The Fierce Urgency of Now: A Message for 2026

And behold, I am with you always,
until the end of the age.

Almost 60 years ago, on April 4th, 1967,
Dr. Martin Luther King walked into Riverside Church
in New York City and gave a speech co-written
by Dr. Vince Harding, his peer in ministry.
For over a decade, he had been the voice of civil rights
throughout the land and had great success.

But on this occasion, he expanded his ministry
to speak for justice throughout the world.
He spoke about fighting for justice for all,
putting a voice to the voiceless,
even peace to those lands.

He spoke out against the war in Vietnam,
and spoke for those men and women
who were enemies of the nation.
He spoke for peace for them.
He spoke for the voiceless, the poor in America,
and the young men being sent into that war.
It was a departure from his normal ministry,
but he spoke those prophetic words,
and it probably cost him his life,
because a year later to the day, he was assassinated.

I re-read those words of his speech this week,
and I was stopped in my tracks.
The name of this speech is,
“A Time When Silence is a Betrayal,
and that time is for us now.”
He talks about the fierce urgency of this moment now.

It struck me, these were prophetic words for 1967,
but to be honest with you, they are equally as prophetic for 2026.
They were so powerful.
Listening to them again in his own voice,
I was shocked by the profundity of that moment,
and how he was prophetic and bold to speak out,
bringing a voice to the voiceless and
naming the fierce urgency of the moment.
We find ourselves in a similar situation today,
different injustices but we need to reflect on this moment.

We just got back from being in San Juan Bautista.
The priests of the diocese had our annual clergy study week,
and the topic of the week was self-care.
We were told to care for ourselves, and
Bishop asked me to give three talks
on sleep, exercise, and nutrition.

Now there is a certain irony to that,
for those who know me.
I am not exactly a paragon of virtue in any of those three,
but I have read a lot and I try very hard.
So it is a personal struggle for me,
as well as for others.

But what shocked me the most,
as I spoke on these three subjects, especially sleep,
was how unknowledgeable my brother priests
were on the danger of not sleeping, of lack of sleep.
They were getting lots of sleep in my talk!!

But joking aside, there are huge dangers to not caring for oneself,
because you cannot give what you do not have.
You cannot pass on to others wisdom
that you yourself have not in some way internalized.
And it was very evident they were all struggling.
We have lost four priests this last year to death,
two of them younger than 45.

I am a little worried, and that is how it all rises up.
That is 4% of our presbyterate.
We cannot sustain that rate.
So, we have to pause and take note.
What is going on? What are we doing?
We are killing ourselves.

And of course, I do not think
it is just us priests who struggle with this.
Society says, you keep going,
you just keep going, going.
The grind wears us down,
and we have internalized that as well.
There is danger not just for us as priests,
but for all of you who are in jobs that demand,
where everything is measured in outputs, outcomes,
contributions and effectiveness.

There is an arms race of algorithms,
as well as an arms race of weapons.
We are getting swept up in this dangerous world,
and we need to pause and be present to this moment,
and ask the difficult questions.
Is this what we want for ourselves?
Is this what we want for our world?

I am a huge advocate for artificial intelligence,
but I am a huge advocate of ethical ways of it
proceeding forward, with thoughtfulness for the impact
it is going to have across all of humanity,
not just those in wealthy nations.
The impact it is going to have on joblessness,
and the impact it is going to have on the poor.
We need to give voice to that and listen.

It is important that we be present to this moment,
and not just keep going endlessly in every direction,
as if by our silence to agree to it.
And that is the danger, my friends.
We need to use our voice,
because there is a fierce urgency
to this present moment as a world.
We are entering the nexus point of our future,
and we need to be aware of it and pay attention.

And yet, at the same time, we struggle in our world.
We want peace, but we have more wars.
We want forgiveness, but we remain unforgiving in our own lives.
We want to be forgiven, and yet we remain unforgiving.
We want time with families,
and yet we are working harder than we have ever worked.
There is an endless grind on our systems,
and we need to be thoughtful as people of the Spirit.

We need to listen to the Spirit.
This is the Spirit Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel.
We need to be mindful.
Remember, this is what we call the in-between time.
Jesus has ascended, and they are worried
that the Pentecost has not come.
There are 10 days between the Ascension and Pentecost.

But Jesus has been with them for 40 days in the Spirit.
He showed them, and He gave them
the courage to speak out, assuring them,
“I am always going to be with you until the end of the age.
Now go, baptize in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

But they see and they doubt,
and they were witnesses to Him.
I understand our doubting.
I am not condemning that.
That is okay. Doubting is part of the faith.
But we also need to be aware of what else
the Christ has given us,
because He has given us His Spirit.
And that is what we celebrate.

He is in the words spoken to us.
He is in the Eucharist; in the bread and wine we will share.
He is in this community gathered here.
This is what we celebrate.
He is among us.
He has not left us.
He is among us, and we must
listen, listen to His voice, and
then act on what we hear.

So what does that mean for us here at St. Simon’s,
in the middle of Silicon Valley,
in this unique time in history?
First of all, we need to take care of ourselves.
We need to draw some boundary and
not get sucked into the grind.
We need to be present to ourselves
with sleep, exercise, and nutrition,
yes, but not just for ourselves.

So that we can be present to our children,
and spend time with each other, as family and friends.
To be present to this moment now for us,
and then use our voice to speak
out for peace in our world.

To use our voice and to insist
on disarming the algorithms
and disarming the weapons.
We must be willing to do that.
But we get the strength from being gathered here first,
by listening and internalizing for ourselves.

Let us be very clear:
there is a fierce urgency to this moment.
This is not next year’s challenge.
This is this moment’s challenge.
We need to insist on peace in our world.
Why? Because we are men and women of peace.
We do not want any more wars.
What are we doing?
We should not celebrate anybody getting killed,
even if they are an enemy.

That is exactly what Martin Luther King
and Vince Harding were saying.
We need to stop.
And so today, in 2026,
we need to use our voice for peace.

But we also need to be men and women of peace
in our homes, in our communities.
We need to not just want forgiveness,
but to give forgiveness to others.
It is not enough just to desire peace
as some sort of mundane wish.
We must be willing to use our voice now, not tomorrow.

So this is a time when silence is a betrayal,
my friends, yet again.
And it is a time for us to voice, all of us.
So today, let us hear what the Lord says to us:

And behold, I am with you always,
until the end of the age.