A Day After the Debate

 

How close are these two words:

    debate and debacle...

Well, either way, Lord,

I didn't fall asleep easily last night...

So tonight, I bring my homeland to prayer

with two phrases ringing in my mind:

    In God We Trust  - and - E Pluribus Unum...

 

In God We Trust...

 

Renew our trust in you, Lord,

and warn us, stop us,

when we place our trust in ourselves, 

in our ideologies, in our money and in our might...

Renew our trust in you, Lord,

and help us remember how long it takes to build a nation

and how quickly we can dismantle

what you have helped us build...

 

Renew our trust in you, Lord,

and humble the pride that tempts us to think

we can get along without you

- or worse -

that we can get along better without you... 

Bring order in our chaos, Lord,

wisdom in our foolishness,

civility in our boorishness,

knowledge in our ignorance

truth in our dissembling

and peace in all our discord...

E Pluribus Unum...

 

You created us to be your people, Lord,

your children, your family, your kin, your own...

Remind us, Lord, 

that all that divides, segregates, alienates and tears us apart

is wrong, sinful and contrary to your divine design

for our nation, our states and our communities...

From the many we are.

    you call us to be one;

from the diversity we embody,

    you call us to be one;

from the differences that mark us,

    you call us to be one;

from every race, color and creed,

    you call us to be one;

far beyond the claims of politics

    you call us to be one... 

out of all that might divide us,

    you call us to be one...

We have misplaced our trust, Lord,

and we have turned on one another:

help us see the error of our ways

and become, at last, one people of one nation...

Protect us, Lord, 

from the harm we do to one another

and thus to ourselves,

and watch over us day and night

that awake, we might keep watch with you

and asleep, rest in your peace...

 

Amen. 

 

Two options for musical reflection this evening:

1) A beautiful piano improvisation on America the Beautiful by

by Jeffrey Kahan which I found to be a great background for

prayerful reflection on the concerns in tonight's prayer post.

 

2) A rousing, heartfelt vocal rendition of America the Beautiful 

by the US Navy Band. 

 

An Improvisation on America the Beautiful by Jeffrey Kahan

 

America the Beautiful performed by the US Navy Band

O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain

America, sweet America, God shed his grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea

O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife

Who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life 

America, America, may God thy gold refine

'Til all success be nobleness and every gain divine

 

O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain

America, my America, God shed his grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea.

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