We are now headed for an impeachment in
the House, an acquittal in the Senate, and a country more
divided than ever. While I have a strong opinion about what the Senate
should do, I am more concerned that our current Divider in Chief will
continue to divide and make things worse, at a time when our country needs healing
more than ever.
Since
he is incapable of being a Healer in Chief,
and the current political climate will make it difficult for anyone who
might replace him to take on that role, the responsibility falls to "we the people".
Paul, writing at the very beginning of the 4th
chapter of his letter to the Ephesians says, “lead a life worthy of the
calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with
patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
We can’t wait for or count on an election next
November to end the deep divide we are experiencing now. It will still be
present, whoever is elected, although hopefully it will be someone who can help begin to turn the tide. But consider this; by our baptism, we have
already been elected to lead and be by example, instruments of God’s
love and peace, healing and unity, by what we say, and by what we do.
That’s not always an easy job, so let us pray the
final verse of Carl Daw’s hymn 513, as a reminder that we don’t have to do it
alone:
With
the healing of division,
with
the ceaseless voice of prayer;
With
the power to love and witness,
with
the peace beyond compare:
Come,
Holy Spirit, Come
John
P.S. Below: Picture of plaque of St. Francis, at St.
Dunstan’s Episcopal Church, Carmel Valley. Perhaps we should add a line to the prayer
attributed to him:
Lord,
make me an instrument of your healing
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