Epiphany XVIII: Time

Good Thursday morning, good pilgrims of The Epiphany Season. Is it only the 23rd of January? Really? I'd swear it was already the end of the year, but we've just started collecting information for our tax accountant so it can't be.

Then again, to read some of the comments on social media after the Inauguration and Bishop Mariann's sermon on Monday, you'd think we were back in 1950 - or, at least, that's where some people think we ought to be.

I was actually on one thread where one brilliant woman insisted that Bishop Mariann was not a bishop because - duh! - women can't be bishops. Says so right in the B I B L E. According to her brilliant logic, if The Bible says it can't be, it isn't.

Ever notice how the very people who make pronouncements like this have absolutely no credentials so to do? People who've never been to seminary much less Bible College are suddenly expert theologians.

These same people are also experts in economics, public policy and immigration and, without ever going near a medical or dental school, are experts on immunology, diabetes, heart disease, and preventing tooth decay, with special proficiency in horse medicine for contagious diseases.

Yes, they're baaaack. Actually, they never went away. They are just now emboldened to give us their wisdom because they have the King they've been praying for who has placed similarly qualified "experts" in positions of authority and power.

Look, it's going to be a long four years. Even if - WHEN - we take back the House and/or Senate in two years, it's going to feel like an eternity.

Hear me: We can do this. We've done it before. We can do it again. Yes, this time we are not up against one man but a regime. Yes, that makes it much more difficult.

Hear me: We can do this. We will do this. And, we will do it with humility and grace, kindness and compassion, and great strength
and clarity.

There will be moments like we had this week, divinely inspired moments when an Episcopal bishop, a woman, stands up to The Old King and pleads for mercy for all who are scared right now. .

These moments will lift our spirits and provide us the inspiration to keep on keeping on. Some of us who were in for the long haul have gotten fat and lazy over the past few years of progress. Others of us have never had to develop our "gospel muscles".

Time to get in shape. Time to spend more time with Jesus, sitting at the feet of the master. Indeed, time to spend time with Spiritual Masters like Buddha and Abraham Heschel and Thich Nhat Hanh and Pema Chodron and the Dahli Lama and Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King, Jr. and Howard Thurman.

Just last week, my friend, Mark Harris, reminded me that Mao Tse-Tung once wrote, "Everything under heaven is chaos; the situation is excellent."

There's no better time to be a Christian than right now.

Let's do this.

I hope something good happens to you today,

Bom dia.