Welcome, Flock. Today’s sermon is titled "God and Man in the Wilderness" and it should go without saying, although, that said, I’ll say it here now, that the term "Man" in this case is non-gender-specific. But we digress.
There’s a lovely moment in Matthew where John the Baptist (no stranger to the Wilderness), whilst imprisoned for who knows what but which likely had something to do with stirring the metaphorical pot a bit too vigorously for the powers that be, sends a message to Jesus, asking "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" -- a question to which Jesus doesn’t offer a flat yes (although as an answer that would certainly do), but instead says "Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see", followed, in case John’s messengers hadn’t been paying much attention, by a litany of the things they should have heard and seen.
"Yes, well and good," you must be asking, dear friend, "but what does all this have to do with Sarah Palin?" Come with me now, flock. Jump with me. Close your eyes. Grasp tightly the tip of your nose so you won’t get water in it ... and jump. For what all this has to do with Sarah Palin is a truth so self-evident that even the blind, God willing, could see it.
Who shall it be that leads us, dear friend? That is the question we wrestle with today. And a fair enough one, given the state of America as we know it. Certainly the question of credentials must be raised. And character.
In Sarah Palin’s case, her Presidential credentials were, two years ago, nearly zero (Recent history shows us that anybody with enough brains to pound sand can be the governor of Alaska). But she had a certain compelling perkiness, and she looked beguiling in the clothes the Republican National Committee bought her.
I think it was Lady MacBeth, a good woman surely, who said "To beguile the time, look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't."
To beguile the time, look like the time. Faultless political advice ... and besides, who’s not a sucker for a pretty girl? But we digress.
We digress, Flock, because it is character we really need to address. When I was a businessman I was constantly burdened by my belief that I was, almost without exception, the smartest person in any given room. And let me tell you, dear friend, it WAS a burden. Becoming a man of God has lifted such petty concerns from my shoulders, but I would like to think that if somebody had come to me, sitting grandly in my beautiful office, and said "We’d like you to run for President", that I would have said no.
"First of all," I hope I would have said, "only crazy people want to be President. Even in the best-case scenario. And second, I’m not remotely qualified. It is a serious job, with a lot at stake, and I’d probably screw it up."
All this I hope I would have said. Sarah Palin simply said yes. And that’s all we need to know about her.
Ah Hubris ... thy name is something or other.
View all my sermons at themostreverendgeoff.blogspot.com