The One and Only Gospel

        On Tuesday the newly minted president went to the National Cathedral for a worship service to round out the inaugural festivities. What he got there was neither what he expected nor to his liking.

        Instead of a softball sermon praising the president for being God’s answer to the problems of our country, Mr. Trump found himself the recipient of a gentle yet heartfelt plea on behalf of people his policies are putting at risk. The preacher, Episcopal Bishop of Washington Marian Edgar Budde, concluded her sermon with a direct appeal to the president. She asked Trump “to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” She went on to mention transgender youth who feel attacked by Mr. Trump’s policies and undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation and separation from their families and communities. Budde countered the persistent narrative that “illegals” are dangerous criminals. She said they “may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurdwaras and temples.” She reiterated her plea for compassion: “I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.”

        As with every public statement aired in our hyperpartisan culture, Budde’s sermon received vastly different responses, from respect and gratitude to death threats. The man on the receiving end of the sermon gave it a poor review. He described Bishop Budde as a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” who is “not very good at her job.” Then he said something that warrants a response: he demanded that she apologize, saying that she “brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way.”

        The president is wrong when he says she brought the church into politics. That started long before Mariann Budde’s tenure as Bishop of Washington. It started, in fact, with Jesus himself. And even he found a precedent in the preaching of the Hebrew prophets and in the Torah itself. Jesus’s activities of healing and preaching and organizing the poor challenged the vested power brokers of his day, from local synagogue officials to the priests and scribes of the temple system to representatives of the Roman empire itself. When he offered forgiveness of sins outside the established authority of the temple, he was committing a political act. When he preached that his disciples should love their enemies, he was committing a political act. When he rode a donkey into Jerusalem in a pointed mockery of the Roman governor’s pretensions of power, he was committing a political act.

        The same is true of his followers. When Paul wrote that “Jesus is Lord,” he was making a political statement. And we make a profound political statement every Sunday of the world when we pray for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done, and when we ascribe to God alone the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Those who want to keep the church confined within strict apolitical boundaries frankly don’t know much about real Christianity. They don’t know much about Jesus.

        Bishop Budde was standing in the best and most faithful stream of the Christian tradition when she called on the president to show mercy to the vulnerable. Notice that she did not condemn, and she did not attack. She simply and eloquently spoke truth to power. She shared the gospel. The gospel of mercy and compassion. The political gospel. The one and only gospel of Jesus Christ, our one and only Lord.