You can’t pray for the Mayor, but you can pray for the City Council?

PHOTO CREDIT: CITY FARMER.INFO

Call it serendipity. Call it providential. Call it a second chance. Who knows what it is. All I know is that one day after pushing the “publish” button on my article about receiving an invitation to pray for the Mayor, (an invitation that I eventually declined), I received a call from my city councilman inviting me to come and pray at a regularly scheduled City Council meeting.

I had to laugh out loud.

For a minute there, I began to wonder if God was giving JONAH me! another chance to fulfill my duty and stand up to the challenge of denying myself and embracing God’s Will in every circumstance – even the circumstances that I don’t care for.

I immediately accepted the invitation from my city councilman. I felt differently about it compared to the invitation to pray at the Mayor’s function. The Mayor’s event felt contrived. Disingenuous. It felt like a political event covered in spiritual wrapping paper – cheap wrapping paper. And I’ve finally gotten to a point in my life where I can call a spade a spade with little worry about political fallout. (I’ve been calling out spades to a degree for a while now, but that activity didn’t come without thoughts about if my job would be in jeopardy for doing so. Now, as a pastor – I’m really free. I can’t recall where I read it right at this moment, but a classic book talks about how the pastor is one of the most “free” individuals in the Black Community…maybe along with artists. It’s true…and I love it!)

I felt absolutely no angst about accepting the invitation to pray at the City Council meeting. I think a number of factors played into my peace with this one. First, I think God would have sent my spiritual “spidey sense” scrambling if this was not the way to go. After conversing with The Almighty about it, I remained at peace. Second, I actually know my city councilman. We have a relationship and were connected even before he was elected. And as a local pastor is known to say, “If you don’t have relationship, you don’t have nothing.” I don’t have a relationship with Mayor Sheila Dixon. We’ve never met. Does that mean that I can only pray for those that I know. Not at all. But if we met and developed a relationship beyond politics and one day she asked me to pray at a function for her, it might be a different story….because of the relationship even if there were controversy over her head, but now? no, thanks. I would feel like I was being used for political purposes. Finally, having religious servants pray at City Council meetings in Baltimore (and many other municipalities across the nation) is no odd thing. I’m one of those city residents that actually watch the council meetings on Channel 25 if I can’t make it in person and I’ve seen my colleagues go and offer ecumenical invocations. I’ll follow in their footsteps, they’ll call me “herber“, I’ll offer a prayer, and keep it moving.

I was asked to submit my prayer for review and keep it within a certain time frame. After my first version was rejected because of length, the version below was accepted. This was the 60 second prayer that I shared before the council and all assembled last night:

Almighty God we bow with humble hearts to thank You for the blessing of this day and this gathering. Because we know You to be a God of purpose, open all of our eyes to what You would have us to embrace tonight. I pray for every councilperson present this evening. Lord, you know the weight and burden of their service. When the cameras are off, the media has left, and the business of the day is done; you know those things that hover most heavy around their hearts. Show them the path to peace in private moments. Also give them what they need to serve faithfully in public office. Grant them wisdom beyond their capacity so that as they surrender to Your Will; justice and righteousness will flow freely in Baltimore. Soften their hearts to the plight of the poor, the sick, the elders, the youth, and the prisoner – being reminded by your Word that whatever they do to the least among us they have done it unto You as well. Finally, your prophet bears witness to what you require of us all: to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with You. May we never stray far from that. In Your name we pray. Amen.

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