Exploring Key Messages from +Budde’s Homily at the Inaugural Prayer Service

Dear Beloved of The Diocese of El Camino Real,
Many have seen or read the sermon offered by The Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde at the prayer service at Washington National Cathedral. Some of my colleagues have spent hours analyzing and interpreting the sermon for us, and for their commitment, I am grateful.
I believe that Bishop Budde’s sermon speaks for itself. She delivered an intelligent, thoughtful, firm message in a gentle manner. Her sermon of unity was scripturally based and authentic in its scholarship. She blessed those who heard by bearing witness to a God of Love and a Christ crucified. In short, Bishop Budde did what a good preacher does: comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.
I’d like to share Deacon Susan Arnold’s unique and thoughtful reflection on Bishop Budde’s sermon with all of you. I hope her reflection will give us all more food for thought.
Faithfully,

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s Homily
English Transcript | Spanish Transcript | Video
A Reflection by the Rev. Deacon Susan Arnold
If you have ever attended an Episcopal Church ordination service, Bishop Budde’s sermon would not have been surprising or different. The Prayer service was, in essence, like an ordination. It was a time to bless the Office of the President of the United States and the person who has been selected to occupy and faithfully administer the duties of this office as set forth in the Constitution of the United States.
At Episcopal ordinations the person selected to give the sermon will include direct comments to the person being ordained. In the sermon they will include references to scriptures that speak to the role the person is being ordained to. During the sermon the preacher will often refer to the person being ordained by name. An important part of the sermon is to name the charges (duties) the person is being ordained to.
I believe this is the sermon Bishop Budde gave. Her words directed to President Trump would have been similar words if she had been speaking to any person being ordained in the Episcopal Church. Her words were universal words of love and compassion; words that the founding fathers of our country promised in the Preamble to the Constitution.
The request Bishop Budde made to President Trump at the end of her sermon was not a political one. It was a request made directly from the Holy Bible in which God charges, first the leaders of the Jewish people and then also Christians, to Love God and in so doing, care for the alien resident, widows, children, the homeless, the hungry, to clothe the naked, and, yes, visit the prisoner.
Asking the President of the United States of America to consider these biblical commands in the course of carrying out the duties of his office was not a political nor disrespectful action. It was an act of recognizing his position. Otherwise, as with an ordination, it would have been a charge.