Yesterday I made a pastoral call on a River Road Church member housed in a healthcare facility. More than one employee at the facility popped in and out of the room during my visit, each one attending to her specialization. Our member graciously identified me as her pastor.

One employee, hearing that I was a “man of the cloth,” volunteered that she had given a sermon at her church the previous Sunday morning and, assuming I was interested, she proceeded to deliver it to me.

Her topic was the government shutdown, and she had two points that she proclaimed with no small unction straight from the King James Version of the Bible.

Her first point was based on Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon HIS (emphasis hers) shoulder….” The future, she said, is not in the hands of Republicans or Democrats, Representatives or Senators or the President. The only government that matters rests upon the broad shoulders of the Almighty. Therefore, there is no cause to fret about the future.

Her second point was based on Psalm 37:25-26: “I have been young, and now I am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.” God always takes care of God’s own, she said. So, and here she returned to her refrain, there is no cause to fret about the future.

You are probably as exasperated about the shutdown of our federal government as I am, and you probably have assigned villain status to one person or group as I have, though we may differ on who the villain is. In Washington there are plenty of small men from both political parties in big jobs. When small men cast long shadows, the sun is about to set.

We need a sensible solution to the government shutdown and the draconian prospect of default on our national debt. That will have to come from the ugly realities of political compromise. It may or may not. Stay tuned.

That said, the unsolicited sermon I heard yesterday is not far off the mark. The God of Abraham, Issac, Jacob and Joseph is yet the God of those of us who cannot see our way beyond the political and personal quagmires of our day. The immediate is murky, but the end is on broad shoulders and big hands.