A Virtual Church

A happy new year is on the way

Yesterday

One day last week, I used Google just to make sure to make sure Donald Trump was still President. Sadly, he was. The only good news is that in January, he will officially be a lame duck. There is little Donald Trump can do to change that. Except bellyache.

Unless he pulls one over on us, the midterm elections will result in a blue wave of elected Democrats. If he doesn’t have a MAGA majority in one or both houses of Congress, it will be interesting to see how Trump responds.

Christmas week, Trump took the opportunity to announce a whole new class of ships for his Department of “War.” The Trump Class of ships will be  commissioned.

He is becoming more and more of a comic figure as his shenanigans are wearing thin. His playbook is wearisome, and more see him as a tragic figure in American history.

His age is on full display. He is sleeping through meetings. His hands look like he has recently given blood.

The man’s frailty is showing. At least in his aging, Joe Biden remained civil and kind.

I sometimes wonder what it must be like to live inside of Donald Trump’s brain. Gears turn, statements are made, but seldom do good things result from them.

People with narcissism can’t help it. They always see themselves as the end-all and end-all of the story.

From the time he stood with an upside-down Bible, we knew he wasn’t familiar with it. He has made no pretense of being a good and holy person.

I often think of the 49.8 percent of Americans who voted for him. How many of them have buyer’s remorse?

Who knows how he will flail when his power wanes and his time is short. Some captured animals fight hard.

While the rest of us celebrate the season of hope, peace, joy, and love, Trump is scheming his next move.

The good news is North Carolina’s mid-term primary elections are March 3^rd and the general election is November 3^rd. A blue wave is predicted. Regardless of what the president thinks, he is not in charge of our elections. We can hope that impeachment or enactment of the 25^th amendment is on the way.

America is the home of the free and the brave. A rogue president will not change that.

The holiday season is a time of families gathering, generosity toward neighbors, carol singing and lots of eggnog.

The world has frequently had cruel leaders. Even the Christmas story has one.

The Magi come to visit the Messiah, God Incarnate. An angel tells then to return home by another way.

That can be taken metaphorically, for when we encounter Christ, we do go home as entirely different people.

Finding another road home is different.

My Daddy, who was a child of wonder, often wanted to take a different way home. Sometimes we would go through Snow Hill and Scuffleton to go from Kinston to Ayden. He marveled at taking the road unknown.

Recently, a picture of the Oval Office was published. Gold flourishes and gold angels were everywhere. It looked more like Versailles Place in France than the office of an American president. It was just plain gaudy. Paranoia and narcissism prevail.

In the Christmas story, Herod is a paranoid king. He gives an order to have all two-year old children killed because he was told a King of the Jews had been born.

History does not tell the story of bad kings favorably. Bad kings litter history. Paranoia and narcissism are not pretty.

Historians are always making contemporaneous notes of what they see in the world.

History will not be kind to Donald J. Trump. Our sins are on full display as much as we try to hide them.

Christmas is a season of hope, peace, joy, and love. We know God’s love is transformational. We also know, God’s love can be resisted.

The biblical story of the fig tree is that manure will be spread to see if it will produce. I’m not sure even a little manure scattered around Trump’s feet would help him.

But there will be reckoning a’ coming one day. Trump may have no trouble pleading his case, but I think we, the voters, will take him down. 

A Happy New Year is on the way.

Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com 

 

 

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