Regardless of your politics or your opinion of poetry, the words spoken at the Inauguration ceremony today with pride and confidence by poet laureate, Amanda Gorman, are inspiring and beautiful. Here are just a few lines from that poem, titled “The Hill We Climb:”

Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
A nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.

And yes we are far from polished,
far from pristine,
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge a union with purpose,
to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man.And so we lift our gazes, not to what stands between us,
but what stands before us.

When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it.

Click this link to watch a video recording of her recitation:
At Inauguration, Poet Amanda Gorman Predicts ‘The New Dawn Blooms’ : Inauguration Day: Live Updates : NPR

I hope, with all my heart, that we are ‘a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.’ I pray that we can ‘lift our gazes, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.’ My faith in Christ, who is our Light, our Guide, reminds me ‘there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it/If only we’re brave enough to be it.’

My prayer for us this day, and in the days to come, is that we will be brave enough to see the Light of Christ leading us as a congregation, as a community, as a nation, as a world, and that we, as God’s Beloved People, made in the image of that Light, will be brave enough to be that light for all those around us.

Peace,

Pastor Jack