Armodoxy for Today: Jimmy Carter and the Red Letters

The United States is honoring its 39^th president with a National Day of Mourning today. Jimmy Carter passed away at the age of 100 a few days before the New Year.

Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976, during the bicentennial celebration of the United States of America. Historians look back at that time with many descriptors, including turbulent, difficult, uncertain, and the like. For me it was a dawning of a new vision, of a new possibility. We had gone through the 1960s, the assassination of the President, and Civil Rights leaders. In the 1970’s was the unpopular war in Vietnam had just come to an end. The President had resigned from office in the face of a scandal, and religion was finding a new heyday with the Jesus movement, Eastern philosophies and free worship.

Jimmy Carter took the reigns of this 200-year-old country and openly proclaimed his Christian beliefs. And while many things have been said and will be said about his policies and politics, I would like to focus today on his proclaimed love for Jesus and how he applied it to his life, and ultimately to the world he affected.

To the end, Jimmy Carter taught Sunday School at his local church. Yes, that’s right. He was first and foremost a Sunday School teacher who brought the scriptures alive by pointing to applications of faith. He taught by example. For many years he and his wife Roselyn volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, building affordable housing for people, to give them dignity. He was a champion for human rights and understood himself to be an agent – God’s hands and feet – for change.

One of the lines that I heard him speak many years ago has left a mark on me. He called himself a “Red-letter Baptist” meaning he read the Bible, but the words in red-letters were placed above all else. In many published Bibles, the words of Jesus were emphasized by being printed in red letters. Carter was pointing to those words, which became the guiding force for his life.

We join the National Day of Mourning today by praying for his soul and asking for God to continue to bless us with leaders who share the love of Christ with us all.

Christ, Son of God, forbearing and compassionate, through your love as our Creator have mercy on the souls of all them that are at rest, especially the soul of your newly departed servant Jimmy Carter. Be mindful of him on the great day of the coming of your Kingdom. May his memory live on in our actions of compassion and sharing the talents that you bestow on each of us. Remind us, that above all else, the Love of God, and the expression of that love in loving one another is a responsibility that belongs to us all. Amen.