This morning, I tuned in to the big event on the radio while on my way to a much smaller community gathering at Ner Shalom, specifically designed to provide an alternative space and spiritual support. My drive began after the oath and ended sometime mid-speech. I found myself particularly drawn in as the US Naval Academy Glee Club sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic. “Glory, glory, hallelujah,” they sang, slowing to a poignant adagio as they carefully enunciated the verse declaring that Jesus Christ had died to make men holy.
I know how revered and stirring this song is; I cannot help but feel it myself. And I also felt a chill in my blood. I wondered, what is the role of the Divine, or of any one particular sectarian view of the divine, in the inauguration of a head of state? Particularly the head of state of a country in which church and state are, at least on paper, possibly only on paper, separate.
While we use the word “inauguration” as if it were purely a technical and secular event, like the installation of a board chair, “inauguration” is inherently a religious word. Not Christian in this case, but Roman. In the word “inauguration” you see the word “augur.” Augury was a specific kind of divination in the Roman world. At moments of great change or risk – maybe the ascension of a new Caesar or the launch of a campaign of war – the moment had to be approved by the gods. The priests, in an act of augury, would look for an omen. They would sit within a particular precinct of their temple and observe the behavior of birds. Yes, specifically birds. In Greek this practice was called ornithomancy; augury in Latin. They would see what birds flew over, what birds landed, how many times they called out, what direction they were heading. Then they would interpret these actions of birds to determine if the new leader was fit or the proposed campaign was blessed.
In our own Jewish antiquity we had had a role for divination. The High Priest, the Kohen Gadol, wore tools called urim and tumim that could be used for making a delicate and important public decision. And while we know the urim and tumim existed, we have very little evidence of how exactly they worked or if they were ever used at all.
So is a Divine sign important? And what kind? Can we read the natural world around us to get an answer; to learn something we don’t know?
To be honest, I don’t really believe in signs from nature telling us things we don’t know. But I do regularly rely on nature to remind me what I do know. A walk in nature is almost always clarifying when I am puzzled. Not because I are getting new information from trees and birds and insects, but because the things I see and hear and smell remind me and point me back to what I already know deep inside me.
Over the coming months and years we will need to stay in close touch with what is true deep inside us. To know and stand firm with our inner truth more than we succumb to honeyed words of persuasion. So let us use whatever means are at our disposal to stay present with our truth.
Today is not only a day of turning over the reins of government, but also the day in which we honor the life and legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. As we sit in the bewilderment and anxiety of today’s events, we might especially hold onto the vision of justice and fairness and equality across race and class that was Dr. King’s dream, and to recommit to that vision as our own.
So let us hold that vision. Let us be calm and deliberate and ready. We do not yet know what will be required of us in the time to come. But when I look up and see a wedge of geese flying overhead I remember what I do know. And what I know is this: together we can take on any headwind and still fly high.