Monday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 443

First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers,
petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone,
for kings and for all in authority,
that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life
in all devotion and dignity.

As the unimaginable happens and a former president of the United States faces indictment on 41 counts for conspiracy, we hear Saint Paul urging us to pray for "kings and all in authority." Because the US is a representative democracy, we must pray for those voters, congresspersons, and senators who supported the attempted coup and the alleged conspirators. 

The Apostle hoped that with just and reasonable governance, the People of God might "lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity." 

History and philosophy assure us that there was never a time when the governed were entirely powerless over their governors. The Bible testifies to that as we hear prophets fuming against the kings of Judah and Israel. If the majority had been faithful, God-fearing citizens, their rulers would not have gotten away with their abuse of authority. But there were always foreigners living among them who worshiped other gods, and the Jewish majority didn't mind entertaining these false gods when it served their own purposes. They did not seem to understand that the LORD demands outward and inward compliance to justice and mercy. The LORD sees the heart!

But the prophets, despite their religious authority and their oratorical and literary skills, had little real influence on what went on. The crowds, like Herod Antipas, might enjoy their outrageous poetry, but they left their religion in the temple where they'd found it, or in the Jordan River where they'd been baptized. Their widows were still neglected; their orphans, abandoned; and their aliens, despised. Their governments were corrupt because the people were corrupt and their nation suffered the inevitable collapse. 

Only a remnant survived, as God had ordained, to preserve the Word of God and pass it to us. Like them, we still pray that our rulers -- be they autocratic tyrants or democratically elected officials -- will govern with more justice than the people deserve. 

The debacle taking place in several courtrooms in Washington, Florida, Georgia, and New York signal an existential moment for the United States. That is, our existence as a nation is threatened; should the proceedings collapse, we can expect unimaginable chaos. If the most powerful nation on earth, with sufficient military power to destroy all life on the planet, disintegrates there will be no "quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity." Unless God intervenes, there will not be a remnant to tell the tale. 

And so we pray. 

We are sent to the world to pray for our leaders, and for just, merciful, and good government. It matters little what form the government takes. Democracy has shown that it can be as corrupt as any other form. But we are sent to this nation to pray and to testify to the merciful authority of God. 

God would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah had he found ten good men in the city, but there were none. Lot and his seriously dysfunctional family were spared less for their virtue than for God's regard for their Uncle Abraham. The Pax Romana of Saint Paul's time was far more stable than today's Pax Americana, and so we should take the Apostle's advice all the more urgently in the hope that we might yet enjoy a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.