Inauguration Day

Remembering January 20, Inauguration Day of a New President

“The Rock cries out to us today,

You may stand upon me,

But do not hide your face.”— Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning.”

Every four years, this is the usual date of inauguration of a president. I have been to two presidential inaugurations. Both were in the last century. One time, I was with my daughter, and once with my husband and friends. I remember festivities the weekend before the inaugurations, with Peter, Paul, and Mary singing in a tent on the mall. We go to a Blue Jean Bash with Bob Dylan and eat catfish and hush puppies. There is an air of excitement on inauguration day as crowds fill the mall. The music is uplifting. There is always a sacred reading, the national anthem, as well as the hopes of the new president.

There is a feeling of newness, a new beginning with all its possibilities of making changes to give opportunities to people of our country whose lives seem hopeless because of suppression or disease, as Maya Angelou reads her poem written for the day. “On the Pulse of Morning.”

We offer thanks for the opportunities we know we have. We are empowered to make a difference in the lives of others. There is hope. We are there with every form of humanity: young babies crying, older adults who can barely stand looking for a place to sit. We are so close together in one melting pot that getting our gloved hands out of our heavy coat pockets is sometimes tricky.

Only once did we try to go from the inauguration to our ticketed seats for the parade. I can only remember telling my teenage daughter, “We will never make it,” trying to move against a tsunami wave of people. She kept telling me, “We can do it. We can make it,” and finally, we did.

Most recently, we fear danger may be uninvited to the inauguration. We still fear for the lives of the new president, vice president, and members of Congress. We would never have believed this would be the scene for an inauguration in our country in our wildest dreams, but here we are.

 What can we do? 

We pray.

I know that prayers change the prayer-er, and prayers are heard. Prayers are like some mystical force that goes out into the universe, which can bring healing to places unknown and known. We pray to send love and protection to our country and its new leaders. We pray for those whose only response has now become violence. We know something led them to that path. We pray to hear their story and tell them about love that casts out fear. 

Night Time Prayers

 Nighttime prayers, Compline

“Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or

weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who

sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless

the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the

joyous; and all for your love’s sake.” Amen.—St. Augustine of Hippo. Book of Common Prayer, p. 134. 

  This gift from St. Augustine is one of the nighttime prayers from Compline, an evening service read just before bedtime. Families or groups can say the short prayer service as a gathering before retiring. I particularly remember when our friends Barbara and Hap Hoffman came to our house and said compline with our family every night for six weeks while recovering from surgery.

In my medical practice, this prayer was meaningful, as I could visualize the people I knew working at night at our Children’s Hospital and the patients we were all helping care for. This prayer also strengthened me when I was on call at the hospital at night, knowing that people all over the globe were saying these prayers.

As compline became a more regular part of our rule of life, we visualize people in other professions, working at night, in grocery stores, restaurants, airlines, and police stations. We remember those dying and those mourning the death of a loved one. Then, we begin praying for the joyous.

All of these prayers ever so briefly can help us get out of ourselves and all our problems as we begin praying and thinking about others. This service calms our souls and is better than any sleeping pill, drug, or drink.

Below is another nighttime prayer from the New Zealand Prayer Book. I especially relate to the part, “What has been done has been done; what has not been done, let it be.”

I remember the C.S. Lewis quote you often hear from me, “We do not pray to change God. Instead, we pray to change ourselves.”

Nighttime prayers can change us.

New Zealand Prayer Book

         “Lord,

         it is night.

         The night is for stillness. 

                  Let us be still in the presence of God.

         It is night after a long day.

                  What has been done has been done;

                  what has not been done;

                   let it be.

         The night is dark.

                  Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives rest in you.

         The night is quiet.

                  Let the quietness of your peace enfold us,

                           all dear to us,

                           and all who have no peace.

         The night heralds the dawn. 

                  Let us look expectantly to a new day,

                           new joys,

                           new possibilities.

In your name we pray.” Amen. p. 184.

Joanna          https://www.joannaseibert.com/

 

 

 

Servant Leadership, a New Norm of Greatness

 MLK: A New Norm of Greatness

“Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.”—Martin Luther King Jr., “Drum Major Instinct,” sermon, Atlanta, February 4, 1968.

Martin Luther King gives us the short version of servant ministry, which Bishop Bennett Sims described in his 1997 landmark book, Servanthood, Leadership for the Third Millennium. Our worthiness has nothing to do with our IQ.

Being a servant leader differs entirely from being the smartest, working to become the greatest, needing to control, or needing the admiration of others because of your abilities.
Servant leaders make room for and empower others, work to build up others, not to polish the system or the leader’s self-importance. A servant leader does not see production as the first purpose of any family system, endeavor, church, or business. Human enhancement, not human employment, is the primary aim of organizations led by servant leaders.

 Meaning and joy in work come from power with, not power over.
Sims describes collaboration with others as the “meat and potatoes” of human nourishment, while competition is the “salt and pepper.”
 Sims believes our society has been living on “spices.”