The amount of uproar over the homily preached at the presidential prayer service has been surprising, to say the least. The Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., preached a solid, Jesus-based sermon that spoke of a national unity that we have all been craving. But the minute she looked at the president and asked him to show mercy to the “strangers” in our midst, the fireworks started from the president and his supporters — many of whom claim to be people of faith.
The bishop preached a gentle reminder to all of us about showing those who might be different from us — LGBTQ, immigrants, the oppressed, the poor — the same kind of mercy that God promises to show us. The same kind of mercy that we, in fact, expect from God — and from our justice system, in a country that has prided itself as an asylum for the oppressed around the world for the past 250 years.
The bishop preached from the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew that is so similar to the religious teachings of Judaism, Buddhism and Islam in regard to mercy and compassion. And she did it very gently. She didn’t berate the president, she didn’t yell at him, she didn’t pound the pulpit. She was gentle, merciful and compassionate as she asked him to live the faith he has claimed.
The writer of the letter of James in the New Testament of Christian scriptures tells us that a faith that is not accompanied by action is a dead faith. And the prophet Micah tells us that God expects us to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. If the president or anyone else is offended by those teachings, then their action in response to the bishop’s gentle sermon sets directly upon their own shoulders.
That the president now expects an apology from the bishop and her church is beyond credibility. And shame on those who call themselves Christians and have berated the bishop because she preached the Gospel. The bishop was merely the messenger of Jesus.
