During a visit to the Statue of Liberty in 2023, I was moved by the museum exhibit contrasting the dreams of freedom in the United States with the reality of our past and present. So many have worked to realize freedom in this land, and so much work remains to be done.

I returned to the text for revisions during another trip when I spent time at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.  Inscribed on the wall is Lincoln’s appeal to the nation in his second inaugural address “to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” On the monument’s steps in 1963 the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. declared: “100 years later, the Negro still is not free… now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.”

This text is set to the beloved tune FINLANDIA (sung by some with the texts “Be Still My Soul” or “This Is My Song”). You can find a preview of the text on GIA Unbound here. This piece can be reproduced for worship using One License.