Rev. Dr. Gina M. Stewart delivered a King Weekend sermon on Sunday, January 19 during Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel Services in Howard’s Cramton Auditorium. Stewart is the senior pastor of Christ Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., where she has served for thirty years. She also serves as the president of Lott Carey Foreign Missions Society, a member of the National Board of the NAACP, and a trustee for the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology and a Co-Convener for the Women in Ministry Conference.

The foundation for Rev. Stewart’s sermon was the 18th chapter of the Bible’s Book of Luke, specifically the first through the fifth versus. Through this passage, Jesus uses the parable of a persistent widow to demonstrate to his disciples why they should pray without giving up, even as they wait for the final coming of God.  Stewart surmised that the parable demonstrates what followers of God should do during the time between “promise and fulfillment, struggle and striving.” She used the text to speak from the theme, “The Arc Towards Justice Won’t Bend Itself.”

Stewart began by referencing a recent entreaty from Stacey Abrams, Howard's Ronald W. Walters Endowed Chair for Race and Black Politics, to not retreat into a period of disillusionment and exhaustion because of pervasive injustices. Stewart reflected on recent developments in the public sphere that have intensified the weariness of people who are simply tired of trying to fight for equality and equity. 

Stewart returned to the parable to argue that through prayer and persistence, vindication comes in the form of justice. The widow in the parable comes before an unjust judge seeking redress, only to be rebuffed. However, the widow was so relentless in her petition that the judge finally rules in her favor. Like the widow, Stewart encouraged the audience to “keep coming back” to the fight for justice and not give up even though they might suffer setbacks.