The Pastoral Staff from Woodland Church and I watched the Inauguration at a local restaurant while we ate lunch. I was very impressed with the warm prayer of Pastor Rick Warren for President Obama and the nation. Pastor Warren received a lukewarm reception from the crowd but prayed passionately. I’ve attached the text of his prayer at the conclusion of today’s post.
I also posted another prayer. This one by Eugene Robinson, a homosexual Bishop from the Episcopal Church. It seems that Bishop Robinson is always hanging around hoping to be asked his opinion regarding homosexual marriage. His activist friends were furious with President Obama for asking Pastor Warren to pray because of his endorsement of Proposition 8 Marriage Amendment. So the Bishop was also asked to pray at an event on January 18th. I’ve also included the text of his prayer at the conclusion of today’s post.
There are some thoughts in Robinson’s prayer that an Evangelical can agree with. However, the line “God of our many understandings…” is ridiculous. It is insulting to members of different religions. The Muslim, Jew, Hindu or Christian wonders how you can have a meaningful conversation if all religions are the same.
Sincere prayer is a conversation of faith with God that tells a lot about you and the culture. Prayer in the name of Jesus reveals the trust, faith, worship and love of Him who redeemed us from our sins.
Let’s pray for our new President and agree with Pastor Warren for wisdom, courage, and compassion as well as committing his family to God’s care.
Peace and Joy!
Pastor Rick Warren’s Prayer
Almighty God, our Father:
Everything we see, and everything we can’t see, exists because of you alone.
It all comes from you, it all belongs to you, it all exists for your glory.
History is your story.
The Scripture tells us, “Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one.” And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
Now today we rejoice not only in America’s peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African American president of the United States.
We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where a son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.
Give to our new president, Barack Obama,
the wisdom to lead us with humility,
the courage to lead us with integrity,
the compassion to lead us with generosity.
Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.
Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans–united not by race or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all.
When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you–forgive us.
When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone–forgive us.
When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve–forgive us.
And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes—even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve, and to seek the common good of all.
May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy, and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet.
And may we never forget that one day, all nations–and all people–will stand accountable before you.
We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life—Yeshua, ‘Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus—who taught us to pray:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
AMEN.
O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…
Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.
Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.
Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.
And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.
Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.
Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.
Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.
And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
AMEN.
Coram Deo 
HI PASTOR, I WAS WONDERING IF YOU HAD GOT SEE OR HEAR THE INAUGURATION CEREMONY. I AGREE WITH YOU ABOUT PASTOR WARREN’S PRAYER. I HAD MY HAND EXTENDED AND PRAYING FOR HIM TO SAY WHAT HE DID, BELIEVING THAT HIS WORDS WERE ANOINTED, AND THAT THE SPIRIT WAS SPEAKING TO PEOPLE’S HEARTS. I KNOW I WAS TOUCHED BY WHAT HE WAS SAYING AND I COULD SEE PEOPLE ON CAMERA THAT WERE BEING MOVED ALSO. WELL, THAT’S ALL FOR NOW. LATER. LEROY.
I think it’s horrible that one of Obama’s first executive orders was to restore the federal funding of abortion! Elections have consequences and we are beginning to see that.
Wow- Isn’t it amazing that in just reading words you can feel the power of the Holy Spirit? It would have been interesting to me to read both prayers without knowing who prayed them… I wonder if it would have only a little impact or a lot of impact on my impression of them. Of course, that may just be interesting to me…
Great blog! See mine at http://mrsogletree.worspress.com