DKS
U.S. Senate Chaplain one of the world's most influential pulpits
Posted on: 10/15/2013 12:58
Imagine, for a moment, you are a U.S. senator. The United States Senate has a designated chaplain who offers prayer at the opening of every daily session.
But the assembly is deadlocked. There is no agreement on anything. Partisan politics rule the day. The U.S. government is shut down and employees are furloughed. National parks are closed. Government services at a complete standstill.
In that moment of prayer each morning, senators usually hear faithful and holy words which bring comfort and peace to their work. But not these days.
“Eternal God, our ever present help in trouble, as our nation stumbles toward a seemingly unavoidable government shutdown, keep our lawmakers from sowing to the wind, thereby risking reaping the whirlwind.
May they remember that all that is necessary for unintended catastrophic consequences is for good people to do nothing. Lord, lead them away from the unfortunate dialectic of us versus them, as they strive to unite for the common good of this land we love. Let them not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give them the determination to make the right things happen. Bless them with the courage to stand for something, lest they fall for anything. We pray in your merciful name. Amen.”
The voice is strong, clear and uncompromising. Senators are beginning to feel a little divine heat. The speaker is none other than their own; a trusted pastor whom they have known for quite a while.
Welcome to one of the most influential pulpits in the world. The work of the Chaplain of the United States Senate.
The current Senate Chaplain is a retired U.S. Navy officer, Rear Admiral Barry Black. He retired after a long and distinguished career as a U.S. Navy chaplain, rising to the highest levels of leadership.
A Seventh Day Adventist, Chaplain Black does all the things that any pastor does; perform weddings, listens to people’s problems and offers counsel, holds bible studies and leads daily prayer when the Senate is in session. But his congregation is in the U.S. Capitol building and he has the undivided attention of some of the most influential and powerful people in the world for one minute, each and every day.
Chaplain Black has made that minute count in the last weeks during the U.S. government shutdown.
“Have mercy upon us, oh God, and save us from the madness.”
“Today, give our lawmakers the vision and the willingness to see and to do your will. Remove from them that stubborn pride which imagination itself to be above and beyond criticism. Forgive them for the blunders they have committed, infusing them with the courage to admit and correct mistakes. Amen.”
“Forgive us when our prayers are so other worldly they are no earthly good. Forgive us also when we put politics ahead of progress.”
I hope the Senator’s collective ears are burning. They have been called to account by one of God’s own living prophets. Chaplain Black is doing something we call “speaking truth to power”.
Many people believe that politics and religion should inhabit separate worlds and that religion should have nothing to say to politics.
Chaplain Black shows by example just how wrong that thinking is. By speaking truth to power he is reminding the U.S. Senate of their leadership responsibility and that they have a higher calling than partisan political bickering.
Last week Chaplain Black saved his strongest prayers for the senators when they blocked payment of immediate death benefits to survivors of solders who had died in the line of duty.
As a former military chaplain, whose first duty is always to “his” soldiers, sailors and aircrew, Chaplain Black prayed, “When our federal shutdown delays payments of death benefits to the families of children dying on faraway battlefields, it’s time for our lawmakers to say, ‘Enough is enough’. Cover our shame with the robe of your righteousness. Forgive us, reform us and make us whole.”
Hearing of the chaplain’s words, the U.S. House of Representatives immediately voted 425-0 to approve the benefit payments.
Chaplain Black is living out a faithful calling. He says himself that “my responsibility in intercession is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.” And all the while his own salary is not being paid because of the government shutdown.
Now that’s my kind of preacher.
Search
