The Bishop’s Prayer
January 18, 2009
I didn’t return home this afternoon from church until well after today’s events in Washington but this is the transcript of Bishop Gene Robinson’s prayer. What are your thoughts?
Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009
Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.
O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…
Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.
Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.
Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.
And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.
Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.
Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.
Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.
And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
AMEN.
Posted in News and Events
January 18th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Sounds like a man “acquainted with sorrows” .. I’m thinking that privilege and/or fear bring the kind of shallow thinking that results in “separate but equal” solution-building. This prayer recognizes that the realities of our nation and world are complex and will require responses that come from the deep places of human compassion and courage.
But like most prayers in public context, I doubt that it will be heard as educational or inspirational, except to us choir members.
January 19th, 2009 at 6:42 am
Well, PJ…it apparently WASN’T heard because there were…um…audio problems that shorted out the Bishop’s microphone (this from people at the Lincoln Memorial). NPR didn’t have it, either.
Make sure this prayer gets distributed via the internet. +Gene’s words should be heard!
January 19th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Actually, the Presidential Inaugural Committee had Bishop Robinson start at 2:15 in the “pre-show” and the telecast started at 2:30. So mikes or not, he would not have been on tv. Extremely disappointing that this was intentional.
January 19th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
PJ –> It was indeed a powerful prayer that was hopeful even in the face of the overwhelming realities of our time.
Susan and Sandy–>I’d already begun to draft a new post dealing with your comments that I’ve just posted and will finish up this evening.
January 20th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
A very powerful prayer, and very moving. Beliefnet posted an interview with Robinson earlier today.
Man, do I wish he’d given the invocation for the swearing-in…
January 21st, 2009 at 3:08 pm
anita, I hope you’re not getting *too* much traffic here… I’ve been passing the URL to the post on to a bunch of people, because all of the supposedly “complete” copies of this prayer that people are linking to are actually very incomplete.
January 21st, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I could never get too much traffic my dear but giving credit where credit is due, I believe I originally found this transcript at Good As You.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Well, in my defense, I was keeping your allotment of bandwidth in mind! And hey, you posted that text distraction-free, which is a big plus.
Funny [:tongue in cheek:] how both Robinson and Lowery’s prayers are the ones that capture the attention of people who’ve been turned off by overly-aggressive religion, whether in the public or private sphere.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Some of my blogging pals are linking to you.
January 21st, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Love it!
January 21st, 2009 at 7:55 pm
e2tc–>You need no defense. I was just joking because it would take a HUGE number of hits to have any effect on my bandwidth. There’s more than enough for you and ALL your friends (which I have no doubt number in the tens of thousands!) And indeed, I agree with you about the two prayers that impacted people the most. Has it was put on another blog that reviewed the events of Inauguration Day, “Rick Warren who??” By the way, the sermon that was preached this morning at the National Cathedral with the President and Vice-President in attendance, can be found on the Disciples of Christ website here. The preacher was Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins, the President of the Disciples of Christ and she preached a good one.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:52 pm
You mean… you don’t get as many hits as the Bunny Yawns site?!
Seriously – her bandwidth is constantly getting KO’d.
As for Robinson’s prayer… I had no idea that he’d received death threats and that he wore body armor for his consecration. That shook me up. I feel – as PJ said earlier – that he was coming from a place of sympathy and compassion in this prayer. (Though truly, these public prayers are more like mini-speeches – not an original thought; I “stole” it from a commenter on Internet Monk’s blog.)
Thanks so much for the sermon link – off to read I go!
January 27th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
i love this prayer