This is the third in a series on the Christian prayers for the end of Advent. Each of these prayers begins in “O” . . .

O Root of Jesse, which standest for an ensign of the people, at whom kings shall shut their mouths, to whom the Gentiles shall seek: Come and deliver us, and tarry not.

It wasn’t fashionable to admit need until very recently. In these times, many powerful people are being forced to admit that their own power is not enough. We cannot solve our own problems.

There is a reason for this weakness: we are weak.

The measure of our power is not that good times, but the fact that bad times, are unavoidable. The rich cannot buy off fate and the powerful cannot escape judgment. Even virtue is no protection against bad times as Job discovered to his shock.

Christians have long prayed “O” prayers just before Christmas. This post is the second in a series of reflections on the prayer for the day.

O Adonai, and Leader of the house of Israel, who appearedst in the Bush to Moses in a flame of fire, and gavest him the Law on Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

Christmas is coming! We are getting near to it, but from where did we start?

We know we are going to Jesus’ Bethlehem, but we must not forget that first it was David’s.

We must not forget our roots, and this includes our incalculable debt to the Jewish people. This is not just polite, not merely wise, but a religious necessity.

Our own lives show the importance of acknowledging where we came from as part of celebrating where we are going.

The existence of beauty suggests that a God exists and that He is good. It is not a sufficient proof for the existence of God by itself, but a confirmation of His existence to those with other reasons and personal experiences that suggest His reality.

From Plato to C.S. Lewis, creation as a whole has been viewed as marvelously elegant.

The harmonious plan of the cosmos allows for variation and freedom for created beings. There is a fundamental pattern and order to creation, but also room for the unexpected within the design plan. Too much regularity would seem stagnant, so thankfully the created order also shows variability and the marvelously engineered capacity to adapt and change.

So delightful is the universe that elegant mathematical and scientific theories work better in explaining it than inelegant ones. It is no accident that scientists discover that more elegant theories are more useful in the “real world” than less beautiful ones.

The Old Testament acknowledges the existence of economic, not racial, slavery in the ancient world and attempts to regulate it. The New Testament undermines the economic viability of slavery by calling for slaves to be treated as “brothers,” but does not call for immediate abolition.

Why not?

The Bible attacks slavery and many other social injustices indirectly. The main focus of the Bible is not human culture, but the relationship between God and humankind. The Bible prioritizes healing the dying soul over dealing with corrupt cultures.

God also recognizes that revolutionary change in human institutions often produces more harm than good.

The fallen world is full of great social evils and humans are busy thinking up new ones every day. Scripture does provide general principles that can be applied to specific cases with the potential to bring about large cultural change, but slowly and over time.

Wednesday the sun came up and I was happy. It is still morning in America. The candidate I voted for did not win, but I got to vote in a free and fair election. Power will be passed peacefully and the Constitution is intact.

We should never take that for granted.

The United States of America is still a marvelous place to live. People suffering in the Sudan would trade our worst day, economically speaking, for their best. Citizens in more prosperous China do not have the chance to throw the rascals out.

The sun is not setting on the American experiment. It is still rising, because there is still work to be done expanding the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all citizens.

It is glorious that an African-American has been elected President of the United States. Slavery was the original sin of the Republic and racism remains the bitter experience of too many Americans. The election of Barack Obama will not end racism in the United States, but it is a positive, symbolic step forward.