sing, or the prophecy that we give is important. Yet, somehow, it resonates with others. It moves them, changes them, or connects them with their deepest emotions.

In these circumstances, we aren’t really the movers. It is God doing a new thing: God whispering in our ear, or calling to us as we sleep in our beds or in our pews. “Wake up” that dangerous voice calls. “Samuel, wake up! I am about to do something that will make both ears of anyone who hears it tingle.”

And so goes Dylan’s song…

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Tomorrow we will remember the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. His life made such a deep impression on our national consciousness, so much so that many of us will honor that life here in Hopkinton by celebrating the “Day of Giving Back” in his honor. Yet, the synthesis of his views and ideas came from a most unlikely source. A frail, aristocratic, church-going white woman named Juliette Hampton Morgan, who, for years had been writing prophetic articles in the Montgomery Advertiser about abusive practices of whites toward blacks. But it was her article about the Montgomery bus boycott that helped King to articulate his philosophy of social justice and nonviolent protest.

Juliette Morgan’s extreme stand on civil rights was dangerous voice in a society so focused on preserving the status quo. Yet, Morgan’s outcry came from a higher power. She heard that dangerous voice of God calling out to her, and couldn’t help but prophesy with her pen and hope that the times might be a changin’.

According to King’s own memoir, the frail, God loving librarian couldn’t tolerate the ostracism and condemnation of the white community, and so would die a year and a half later. But first, God would use her to shape and mold the upheaval of American society. “Juliette, wake up. I am about to do something that will make the ears of anyone who hears it tingle.”

And the song goes on…

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

And this week all the years of struggle, all the pain, the blood and tears, come to magnificent climax at the inauguration of our first African American president. It is a historic time in our nation’s history. We have gone from the inhumanity of slavery, to the extreme discrimination of separate but equal, to voting rights, and complete civil rights with the undertones of white privilege. Yet on Tuesday, we will swear in a black man to the highest elected office in the land. We have heard that dangerous voice of God throughout American history. We have heard God say “I am doing something that will make your ears tingle.” And even though many people have clasped their hands over their ears, others in the past 50 years have heard the voice loud and clear: a dangerous voice that turns the status quo upside down.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

As we stand at this place in our American history, we may be exhilarated, or we may, like Eli, be resigned to the truth. “It is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him.” Yet, I hope that we will also look soberly to the future. Because, my friends, the change doesn’t end here. It will continue to call us, to wake us from our sleep, to shake our windows and rattle our walls until justice is given to all people. People, called by God, will write prophetic songs and articles, speak prophetic words, and perform prophetic deeds until “justice rolls down like waters” (Amos 5:24).

God’s voice is a dangerous one. When we hear it we are forced to change the status quo. The pleasant and comprehensible ideas of safety and security give way to the risks of equality, humanity and fairness. On the eve of Martin Luther King Day, may we all be awakened by the dangerous voice of God.

AMEN"