Over 50 years ago, Reinhold Niebuhr lamented the potentially harmful effect of a White House invitation on a preacher. Indeed, it is no secret to anyone that proximity to political power often diminishes religious witness. But not yesterday at the National Cathedral's post-Inaugural Prayer Service attended by our new President and Vice President!
The Episcopal Bishop of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde, preached a sermon on "the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division. A unity that serves the common good." Once a commonplace expression, the common good is now a radical concept, given the national turn inward in recent years. Still, it could sound like a platitude, were it not grounded, as Bishop Budde's exposition was, in a solid public theology of what it must mean to live as a community in a free society in which we do not and likely never will be in complete agreement. As foundations for unity, she highlighted honoring the inherent dignity of every human being, honesty in private and in public, and humility, recognizing our own individual limits and our need for one another.
All that was good and edifying, if perhaps maybe somewhat potentially disconcerting to those in possession of political power. But as the preacher herself had noted earlier in her sermon, "God is never impressed with prayers when actions are not informed by them." So, she addressed the president directly, with a plea that will now be forever famous:
Millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country. And we're scared now.
She then went on to mention some of those who have reasons to be scared. among them, of special relevance right now:
the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, and work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues … and temples.
I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.
Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being; to speak the truth to one another in love. and walk humbly with each other and our God. For the good of all people in this nation and the world.
I have heard no better summary of the contemporary challenge facing the Church in relation to our political regime in the days and years to come.
Photo: Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde speaking Tuesday at the Washington National Cathedral during a prayer service President Trump attended. Doug Mills/The New York Times.
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