The Meyer Minute for January 21, 2013

O eternal God, You sit mysteriously in the highest heavens but assure us of Your interest in our earthly lives.  You have instituted governments for the good of all people.  On this Inauguration Day, where can we turn for help except to You, O Lord, You who are displeased with us because of our sins?  Can entrenched interests turn America?  Can political partisanship that seeks its own good more than the common welfare turn America?  Is there hope if citizens dismiss reasoned discussion of the common good in favor of our own entitlements?  The grave issues facing us will, we pray, make us humble in heart, cooperative in political conversation and intent upon wise stewardship of this nation during our time for the sake of all who will come after us.  If we must be further divided and broken in order that America become a repentant people in whom righteousness flourishes, then so be it.  Should that be our prospect in the next years, then we beg that Your Spirit to comfort us even as we learn the hard lesson that the chastening is for our good and only in You is our hope and continued life.  Give to all our leaders, especially to President Obama and the Congress wisdom beyond their own insights.  Make their rooms large enough for partisan friends and foes alike.  Unless You, O Lord, build the house, we labor in vain to build it.  Unless You keep the nation, our leaders watch in vain (Psalm 127:1).  We ask this for America, not according to our merits but according to Your mercy, through Jesus Christ.  Amen.