Following is the text of the invocation given by
Bishop V. Gene Robinson at the opening ceremonies of
President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration
Sunday, January 18. Robinson delivered the prayer
at the base of the Lincoln Memorial while facing a crowd
nearly a million people strong that filled a
stretch of the National Mall all the
way to the base of the Washington Monument.
Good afternoon,
Before this
celebration begins, please join me in pausing for a moment
to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our
next president.
Oh God of our
many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with
tears -- tears for a world in which over a billion people
exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women
in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an
education, and thousands die a day from malnutrition,
malaria, and AIDS.
Bless this nation
with anger -- 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 prefer to hear
from our politicians instead of the truth about ourselves
and our 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 next
president is a human being, not a messiah. Bless us
with humility, open to understanding that our own
needs as a nation 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.
Bless us with
compassion and generosity, remembering that every
religion’s god judges us by the ways we care for the
most vulnerable. And God, we give you thanks for your
child Barack, as he assumes the office of the
president of the United States. Give him wisdom beyond his
years, inspire him with President Lincoln’s
reconciling leadership style, President
Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr.
King’s dream of a nation for all people.
Give him a quiet
heart, for our ship of state needs a steady, calm
captain. Give him stirring words; 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 a
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 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 implore you, oh good and great God to keep him
safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand that he might
do the work that 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.
(Advocate.com)
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