Scholars
suggest that Psalm 72 is a royal psalm, written for
the occasion of the coronation of a king. It is flanked on either side with psalms of lament, deeply
personal petitions to God to provide rescue, refuge,
and relief in desperate times. Psalm 72 effectively
answers these pleas by describing the king as one
who reflects God’s commitment to judge with righteousness
and justice, defend the cause of the poor, and deliver
the needy.
In the spirit of the psalmist, I too pray that our nation’s
leaders will defend justice, pursue peace, and be
a blessing to the people of all nations. Below is
a reflection on the historic 2008 presidential election.
"Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a
king's son." Psalm 72:1
I
have often lamented the fact that I did not grow up
in the era of Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F.
Kennedy. I felt like a wanna-be freedom fighter born
into a more boring time, when not much was asked of
me in the way of sacrifice in the service of justice.
But Tuesday was an excellent day to be an American.
Having voted early (a privilege which all states should
extend to their residents), I took to the winding,
mountain roads in western North Carolina on the morning
of election day, knocking on 28 doors before lunch
to help turn out the vote. Clearly, my efforts were
not solitary.
This
was the election of my generation. Our moment, when
all things were possible, and the power of our democracy
was demonstrated not by military might "spreading
democracy abroad," but by millions upon millions
exercising our moral obligation to vote.
As President-elect Barack Obama said, we rejected
"the myth of our generation's apathy," and
translated our hope for a more perfect union into
action.
"May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with
justice. May the mountains yield prosperity for the
people, and the hills, in righteousness." Psalm
72:2-3
This year I emerged from the voting booth with wet eyes, because I
truly believe that change is coming to America and the world. I imagine
we're on the cusp of a renaissance of thought, creativity,
and leadership, the dawn of a new politics
of the common good. It's taken a crumbling economy, but we now know that we stand
in need of one another. To fix what's ailing Wall
Street, we must attend to Main
Street, because middle class folks fuel the economy.
To curtail climate change, we must forego the ideology
of rugged individualism and work together across the
boundaries that divide us. And as Martin Luther King
Jr. so famously said, "injustice anywhere is
a threat to justice everywhere." To sustain peaceful
human relations, we must lift many out of grinding
poverty and halt terrorists tearing at the fabric
of liberty. To truly live in peace, we must
give up our endless warring and war profiteering.
The
Abrahamic religious traditions--Judaism, Islam, and
Christianity--all share a commitment to living into
God's vision of peace. The spiritual principle known
as shalom defines God's persistent vision in
this way: that all of creation be as one, each in
community with the other, living in harmony and security
toward the well-being of every other creature.Rev.
Jennifer Browne, in a sermon awarded "Peace
Sermon of the Year" by the 2008 West Michigan
Conference of the United
Methodist Church,
notes: "Shalom
is deliberately corporate. If there is to be well-being,
it will not be just for isolated, insulated individuals;
it is rather security and prosperity granted to a
whole community: young and old, rich and poor, powerful
and dependent. Always we are all in it together." In Obama's words, "our
stories are singular, but our destiny is shared."
"May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance
to the needy, and crush the oppressor." Psalm
72:4
Not
only did we elect the first black president of the
United
States, we did so because he
ran a smart, disciplined, and compelling campaign
that inspired unyielding hope. Barack Obama is a leader
who has demonstrated that he cares very much for the
poor. That's why jubilation broke out in cities all
over the nation on election night. Even in the farthest
corners of the world people of color and the poor
were dancing and singing and giving thanks that the
leader of the free world identifies with them; has
experienced life outside of the privileged borders
of the United States; knows what it is like to be
raised by a single mom; has the blood of a continent
rich in culture and resources, but burdened by oppression
running through his veins. I believe their exuberance
over Obama runs deep, not because he is some kind
of messianic figure, but because they too believe
that change is coming.
"For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who
have no helper. He has pity on the weak and the afflicted,
and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression
and violence he redeems their life; and precious is
their blood in his sight."
The
kind of change our time demands is not simply a change
from one party to another, or a pendulum swing from
one ideology back to another. It is aggressive, structural
change that plucks up the very roots of both our economic
woes and our use of militarism as the solution to
conflict. This kind of change is a complete
overhaul of our nation's priorities, so that the wellbeing
of our children and elders is placed above the bottom
line of the world’s largest corporations.
This
week, a senior Pentagon
advisory group warned President-elect Obama that
the Department of Defense budget is "not sustainable"
and must be substantially slashed. In an internal
briefing prepared for the presidential transition,
these experts concluded, "Business as usual is
no longer an option. The current and future fiscal
environment facing the department demands bold action…
taking cuts at the margin won't work this time, nor
will pushing things off to later years."
This
is the kind of strucutral change a new Obama administration
must enact, if we are to reorder our national priorities
to favor peace over war, veterans over outdated weapons
systems, children over corporations. Change
is never easy. Weapons systems provide job security
for many Americans. But a shift from an economy based
on the military industrial complex to one rooted in
green collar jobs that grow our access to alternative
energy is change long overdue. Yes, we can
must continue to win out over fear of change.
"May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked
for him all day long. May there be abundance of grain
in the land; may it wave on the tops of the mountains
and may people blossom in the cities like the grass
of the field. May all nations be blessed in him."
Ella
Baker once said that no leader is capable of doing
for us what we will not do for ourselves, and as much
as I celebrate the dignity and incredible gifts of
Barack Obama, I also revel in this election because
of what it says about us as a people and a nation.
Much work lies ahead. We've just elected one man to
the highest office in the nation. It's a chance for
change--a symbol of change more than change itself--but
today I embrace the vision that the true genius of
America is that, yes, we can change. In fact, the
community organizing and collective labor it took
to produce the kind of election we had on November
4th is the very network that inspires me
to believe it's possible to usher in the kind of change
Barack Obama represents. I hope that his leadership
will call forth the better angels within each of us,
so that we will live out of our best selves.
Speaking
of change, we will truly move forward as a country
when we put this bitter, polarized chapter of our
nation's history behind us. The critical issues of
our day cannot be addressed only by those in one political
party or of one ideological persuasion. If this election
demonstrated anything, it was that we get things done
only by bringing together unlikely groups that share
in the same vision of a better America. This includes not
only different religious communities, but the disparate
groups within particular religious traditions.
Can't
we all agree that there is no moral or ethical justification
for the creation, testing, or use of nuclear weapons?
And if we can all agree, then can't we find ways to
overlook our differences on other issues and work
together to usher in a peaceful, more secure world
for our children? This is the season. Now is the moment.
Let's put our hands on the arc of history and "bend
it once more toward the hope of a better day."
Amen!
