From the Rector...

Dear Friends in Christ,

As one President leaves the office and another takes up the charge let us pray for both. The underlying promise of this country is that we are a nation of laws, a system of mutual accountability, whose course is set not by any one woman or man but by the collective will of the people.

Let our will be righteousness.

Let our joy be found in common good.

Let our hope be found not in earthly rulers but in our heavenly one.

Let our days be marked not by the rage of the moment but the hope of eternity.

Let our aspiration be greater than this day or this hour — let it be the aspiration of Christ — that we all may be one.

Let us not be discouraged from acting by injustice but inspired to action by justice.

Let our souls not shrivel with rage but swell with love.

Let our comforts not dull our sense of the world’s needs but let them give us what we need to make a difference.

Let us be ruled by faith, committed to charity, guided by hope, and fixed in our commitment to love our neighbor.

This week we see not just a transition of power but a transition of hope — hope that is expressed not in the zealousness of our anger but in the fervency of our love. Every administration begins with some great promise. Every administration ends with promises broken, resentments stoked, and a mixture of regret for what was done and sadness at what was left undone.

Yet the cycle begins freshly again. As history records the people’s will, and power is handed from one person to the next, let us look with fresh hope not toward the strengths or weaknesses of any one leader but to the promises of a nation yet to be filled.

Let us look to justice and liberty for all — let us commit to do our part to make those a reality in our own day.

There are three pieces of scripture that came to my mind this week. The first is the well known one from Ecclesiastes, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” The time for campaigning and, I would argue, that time has passed. Now is the time when we set aside campaigning and look to what it means to be committed to one another’s good. The second is from Psalm 37, “Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.” If there has ever been a time for us to refrain from anger, this feels like it.

Finally, “weeping may spend the night, but joy cometh in the morning.” This passage is not just about earthly things but about our hope for heavenly ones. While the affairs of this life and our politics may occupy our attention for a time, we are also called to mind what our real inheritance is, a heavenly one. Let’s ensure that in our concern for the politics of the moment we are not risking our soul — sacrificing what makes us Christ-like.

If you rejoice this week then be glad. If you mourn this week then take heart. If you find yourself perplexed, then you find yourself where Christians so often are — knowing that all we are called to will not be accomplished by earthly rulers but also knowing that we can’t just turn away from our neighbors in our exhaustion.

You all have my prayers in this time — let us keep praying for our nation, for the world, and for one another.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert