Vote for Faith, for Dignity, for Love

Once when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?” The man replied, “Neither; but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” - Joshua 5:13-14

 

Here goes the pastor, being too political again. Here’s the thing, as I see it, politics is just the word we’ve chosen to talk about how we conduct our relationships within the governments we all share. And how we conduct our relationships, whether at work or at home or in the government, is what God is all about. God repaired our relationship to him so that we can be a part of repairing broken relationships in the world.

I don’t think anyone will argue that the relationships in our political system are broken. The question is, what do we, as Christians, do about it? First and foremost, we pray. We can join in the political process, calling our representatives, participating in public meetings. We can peacefully protest. And we can vote. 

Voting is a statement within the political realm that declares all people have an equal voice, all people have an opinion that matters, and all people deserve respect and dignity. It is also a statement of solidarity with one another. As our Bishop Jonathan Holston writes, “Voting is more than simply saying what we believe. It is a sharing of faith, a tangible witness of love of God and love of neighbor. Voting is a way to acknowledge that we are one community, all in this together.”

If we are all in this together, then what side is God on? Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries? Neither, says the Lord. God fought for Joshua and the Jews at Jericho, but he was never on their “side,” as they would learn generations later when they denied justice and peace and suffered his wrath. God is not on human-created sides; God is on the side of justice, righteousness, peace, and love.

So, get out and vote, not because God is on your side, but because you want to be a part of healing the relationships that God so desires in our community, nation, and world.

                                                                 

“Don’t Trust Leaders”

Psalm 146:3–5 Don’t trust leaders; don’t trust any human beings— there’s no saving help with them! 4 Their breath leaves them, then they go back to the ground. On that very same day, their plans die too. 5 The person whose help is the God of Jacob— the person whose hope rests on the Lord their God— is truly happy! 

I’ve heard that there is a battle for the soul of our nation, that our future is at stake. God takes issue with that. Read God’s word above, read it carefully. Then go read the rest of Psalm 146. And rest assured, rest your hope on our God who is faithful forever.

It is true that leaders have a great impact on our world, especially on the vulnerable people that the Psalmist names. Plans made by leaders can help or hurt, give hope or cause despair. In our country as a representative democracy, it is not just our leaders, but everyone who votes who determines our course together as a nation. Yet, the Bible is insistent, we must not put our trust, our faith, in any human beings, not our leaders, not the parties they lead, not majorities, and not ourselves, the voters. Our call as a people of faith is to steadfastly praise and trust the Lord. That means more than voting by our Christian convictions; I know faithful Christians who vote in polar opposite ways. It means that no matter how we intend to vote, our lives and actions in the world must be defined by the Lord our God, who holds our hope, our souls, and our future, who takes up the cause of the the hungry and oppressed, the prisoners and immigrants, the widows and orphans.

Concretely, that means do not post things on social media that suggest our hope and future rests on the outcome of this election. Do read your Bible more often than your newsfeed. Do not name-call. Do pray for peace, justice, and righteousness. If you are anxious about the future of our country, sign up to read to a child at Legacy. And every time a thought of fear or despair enters your mind, especially if it is based in anxiety about the election, examine it to see if its based on trusting in leaders. Then, replace it with specific praise for the Lord, specific thankfulness for something God has done in your life. For as the Psalm says, your hope, your help, and your happiness rest in the Lord.

What Do I Know?

Matthew 6:24-36

I’ve been struggling to write this article for you, because I’m not sure what to tell you. There is so much unknown right now. Did the virus come from a market or a lab? Do our bodies gain immunity if we have it or not? When will there be a vaccine? When will our lives get back to normal? Is there a “normal” any more?

So, I’m going to try to stick to what I do know. I know that we will not return to worship in person until our community has had two sustained weeks of significant decrease in reported new cases. State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell told me that. I know we must continue to be vigilant, wash our hands, maintain our social distance, don’t touch our faces. The Coronavirus Task Force told me that. I know that we must never weigh the lives of vulnerable people against economic prosperity. Jesus told me that.

“You cannot serve God and wealth. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about you body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Jesus does not mean that we should disregard the importance of our physical lives and what we need to survive; quite the opposite in fact. Life is more than food, more than wealth, more than the stock market, more than the standard of living in this country. In the Kingdom of God, life is the most precious thing, each human life. So precious that Jesus died for every human life. True living, serving God in his kingdom and living in his righteousness, lives as Jesus lived, putting the lives of the vulnerable first, showing sacrificial love to others, and not worrying about the cost. And when we live that way, we are prepared to receive the true provision of God, the bread of life that will sustain us no matter what..

I know that we all really miss getting to be together. You all have told me that. We all want to follow Jesus; we just don’t want it to be this hard. We must endure and place the needs of our community and the vulnerable among us above our own. For when we stand in grace, “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”