Mary Baldwin University’s 35th annual
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration
First Presbyterian Church, Staunton, Va.
January 19, 2026
A little over a decade ago, I packed my car and drove more than 630 miles from Virginia west to Memphis, Tennessee, there on the banks of the Mississippi River – a city I barely knew, but lived and worked in for the next two years and came to deeply love – the city where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached his last sermon and drew his last breath.
A reporter told me, not long after I’d moved there, that Memphis is a city that has a soul, and I believe him. I believe that Dr. King’s words and life’s work are deep in the soul of that city, a soul that sings on Beale Street, that stood in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, that echoes in the Lorraine Motel, now the National Civil Rights Museum, a place that tells the story of Dr. King’s work of civil rights, and the stories of those he inspires to carry that work on into a new century.
Yesterday I preached about holy ground – that holy ground is holy because it holds both heartbreak and hope. Memphis is holy ground. Selma is holy ground. The Birmingham jail is holy ground. Ferguson, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. are holy ground. All of these places where heartbreak and hope continue to be present – places where there is injustice and conflict, yes, and places where people have stood up and are standing up for what is just and good and right and grounded in love.
“Something is happening in Memphis,” Dr. King said that night he preached his last. “Something is happening in the world.” Today, 63 years later, I feel like he could be in that pulpit right now, saying the same words. Something is happening in the world. If Dr. King were here today, I believe he would again be asking the question: “Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?”
As a priest and a preacher, I find myself listening closely to and learning from Dr. King’s words, his insistence on telling people truths that may be uncomfortable to hear, his powerful, beautiful language that, at the root of everything, reminds us, over and over: Love God, and love your neighbor, and put that love into action.
Today, we are still moving toward the promised land Dr. King saw, but we’re not there yet.
And yet:
Dr. King said: “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”
With faith, Dr. King said, “we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair the stone of hope.”
This is what Dr. King leaves behind, that we hold onto: Have hope, be strong in faith, love our Creator, love our neighbor – be “extremists for love” – speak truth, and act for justice.
For we are all standing on holy ground, and the stars are shining bright.
