I asked the deacons if we could return to the sanctuary this morning.
I made this request in response to the distressing event that came to pass on Monday – namely, the inauguration of Donald J Trump as the 47th president of the United States.
I wanted to return to the sanctuary this morning, because I have something to say that, upon reflection, I knew must be said from the pulpit. I must harness every ounce of intention, authority and gravitas that I can gather from the privilege entrusted in me by this pulpit, when I state, as clearly as I can, that Donald J. Trump (I will say his name) that Donald J. Trump’s presidency threatens to cause the moral collapse of our nation.
When this president acts to undermine what is left of our moral compass, he erodes the very foundations of our faith.
My conviction, then – one that I have the audacity to speak from this pulpit – is that President Trump’s actions are my concern, because they threaten the religious life of my people.
As people of faith we cannot ignore the fact that he inflicts irreparable damage to our spiritual lives.
When we foresee the loss of checks and balances in our political system, we foresee, with distress, a great danger to our political system. But I see something even more dangerous than this… Ultimately, the hope, the value, the very sacredness of the American experiment, envisioned by the founding fathers and perfected through the crucible of our history, depends, more than anything else, upon the basic moral integrity of its people.
Without this, we are lost.
The student with the puniest grasp of world history can tell you what happens when societies lose their moral integrity. History is woefully full of examples, tyrants who use this dire playbook. First they place the blame on a group of people. Then the camps start being built in desolate out of the way places. People are encouraged to report on each other. Secret police show up at the door at night. Journalists who refuse to tow the line, mysteriously disappear. Opposition leaders are jailed on fabricated charges. Bands of armed vigilantes act up, but those in power conveniently don’t seem to notice .
You’re losing it Reverend Mark…
Am I?
Some of these things have already started to happen.
As a citizen, I will not remain silent.
As a Christian – as a minister even – I believe it is my sacred duty to speak out – I believe that my fidelity to Christ calls me to do my small part to protect the fraying thread of moral integrity that may be our final hope.
**
Inaugurations are scripted affairs that are filled with tradition. The new president is sworn in. He (so far only “he”) gives a speech. There are luncheons. There are parades, military reviews, and balls.
I was interested to learn that these festivities begin and end with prayer services.
Our culture still gives Christianity a nod.
Note that I said “Christianity” not Christ.
Not surprisingly, I could not bear to watch any of these events. The most accomplished Ostrich would envy how well I had buried my head in the sand.
So it wasn’t until Tuesday night, at dinner, that Cary told me about what happened at the Prayer service at the National Cathedral.
Cary pulled open her laptop and in a few minutes I was watching a delightfully gentle and well spoken woman in her mid sixties speaking from a magnificently wrought pulpit of hewn stone.
This was the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde – the Episcopal Bishop of Washington DC. She was presiding at the final event of the Inauguration – a prayer service dedicated to the aspiration of national unity.
Her homily, which I have printed in full in this morning’s bulletin insert, was an elegant and nuanced consideration of Unity as it is found in the tradition of our scriptures, and as it has been imperfectly, but earnestly exercised as we strain to achieve the lofty aspirations that define our nation’s history.
It gradually dawned on President Trump, Vice president Vance, wo were sitting with families in the front pews, that this Bishop – this soft spoken grandmother – was off script.
She was not towing the line.
Her words were not the tired meaningless pablum that they had come to expect from every grovelling minion at every microphone for the last 24 hours.
This diminutive Christian lady was not doing the submissive kowtow dance. She was not melting into the chorus of fawning yes-men.
Melania scowled.
Vance fidgetted.
Trump leaned forward.
But they were silent.
They were forced to listen to her…
and she was actually saying something…
Something real
Something true.
How dare she!
**
This minister, who claims to know how to write a sermon, learned a great deal from Bishop Budde’s homily.
She did not waste any time. By way of introduction, she said:
we have gathered this morning to pray for unity as a people, and a nation. Not for agreement, political or otherwise, but for the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division. A unity that serves the common good. Unity in this sense is a threshold requirement for people to live in Freedom, and together in a free society – it is the solid rock, as Jesus said, upon which to build a nation.
A unity that serves the common good, she says, does not demand that everyone believe the same thing. This is a critically important observation.
Imagine a unity that demands that everyone believe the same thing. Such a unity does not bridge difference, but seeks to eliminate difference. Such a unity does not foster community and freedom, rather, it sacrifices freedom for sake of obedience.
Unity across difference is the unity of love.
Unity that demands obedience, is the unity of power.
Truth to power.
When I hear this phrase – truth to power, I find myself asking – whose truth?
When we speak truth to power, we hope that the truth that is spoken is not a truth, but THE truth – a truth that is eternal. A truth that does not depend on culture or era, but never fails to nourish our lives.
No matter how wise she might be, we don’t want Mariann Edgar Budde to tell us her truth. We want her to be the vessel of THE truth.
But how do we determine THE truth?
How can we know that her prophetic speech is the speech of God?
As a person of faith, I distinguish my truth from the truth by asking what the truth serves.
Does the truth that I speak serve me? Or does it serve others?
Is it about power?
Or is it about love?
Hear how Bishop Budde continues to describe Unity:
unity, at times, is sacrificial, in the way that love is sacrificial. A giving of ourselves for the sake of another. In his sermon on the mount, Jesus of Nazareth exhorts us to love, not only our neighbors, but to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us, to be merciful as our God is merciful, to forgive others as God forgives us. And Jesus went out of his way to welcome those whom his society deemed as outcasts.
It is revealing, isn’t it, that this act of speaking the truth to another human being is now a shockingly subversive and courageous act?
This truth is core to our Christian faith. And yet gently reminding another person (the President really is just another person like you and me) that our most sacred teachings describe a God of forgiveness and mercy – this today, is the offensive message – the message that causes the most powerful guardians of the status quo to raise their hands to their mouths in amazement and disgust.
How dare she!
How?
I’ll tell you how.
She dares to speak the truth, because when she does so, she imitates another.
She speaks to us, eloquently, about the teachings of a poor man.
A poor man acquainted with grief.
One who insisted on love.
When she does so, she becomes a part of the Body of Christ. She speaks with her own authority, and with the authority of our savior Jesus Christ – the one who stood up, in love, against the power of an empire and was killed for the sake of that love.
Elie Weisel once said that the opposite of love is not hate – the opposite of love is indifference.
Today, I believe that we are in a moment in history in which the opposite of love is not indifference.
Today, the opposite of love is power.
For it is power that has made this man – this President – insensible to the simple message of mercy – the eternal truth of a unity that is based on love.
Bishop Budde, calmly and intelligently reminded us all of the eternal truth of love.
This love – the love that does not demand obedience, but celebrates difference – is the love that is our one great hope. The love that may (if we work hard) protect and maintain the moral integrity of our nation.
Being a part of this love, is being a part of the body of Christ.
To be part of the body of Christ, is to be a keeper of the conscience of our nation.
No matter what happens in the next four years, we must be God’s heart. In the words of St Teresa of Avila: God has no heart but ours.
We are God’s conscience too.
God’s conscience in a nation that is in the very act of moral decay.
We find ourselves, once again, when following the teachings of Christ will make us a persecuted people.
Do not lose faith.
Hold onto the plough that yields a harvest of love. Our country needs us to keep our hands –
God’s hands on earth –
our eyes
(God’s eyes)
our hearts
(God’s heart)
on the truth
(God’s truth)
that does not serve power
but rather serves love
(God’s love)
in the world.
Amen.