An Advent Invitation to the Table
What a week.
There are several ways to say that to make it mean many things. I might say, “What a week!” if all kinds of good things have happened and I just can’t believe my luck. Or I might say, “What a week,” if I’ve just been incredibly busy and I’m glad the week is over, just so I can catch my breath. Sometimes life over the past few days might have been so perplexing that I get all exasperated and say, “What a week!”
But sometimes things are truly tragic. Anything even resembling eloquence becomes impossible, and the most articulate thing I can say at such times is, “What a week,” and I don’t mean it in a good way.
So let me repeat: What a week.
My first draft of this sermon included a litany of all that happened. But I couldn’t finish it.
- Because I couldn’t possibly name all the horrible things that happened this week.
- Because it upset me far too much to put it in writing.
But a friend sent me a cartoon that sums the week up, albeit imperfectly. It showed a group of white men sitting around a table, and the one sitting at the head of the table speaks:
“Before we discuss raising taxes on the poor and middle class, adding $1 trillion to the deficit, taking health insurance away from 13 million, raising premiums by 10%, defending treason, and swearing in a pedophile, let’s begin with a prayer.”
