What was Wrong about the Washington D.C. bishop’s sermon to President Trump? f you have been following this blog for any time at all, you know I am no fan of Donald Trump. There is not much anyone could say to him that would make me feel compelled to call them out.
That is, until Mariann Edgar Budde’s sermon earlier this week at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. If you haven’t heard, Budde is an Episcopal bishop. She used the service to criticize and appeal directly to Trump, who was sitting on the front row.
What the bishop said to Trump
Budde told Trump people were scared because of his inaugural address . She said to him that “[t]here are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families — some who fear for their lives.”
She could have also said there were heterosexual republican adults who fear the next four years. But she didn’t say that. I suspect she didn’t say that because what she was doing was something political parading as something spiritual.
But let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and set allegations of political bias aside for the moment.
The bishop was Kapernicking
What was wrong about the good bishop’s sermon to President Trump was something else. The more serious problem from a Kingdom perspective is that Budde was not doing her job faithfully (2 Chronicles 19:9 – He gave them these orders: “You must serve faithfully and wholeheartedly in the fear of the Lord.) or sincerely (Colossians 3:22: Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.). She was Kapernicking.
Colin Kapernick was a professional football player who used a nationally televised football game to be a civil rights leader; Budde is cleric who used a nationally televised church service to be a politician. Both had captive audiences who came to experience one thing and instead received another.
Both failed to do their jobs for the purpose for which those jobs exist in the kingdom of God. Both failed to do their jobs sincerely and faithfully, and both defrauded their audiences.
Budde did not do her job “sincerely”
Budde’s job was not to dictate politics to Donald Trump but to share the gospel with him (and everyone else there). That is the real tragedy here. There are few who probably need to hear a clear presentation of the gospel more than Donald Trump, and Budde wasted her shot by being political rather than clerical.
Donald Trump didn’t need Budde’s politics; he needed the gospel. He didn’t need a bishop who criticized him; he needed a bishop who preached the cross and resurrection of Jesus. In short, he needed this religious leader to do her job, and instead she chose to do something else.
People go to church to hear about God, just like people go to football games to watch football. And when the professionals who serve in those roles do their jobs sincerely and faithfully, that is what the people get.
Tuesday at the National Cathedral that is not what they got, and that is on Budde. GS
