Sing Along With Garth

 

Lady Gaga belting out the National Anthem was a highlight.  It was, for me, the best rendition since Whitney Houston knocked the collective socks off the world at the Super Bowl. But in an Inauguration full of soaring music, soul-stirring poetry and reality-check speeches, there was a different highlight I will most remember.

I know that there is a wide and deep divide, even, or maybe especially, among God’s people over what to make of President Biden’s and Vice-President Harris’ Inauguration. Many people prayed that it would not be so, and when it came to be, they offered up prayers of lament because God did not intervene and change the outcome. Many other people prayed prayers of praise and thanksgiving for God bringing the Inauguration into existence against efforts to defeat it. 

It seems like one of the thorniest of theological problems.  Did God’s will fail? Did God’s will prevail?  Here’s what I know. God was not surprised. God wasn’t surprised on Inauguration Day 2017 nor Inauguration Day 2021. God didn’t fall asleep at the switch on Election Day 2016 nor Election Day 2020.  I am not saying that God votes, because God doesn’t get a vote.  But God wasn’t surprised.

God is still in control. Jesus is still King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  What should unite all Christians under all Presidents are those things we hold in common. Our common mission: preach Good News: repent, believe, love, serve.  Our common prayer: bathe us in grace.

I didn't really anticipate ever singing Amazing Grace with Garth Brooks, but his invitation for people at home and work to join him was heartfelt; and so sing I did, joining my voice with tens of millions of people who love God and this nation. Praise God for Amazing Grace that will, in God's way and time, unite America.

I believe that we are going to overcome our divisions, perhaps just enough and just long enough, but enough, to live under the cover of God's Amazing Grace for a season.  So in this season, as in the one which preceded it, the people of God still praise God and seek God’s blessings. 

God bless America, President Biden, Vice-President Harris, the Congress and the Supreme Court. Amen.