“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 45th 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.
Today we elect the 45th 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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