In the podcast I could not find Sam Cooke’s name in my brain, and almost as soon as we ended, as it always happens, it rumbled forth. He alledgedly wrote this famous cry of the soul after a night spent with Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), Malcolm X, and Jim Brown in which they wondered and talked all night about Black liberation. “A Change is Gonna Come” would become a hallmark song during a tumtultuous time. We are in such a time, and we might as well cue that song. Bill introduces a pause in teaching about John to change course and address what it means to “go out and be God’s people in the world,” a closing used Sunday after Sunday by Wayne Day during his tenure at St. Paul’s.

To combine the song and Wayne Day’s words, I invoke Ghandi, who said “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” We have a say in how we create and recreate the world, and it is our fundamental belief that God’s work is centered on love.

Thanks for listening, and brace yourselves…

”It’s been a long time coming
But I know, a change is gonna come
Oh, yes it will.”

Click the recording below to hear Sam Cooke. I bet you’re already singing it softly to yourself!