Pastor’s Pen: January 2025
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy”
-Jesus of Nazareth, Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5:7
BISHOP MARIANN EDGAR BUDDE
EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF WASHINGTON
On January 21, at the inaugural interfaith service in the in the Washington National Cathedral, Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde stepped into that massive pulpit and preached a sermon on unity.
The inaugural prayer service is a tradition in our nation’s history. Since the nation’s founding, newly sworn-in presidents and faith leaders from across religious traditions gather to offer prayers of thanksgiving for our democracy and to seek God’s guidance in the years ahead.
In Bishop Budde’s sermon, she explored the difficulty of forging unity, the “kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division, a unity that serves the common good.” She then went on to lay out the three foundational principles for the task of forging unity: honoring the inherent dignity of every human being, honesty, and humility. Read the text of her sermon here.
Nearing the end of her sermon, Bishop Budde turned to President Donald Trump, sitting just a few feet away in the front row and said these words:
“Let me make one more final plea: Mr. President, millions have put their trust in you. And as you told the nation yesterday you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”
Bishop Budde exercised her call as an ordained minister in the church of Christ to plead for mercy on behalf of LGBTQIA+ families, trans children, and immigrants. She climbed the steps of that massive, overbearing pulpit and pleaded for mercy. If you have been following the news since her sermon at last Tuesday’s prayer service, then you have read both compliments and condemnations of her words.
Here’s my take: Bishop Budde did not wag her finger. She did not make blunt accusations. She did not use her spiritual authority to criticize or censure. She pleaded for mercy for those who are feeling afraid. For those who are vulnerable. For those whose bodies and lives will be impacted by policies passed in political halls of power.
Dear church, I am struck by Bishop Budde’s courage and call for mercy from the pulpit. She may have addressed her plea directly to our President, but the call to show mercy falls upon every person of faith. This call to mercy resounds throughout the sweep of Biblical story culminating in Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount: “blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy.”
How will we, God’s church, be part of the fabric of repairing division, rebuilding trust in our communities, families, and congregations, and forging hard won unity? By prioritizing mercy. By sharing compassion and offering forgiveness when it is within our power to withhold it. This happens in small often seemingly insignificant ways. When no one is looking or overhearing us. It happens within our spheres of influence. At dinner tables. At the grocery store. At the bar. On our morning walk.
Choose mercy, church. Just as our God has chosen mercy in and through our Savior and Lord, Jesus. You will be blessed for it.
With you in faith,
Pastor Beth