BLOGGING TOWARD SUNDAY…

My friend, the Rev. Dr. John Killinger, Baptist preacher extraordinaire, composed the following prayer, seeking God’s blessings on our new President and our nation.  It is my pleasure to share it with you:

Lord, you

kairos moment, this point in

time when everything is fulfilled and there is a confluence

of your will and the will of the people in the election of your servant

Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States of America. It is a

great moment for America and for the entire world, and we all say YES to the

possibility of a new way for everyone, a way of peace and diplomacy, of love and

respect, of decency and hard work and achievement and fulfillment. Help us to make

great strides toward respect and employment and health care and education for all,

even the least among us. Make our nation a servant-leader to the world, so that everyone,

from the North and South poles to the equator itself, can say YES with us because

they know we are sincere in trying to help them achieve the optimal living we covet for

ourselves. Let young and old alike praise your name for this new era, and join our

hearts and minds in the pursuit of the greater welfare of all. Teach the laborer and the

financier, the clerk and the physician, the engineer and the cocktail waitress, the bus

driver and the business owner, the psychiatrist and the teacher, the plumber and the

computer repairman, the student and the artist, the scientist and the housewife, to say

YES together, in the full realization that our joy as human beings is a product of our

common labor and joint pursuit, and that none of us can be happy and fulfilled alone,

for each is related to all the others in a symbiotic union, at both personal and national

levels. We pray that your servant Barack may become the symbol of a wholly new age

in the world, when all people say no to self and YES to the common good, when

doctors once more make sacrifices for their patients and teachers impart true wisdom to

their students and politicians refuse to accept bribes or short cuts and businesses seek

the best interest of their clients and there is generosity and cooperation and a new spirit

of selflessness throughout the globe. Let peace become the norm and forgiveness

our daily experience as we seek to understand one another and to build upon the

best traditions of the past in our search for a remarkable future. Uphold your

servant Barack as he leads us in saying YES to the manifold opportunities

before us to strengthen not merely a nation but a world as you

have imagined it can be. To that end, enable us to bury our

differences and affirm our unity; lead us in paths of

ʼs sake; and help

us to say YES and AMEN, now and in

all the time to come!

–– John Killinger, author of

The Changing Shape of Our Salvation

and the soon-to-be-published

(St. Martinʼs

Filed under: Blogging Toward Sunday