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The
Cathedral Church
of Saint John
Ten Concord Ave.
Wilmington
Delaware
19802

voice: (302) 654-6279
fax: (302) 777-5789

Wheelchair
Accessible

Parking lot
on Concord Avenue

  

Dean’s Sermon
2nd Sunday after Epiphany
18 January 2009

by the Very Reverend William B. Lane

A prophet and the fruit of his labor:

Tomorrow we commemorate the life and ministry of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the next day we inaugurate Barack H. Obama as the 44th President of the United Sates. One, the prophet of liberation; the other, in a sense, the fruit of the labors of that prophet. At Noon on Tuesday as Barack Obama is standing with his hand on a Bible taking the oath of office, in a marvelous, mysterious way he will be standing on the shoulders of the young men and women who sat in at lunch counters, who marched in peaceful, yet forceful protest against the evil and meanness of racial segregation. He will be standing on the shoulders of Rosa Parks who refused to move to the rear, and on the shoulders of Absalom Jones, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Dread Scott, Jonathan Daniels and the countless unnamed who refused to bow the head to oppression.

And as Martin Luther King, Jr. and the disciples who followed him represented liberation for all, African Americans from their oppressors, and European Americans from the sickness and fear of being oppressor; so Barack Obama represents the hope of many for a new day with his vision of an America true to the finer values of its tradition. Values that the founders of this nation intoned, but too often did not live.

I do not know to which passage of scripture the Bible upon which our new President places his hand will be turned, but I suggest the portion of the Psalm appointed for today is worthy for consideration. Certainly, I commend it to Mr. Obama, and indeed to all of us. Would Barack and all of us be mindful:

Lord, you have searched me out and known me;
you know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
How deep I find your thoughts, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I were to count them,
they would be more in number that the sand;
to count them all,
my life span would need to be like yours.

Much has been made about Barack Obama’s religious and theological stance. It was out of the press of questioning about this that he gave a singular speech in Philadelphia during the primary season. It was not meant to be a sermon, but in reality it was so theologically grounded and Gospel faithful that any preacher can learn from it. Despite his choice of invocator for the inauguration, we still believe that Barack Obama remains faithful to the witness he made in Philadelphia; that his understanding of God’ grace informs and shapes his approach to the human condition. That he sees the way of the Lord, the way of justice and peace, the way of the Kingdom of God as the way to lead. Like the child Samuel, who finally understood that the Lord does speak, and that it was his task to listen, so may our new President listen for the word of the Lord and may we be listeners with him.

We can also hope that what Jesus saw in Nathanael, an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!, will be lived out in the days ahead by our new president and those who serve with him- women and men in whom there is no deceit. Any one of the issues confronting Barack Obama and all of us is almost overwhelming, and collectively they are monumental. The core values in approaching them, must be the values of justice, compassion, and peace. Justice that promotes and protects the dignity of all, for all have been created in the image of God. Compassion that is grounded in empathy. Peace that is not just the absence of conflict, but the liberation of the human spirit in response to and celebration of God’s holiness.

So, tomorrow we commemorate one man, on Tuesday we commission another, and on Wednesday we get to work, remembering that it is the first day of the rest of our lives, and that we are called not to slumber on but to labor on, labor on in the vineyard of God’s good creation.

Faithfully,
The Very Reverend William B. Lane

Dean’s Sermons:

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