Psalm 50:21-22
21 These things you have done, and I have been silent;
you thought that I was just like you.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
22 “Mark this, then, you who forget God,
lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
Isaiah 5:20-21
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack ObamaBy The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire
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.
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.
(May I encourage you, please pray earnestly for Bishop Robinson that the true God of the Bible would grant him godly sorrow leading to repentance from sin, genuine saving faith to believe, and the grace to confess and know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.)
29 comments:
". . . gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people."
He forgot to include "and those who may be a combination of all of the above."
If political correctness is your only standard of righteousness, better include everyone.
"Th god of our many understandings..."
That is precisely the problem, He is far above the scope of our fallen resources and can only be known by His gracious condescension that by the power of the Spirit illuminates our darkened hearts and grants us the "spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him".
Without that divine enlightenment, revealed in Scripture, we are doing nothing but rebuilding the "high places" that make man feel religious but in fact are evidence of his depravity.
That makes me sad...
"O God of our many understandings"
Sadly, this explains everything else that came afterward. Even moreso, it defines the same god so many others serve.
"...the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah."
Well, at least he got that part right.
The tragic thing is that Robinson, who is the Episcopal Bishop of NH where I happen to live, is deceived through the practice of his contemplative spirituality.
As I show in my article "The Emerging Church Soon To Put Forth A Gay Face" Robinson believes God is moving the Church to affirm the practice of homosexuality:
"I’m deeply pained over all the difficulty that this has caused. But I have to say I believe that this is where God is leading the whole Church; just as God lead us to the full inclusion of people of color, and of women and people in wheelchairs and any number of people who had previously been marginalized."
http://apprising.org/2008/12/the-emerging-church-to-soon-t-put-forth-a-gay-face/
S.J.
And then there is Rick Warren!
At least we have him there... yeah right.
It is more important to be unified than it is to live in the truth. I expect a sodomite bishop to pray a prayer like this, but I bet Warren will really take the cake. We already know that He thinks Obama is brilliant for including the mouth piece of perverts, gotta have that unity before truth because truth just is not as important. Do I here 'bring in the clowns' playing in the background?
C.S. Lewis once stated, "Odd the way the less the bible is read the more it is translated." Sadly, that is the pulse of our "Christian nation". We need to pray, love, and reach out. It's time for the church to start being the church!
"God of our many understandings..."
Translation: "To our 'Play-Doh God'...(in whatever form we wish to mold you at any given moment)..."
or maybe "Silly Putty God" is more befitting...
Sigh...it's going to be long week.
Excellent article, Ken. Thanks for the reference.
Lest there be any misunderstanding from my previous comment, I think
Bishop Robinson's prayer is a clear depiction of darkness parading as light. We can probably expect a deluge of this type of 'prayer' in our country's churches, as the emerging church has already flung the doors wide open for it. See this mess:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/tonyjones/2009/01/announcing-queermergent.html
Clearly we as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are facing very dark days ahead.. .persecution as enemies of the state, as the biggest 'haters' and 'lunatics' on the planet, etc., just like the precious cloud of witnesses endured before us. But, to quote a dear Chinese pastor who had been severely tortured and imprisoned for preaching the Gospel, "Persecution good for Church!"
Eph.6:10-18
2Tim. 3:12
Romans 8:35-39
"O God of our many understandings..."
Could someone please explain to me exactly what this means? "...of our many understandings..."???????? I'm quite certain he wasn't praying to the God of the sixth chapter of Isaiah.
"....our many understandings..."????? Tower of Babel.
Apostasy. Plain and simple. There is a reason I am no longer an Episcopalian.
This man has no business being in the position of the priesthood, with his open, defiant, and public sin. This is a sad, sad day for American Christians, when "tolerance" has replaced virtue and scriptural understanding.
Cyd,
someone sent me that link earlier today (queermergent) and at first I just had no interest at all in clicking it.
I've seen it now several times today and have clicked through to read, and must say I am not at all surprised to find the content there so openly emergent, and so openly pro-homosexual.
It's truly heartbreaking. I can't think of a better word right now.
So we find ourselves with the inauguration of a President, one of the great hallmarks of our democracy, being turned into a farce and in part featuring a man praying who has as his primary qualification that he has sex with other men. The Founding Fathers must be so proud...
Hey Carla! :)
I had the same reaction...heartbreaking, indeed.
We can undoubtedly expect more of the same as time grows shorter.
Luke 17:29- 30
Hey Cyd :)
I meant to say...
the content there so blatantly anti-Scripture and so openly pro-homosexual.
(It's been a very long day)
Smarter folks than me have said all along, the second you depart from Scripture as your standard for living a God-pleasing life, you fling the door wide open to all kinds of subjective and/or experiential standards. Those same folks were saying this about the Emergent Church movement long ago, and sure enough they were dead on.
It's just sad to see it come to pass.
I think Bishop Robinson should be praying "To the unknown God...". (Acts 17:23)
At best, he doesn't understand God. At worst, he doesn't know Him at all.
Homosexuals have been part of society since the Fall of Man. Societies have dealt with them in many different ways - some have applauded them, some have executed them, some have ignored them, some have tolerated them. No matter what our present-day, secular society believes and enacts into law, we as human beings can know by the Holy Word of God and by the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit what behavior is sin. When we know it, we must flee from sin and ask God to help us be overcomers. Obviously Gene Robinson either hasn't read the Word of God to its fullest extent or he hasn't listened to the Holy Spirit or he refuses the counsel of both. How could a man who professes to be a Christian, even a Bishop, not mention in prayer the name of our Savior, Redeemer and Lord - Jesus?
S.J. and All
Livingdust asked
'How could a man who professes to be a Christian, even a Bishop, not mention in prayer the name of our Savior, Redeemer and Lord - Jesus?'
Mt. 7: 21-23
"21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
Not to mention
1 Jn. 3: 4-10
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
So, do not be deceived, this man is no man of God or follower of Christ. He is a tool of Satan. If this were not so he would not promote, condone or encourage in any way practicing sin, he himself proudly boasts of his own sin of homosexuality!
The question is, which is worse? Rick Warren encouraging Obama by stating that his move to use this sodomite leader of the church of satan is a brilliant move in promoting unity or Robinson being a self proclaimed sinner in the pulpit? I hope none of us are so blind to not see that these men are not of God, they are men that boast of and promote the flesh, purveyors of sin and promoters of death!
Hi all...
I just read that link Cyd then the blog in question...The owner posted this in the comments :
""Our society has taken on the idea from the Bible that sex should be between two married people. i no longer personally believe people have to be married to have sex. i don’t have a theological answer to base this view on"
It really says it all sheesh.. "i don’t have a theological answer to base this view on"
hmmmm you don't say ;-)
"How could a man who professes to be a Christian, even a Bishop, not mention in prayer the name of our Savior, Redeemer and Lord - Jesus?"
Perhaps the Bishop subscribes to the same line of thought as a growing number of Evangelicals do: Namely, that perhaps Christ isn't the only way through Whom we must come to God, the Father?
Which heresy decries and denies Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, making Him out to be a liar, which can never be. It flies in the face of our Lord's own words.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and mthe truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. [John 14:6-7]
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. [Matt 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33]
Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.
Long have I known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever.
The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever. [Ps 119:89,152,160]
Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? [Jeremiah 23:29)
"Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!"
And God will allow those "who
hold the truth in unrighteousness" to continue in their way, and become reprobates. Romans 1
And this would be me, if not for God's great mercy and the power of the Gospel to save me, and open my heart.
May the Lord's mercy and salvation come upon these reprobates, and children of wrath, as it came upon this child of wrath. Amen.
This prayer is not even a prayer. It's without any authority whatsoever.
Sad, yes, and it makes me angry as well.
Regarding (again) "god of our many UNDERSTANDINGS" and all that followed, consider:
From Romans 1 -
"And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being ... WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING", etc.
From Ephesians 4:
"This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the FUTILITY of their MIND, having their UNDERSTANDING DARKENED, being alienated from the life of God, because of the IGNORANCE that is in them, because of the BLINDNESS of their heart ..."
And an exhortation to us believers, Ephesians 5:17 -
"So then do not be foolish, but UNDERSTAND what the will of the Lord is."
My point (I left that out) in quoting the first two scriptures above, as related to the "prayer", was this:
The god that springs forth from darkened, futile understandings is a dark and depraved god, or in fact, no god at all, but as Steve, Rick and others have alluded to, a worthless idol of our own making. And might spiritual powers not take hold on such invocations? (I realize I sound like a nut here.)
I was just wondering if the Lord will allow Satan to answer this pray. May God's mercy and judgment (used as He sees fit) prevail.
"The god that springs forth from darkened, futile understandings is a dark and depraved god, or in fact, no god at all, but as Steve, Rick and others have alluded to, a worthless idol of our own making."
Aye, I cannot at the moment recall which dear old saint said/wrote it, but it seems amply fitting at the present:
"God creates man in His image and man creates [a] god in his own image."
Grievous, heart-rending and every other synonymous adjective.
Steve
Mentioned this on another post here as well: did you hear Rick Warren's prayer today and if so, what were thoughts or reactions to it?
Rick Warren's prayer? Generic and benign. He mentions the name of Jesus, but it was still ceremonial and impotent, and not unlike being asked to pray at the opening of a tavern or strip club or abortion clinic. Here is my inaugural prayer:
Heavenly Father,
Help us!
In Jesus name,
Amen.
When the heathen feel comfortable in the midst of a prayer we have done them an eternal disservice and have revealed the absence of the Spirit.
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