God's Mission of Reconciliation

“Even as our attention is captured by the present, we know how to take a longer view.” – the Institute for the Future

Red or blue state, winner or loser, many woke up last week wondering what the outcome of the presidential election means for them, their community and for America as a nation. Analysts and commentators didn’t miss a beat in the wee hours of Wednesday morning as they began to offer their ideas and translations of the events that transpired less than twenty-four hours before. I, too, woke up curious about the future. I found myself listening to God and praying throughout the day.

Though there is still much to process, what I am clear about is that despite the chaotic reaction to the election, God’s kingdom is not of this world (see John 18:36). The work of the gospel was not changed on Election Day, nor will it change in the coming weeks or months. Despite the turmoil, the Episcopal Church will remain a Christian community committed to spreading the gospel of Good News to all people.

We will continue to proclaim that God has a mission of reconciliation with the world. This mission of reconciliation is a gift to all people, and the Episcopal Church is part of that mission. This is our work and it remains unchanged. We believe that God’s mission is undertaken in collaboration with service and evangelism.

We believe a church reconciling the world with the Gospel is made of both large and small Christian comminutes that are supportive and willing to seek out partners and neighbors. This means that we must begin to build collaborative partnerships to work on sustainability, and we must seek to improve the intrinsic value of the lives of those who dwell in our cities and in our country. People’s lives must be better tomorrow because we are here serving as the Episcopal Church today. This grace-filled service is meant for all people, without regard to societal designations of who is “in” and who is “out”. Jesus pushed the boundaries by eating and drinking with people that religion and society thought were unacceptable; the church must learn to do the same.

We also believe that an ever expanding and growing web of Christian communities of every size is essential to the work of reconciliation and service. To be a part of what God is doing, we must grow our communities within the contexts that surround us. We must seek to sow, plant, reap and harvest communities of every kind so that there are new and multiplying opportunities in which people may come together to share and participate in the love of God. In a world where people are only recognized and accepted for what they can contribute, our Episcopal communities must be places where all people are welcome and recognized as made in the image of God.

All of this will be supported by our commitment to the work of God; the physical giving of ourselves over to God’s mission in body, mind and soul. There are not half measures and there is no passive citizenship among the baptized. We look for ways we can use our God-given gifts for the work of ministry. We pray and discern how best to give our time and energy to the work that is before us. We support the work by making financial commitments based on the blessings that we have received.

We must continuously remind ourselves that God’s kingdom, God’s reign and God’s power are not of this world. Where the voices of the establishment tell you that you must earn God’s love and God’s generosity, the Christian community proclaims a Gospel that says categorically, “NO.” God’s grace is free and cannot be purchased by the individual’s goodness, devotion, loyalty or hard work. Grace is always freely given as a gift.

In every season, the church’s mission continues as it has from the time that God’s winds moved over the waters of creation. From the beginning of time, God’s people have been called to work on behalf of a God who led the people out of Egypt. God is a god of our forefathers, who brings release to the captives, who journeys with people in their wilderness leading them to green pastures. This mission will always be supported by those who believe that God came into the world in order that the world might be saved. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). God invites us to love each other as family and to serve hand-in-hand, giving of ourselves and in response to God’s love, mercy and forgiveness.

Thoughts on the 2016 Presidential Election

Bishop Doyle's Thoughts on Election Day from The Episcopal Diocese of Texas on Vimeo.

“If we who are Christians participate in the political process and in the public discourse as we are called to do — the New Testament tells us that we are to participate in the life of the polis, in the life of our society — the principle on which Christians must vote is the principle, Does this look like love of neighbor?" – Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, March 2016

Today we elect the 45^th president of the United States. After a long and grueling campaign, many of us are eager for this election to be over. The past few months have been filled with anger, blame, and fear, not to mention a fair amount of hostility. Many say that this particular election has divided us more than any election in recent United States history. I suspect this interpretation of the current state of our union has things backwards. My sense is that this election has not created division. It has revealed deep divisions that have lain dormant beneath the surface of American life.

When an 18-wheeler passes over a bridge and leaves cracks in its wake, we don’t blame the truck. The truck reveals a structural unsoundness already present in the bridge. The current presidential election has been an 18-wheeler driven over the bridge of American social and political life. It has revealed deep cracks in our community, and it has exposed our deep need for healing and reconciliation at the social and political level.

As a Bishop in the church, I can only make sense of this election in light of the doctrine of reconciliation. As Christians, we believe that God has already reconciled all people, parties, and potential presidents to Himself in Jesus Christ. We understand reconciliation as a past tense event that informs present tense action as we embody a future tense hope. When viewed from eternity, “It is finished” (Jn 19:30).

Yet as we look upon the newly obvious cracks in our social and political life, we know that even as God’s work is finished that our work is not. In other words, we cannot simply talk about reconciliation. God invites us to embody now what will be in God’s Future Kingdom as we work for the common good and strive to seek and serve Christ in all persons.

Reconciliation is not just an idea or an important theological doctrine. It is something that God wants to be a felt reality on earth. This means that real racial, social, and economic reform is needed. If this election tells us anything, it is that many people feel disenfranchised, forgotten, lied to, and left behind. An “us versus them” mentality infuses our political speech and our actions. We are a polarized nation, and our desire to win is often exceeded only by a much stronger desire to see our enemies lose. We may narrate the current social divide a bit differently, but few deny that such a divide exists. In a recent op-ed piece, David Brooks puts it like this:

The crucial social divide today is between those who feel the core trends of the global, information-age economy as tailwinds at their backs and those who feel them as headwinds in their face. That is to say, the most important social divide today is between a well-educated America that is marked by economic openness, traditional family structures, high social capital and high trust in institutions, and a less-educated America that is marked by economic insecurity, anarchic family structures, fraying community bonds and a pervasive sense of betrayal and distrust. These two groups live in entirely different universes. [1]

The work of reconciliation always begins with a commitment to the truth, and the truth is that many of us are living in entirely different universes. We are not listening to one another or giving people the benefit of the doubt, nor do we feel compassion for the deep pain and grief that always gives rise to people’s anger.

We may not know who will be elected president today, but we sense that a time of healing and reconciliation will be necessary regardless of the results of this election. If healing is to happen, God’s people must be committed to the work of making peace. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus said, “for they shall be called children of God” (Matt 5:9). Our commitment to peace must rest on the deep Biblical truth of our interconnectedness and our interdependence as we acknowledge that our common good is bound up together. To win at the expense of another is always to lose, for “when one part suffers, every part suffers with it” (1 Cor 12:26).

As Christians, we believe in a God who has emptied himself in sacrificial love so “that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it” (Eph 2: 15-16).

My deep prayer is that the people of God act as agents of God’s reconciling peace-making in the aftermath of this election. I pray that we work for racial, social, and economic reform in such a way that engages our political process with integrity, but also in such a way that we do not rely on that same process to heal our deep wounds.

I understand that many of us are deeply invested in the results of this election. We feel that much is at stake, and if we are honest we want “our side” to win. In light of this very human desire to win, I am humbled and challenged by a Lord who talked so much about losing. I hear Jesus asking me to lose my attachments, my petty desires, my simplistic solutions, my political identity, and my very life to make peace and love my neighbor. I hear Jesus reminding me that the neighbor I am invited to love is often one I too quickly call an enemy and that the Samaritan is actually my brother. Above all, I hear Jesus remind me that reconciliation is an accomplished fact where all sides have come together under His Lordship, and I hear Him pleading with me to embody and share that same message with others.

My prayers are with you on this Election Day, and on the day after, and they are with our nation. Cast your vote with hope and integrity and humility. Above all else remember that today marks not the end of our work as a nation and a church, but the only beginning. Let us pray:

Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges: Guide the people of the United States (or of this community) in the election of officials and representatives; that, by faithful administration and wise laws, the rights of all may be protected and our nation be enabled to fulfill your purposes; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, Page 822)

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[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/opinion/time-for-a-realignment.html?_r=0

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