I am writing this exactly one week before the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Having driven in Washington DC this past weekend, I do not envy anyone who has to get around the city in the coming week. But more importantly, I don't envy the new president and the world of problems that he will inherit. He presents a breath of fresh air, even if his choice of Rick Warren to offer the invocation caused understandable consternation among progressives.Obama is a person of faith and I want to believe that he will rely on his faith and wonderful family to keep his sanity. Make no mistake, lots of people of faith will come after him with the long knives out, because he will not have moved in a way that they would have preferred. I was dismayed by the Warren pick, but I have moved beyond it, even if I am thinking of muting the TV during the invocation!
I have a radical idea: what if we all agree to give the new president some time to find his bearings and, in a paraphrase of words from I Corinthians 13, "believe in him and always expect the best of him?" Next week my musings on the lectionary texts will return to this space. Right now I am reading some stuff on the Gospel of Thomas and the Secret Gospel of Mark. What fun!
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