Trump – Aspirational Adventures

My local park Christmas day 2024 Photographed by myself

I’m always amazed at God’s timing [and do need to learn to trust it more in my daily life] and also God’s subtlety.

I’ve just been reading the reflections my mum sends me from her church and of course, as all good Anglicans know, this is the week where Jesus reads the piece from Isaiah in the synagogue.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
    to proclaim release to the prisoners
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
    to liberate the oppressed,
    and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Luke 4:18-19

I’ve often heard it preached that the reason the people got upset was because Jesus was being a bit of a smart-arse and saying “look this is me and what I’m all about”. But this reflection says to look at the verses around it and the verses around when this was first said in Isaiah. In Isaiah it talks about the congregations looking after the poor, the prisoner, the blind, the oppressed.

It is very much what Right Rev. Mariann Budde was saying at President Trump’s inauguration ceremony. We’d all like it to be to Trump and also to those billionaires on his front row. But what if it isn’t just the President Trump, those billionaires, or to include the cabinet people on the second row? We’d like that. We’d like to say “they need to do that” – and oh yes so they should as they are in power.

But what is she is actually saying it to each and everyone of us? To all of human kind?

We need to do whatever we can to give the poor dignity [which is more than leaving food in the box for the Foodbank] by not letting those who have not feel like charity cases. We all need to be helping those who are blind, and who we don’t seem to be able to miraculously heal, to be able to see and understand the life out there, and I think, this includes those who might have physical sight but miss out on really seeing the world in all its glory. We all need to be helping those imprisoned by circumstances and life choices to be freed from their mistakes, their addictions, their limiting ways of thinking. All of us not just those in leadership – though I do also think they should be leading the way, hence why they are called “leaders”!!

What I love though is the timing of this as well as the challenge. It is so easy for us all to point the finger but it is much harder too look inside out hearts. But that amazing timing where these are the verses in the lexicon for this season and there is the opportunity for us, for our leaders, for the rich and famous, to all live out what Jesus calls us to do in all the mystical, diverse amazingness.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
    to proclaim release to the prisoners
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
    to liberate the oppressed,
¹⁹    and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Don’t point the finger at others but look at yourself!

Praying About Elections

It is interesting the response from the losing side when there is a referendum or an election. In the UK I’ve heard calls for proportional representation, or after the Brexit vote how it shouldn’t have been a 50/50 split, and today was reading about the way Trump has won in the US.

Democracy in the modern world is still newish. Yes it comes from Ancient Greek but really that was mainly the elite in the city state. And until recently most of the Western world only let those who owned property and were male vote, or over a certain age. Voting for every adult no matter what their status in the UK only came into being in 1969 – a mere 55 years ago! So we are all still new at it.

I’m picking up lots of newsfeeds, etc from people I know or know of, in the US and they are depressed, upset, confused and more. But then I am only reading ones from people who are like me. I’m suspecting that, if I followed those who did vote Trump I would hear a very different story. I do need to remember that what I hear is only from those I follow who are more like me than not.

One thing though I have been thinking about is prayer. Now I know lots of people who were praying for the US elections. I’m not sure how many were praying “let your will be done, Lord”, how many were praying “God protect our land” or something similar or how many had their own agenda. And I am sure that people on both political camps were praying too. Does this mean God was being dragged back and forth not sure what to do because Democrats were asking for a different result to Republicans?

But this got me to thinking, if we pray for something, are we trying to manipulate God to do our will or are we trusting they will do as they know to be best because they can see the bigger picture.?

If the Creator of the Universe can see the beginning and the end and middle and whatever then do we have to trust, especially when we pray for big things, that all will be as it will be.

How often have you or I prayed for something and it hasn’t worked out as we’d like, even to the point of someone dying, and some well-meaning, slightly insensitive Christian says “that must be God’s will”?

Henri Nouwen talks for how when we pray we shouldn’t come with a list of instructions for God but should come with a list of problems, issues and worries and then spend our prayer time handing them over to God and trusting that God will do as God will do and that our role is just to love and trust our Creator more and more.

So with that in mind, even though I do find the US results strange and unsesttling, though not unexpected, instead of being angry I am willing to spend time in prayer and be asking “what are you trying to show us, God?” and also moving into a place where I can trust that a Higher Power knows so much more than little old me.