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Good morning. In just a few hours we should know for sure who is going to be the next Prime Minister. No doubt both candidates will be prepared, as the first speech of a new office holder often has great significance in setting out priorities and the tone of leadership.

In 1940, the new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill said, ‘I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.’ Quite a different tone to 1979 and Margaret Thatcher’s somewhat surprising use of a quote wrongly attributed to St Francis, ‘Where there is discord, may we bring harmony’. Some US Presidents in their more formal Inauguration address gave inspiration that transcended their own time. Faced with overwhelming economic challenges of the depression in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt began a series of radical reforms with, ‘we have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ And in 1961, John F. Kennedy urged his people to ‘Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.’ However, you do have to be careful in all of this. In 1841 William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia, one month after his Inaugural address, believed to have been brought on by the length of his open air speech on a freezing cold and wet day!

Inspiration comes not only from clear priorities but also authenticity in character. In the first inauguration speech in 1789, George Washington shared that ‘no event could have filled me with greater anxieties’ than to be called to the nation’s President. He goes on to talk with humility of his own deficiencies, weakness and even mixed motives. This leads him to speak of the importance of prayer to God, ‘whose providential aids can supply every human defect’.

The first words of Jesus as he begins his ministry in John’s gospel are abrupt, asking two would be followers ‘What do you want?’. It’s an invitation to consider what they really want in life, as his leadership and their discipleship will have as its priority a life of self-giving love. John has already spoken of Jesus as ‘the word made flesh…full of grace and truth’. He will use his gospel to say that in Jesus you see the character of God and what human beings can be. I’m both inspired and challenged by this. How different would the world be if political discourse, economic policy and care for the planet were full of grace and truth? And how different would my life be if day to day I was full of grace and truth? Noting my weaknesses, therefore my daily first words are… so help me God.

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