Moving Ahead

The recent presidential election has exposed deep divisions in our country, as well as causing profound pain to many people. In this sermon, I comment on one of its side effects. Regardless of who you voted for (or against), I'm talking to YOU!

It’s finally over. The national presidential campaign that has dragged on for countless months has finally ended. But, with the exception that a new president will be sworn in next January, nothing much has changed. Our country is just as divided as it was last week this time. Half of our citizens are stunned in disbelief, while the other half is saying “Just get over it!” The divisions that were exposed by this election have not disappeared and are not going to disappear, no matter how many speeches are given that call for unity. As a pastor, I wonder what in the world I can say to you this morning. This is one of those times when I feel overwhelmed by forces that no one of us can control. What can I can say to all of you? After all, some of you voted for the winning candidate, and some of you voted for another. I am tempted to play it safe and ignore last week’s events. But I was born into a Presbyterian tradition that says preaching is a Spirit-led calling; and I cut my teeth on the 20^th century theologian Karl Barth who advised us to preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. So this morning, I’m going to do just that. I have some things to say to everyone, no matter who you supported in the past election, and no matter who you voted for – or against.

First, I want to remind you who we are and whose we are. We are children of God and members of the Body of Christ. No matter what our political affiliations may be, we are Christians first and Democrats, Republicans, or Independents second. When we were baptized, we promised (or our parents promised for us) that we would live under the lordship of Jesus Christ. We take our marching orders from him; and, despite what some people may tell you, he doesn’t care who we vote for or against. He cares how we behave during those times that we aren’t in the voting booth. He wants us to live a life of love, compassion, and mercy regardless of how other people may behave. That’s where we have to start before we can talk about moving ahead. We have to go all the way back to the foundation of our faith.

And then we have to remember what that life of love, mercy and compassion looks like. It isn’t hard to do. All we have to do is to look at the example that Jesus gave us. He rubbed elbows with all the folks that the people in power rejected. He ate dinner with prostitutes. He healed lepers. He hung out with people who wore rags. He even called a tax collector to be one of his disciples. In fact, Jesus accepted everybody. He didn’t make anyone earn his acceptance! The only people that Jesus condemned were the ones who thought that they were better than everybody else: the religious leaders, for instance, who thought that they had a God in their pocket. And Jesus’ life of love, mercy, and compassion was so threatening to the people in power that they killed him. And even then he prayed, “Father, forgive them. They don’t have a clue about what they’re doing.”

You know all those things. I haven’t told you anything new, or shared an electrifying insight that made you sit up and take notice. So why am I telling you these things? It’s because we all need a reminder of the foundations of our faith right now. The recent political campaign has had some ugly side effects, and we Christians are called to resist them. Notably, hate speech has been not only normalized but encouraged. Let me give you some examples of messages that appeared in the wake of the election. Signs were scrawled on the door of a Minnesota high school bathroom late last week saying, “Go back to Africa” and “Make America white again.” Graffiti was painted on a wall in Durham, North Carolina. It said, “Black lives don’t matter, and neither do your votes.” And a message appeared on a public wall in South Philadelphia that said, “Trump: Sieg Heil 2016.” In place of the “T” in “Trump” was a swastika.

I’ll bet that some of the people who were responsible for these displays are good church-goers. They might even claim to be Christians. But sentiments like these are as far from the Kingdom of God as the north pole is from the south pole! I hope that graffiti like this will disappear as we get farther and farther away from the sloganism and mud-slinging of the recent election. But I doubt if the hate that caused it that will go anywhere. It will continue to simmer under the surface of our society, only to bubble up and boil over on to women, people of color, immigrants, and non-Christians. What would Jesus say about that? I know; and so do you. He would say that tolerance towards intolerance is no virtue. Let me say that in a different way. We must not remain silent when the hate of some causes pain to others! We cannot stand by and do nothing when others are being victimized by hate, no matter whether that hate takes the form of racism or sexism or homophobia.

Now, some of you may object that Jesus was very tolerant. He was infinitely patient with people. But he also got angry. When he went to Jerusalem and saw that God’s Temple had been turned into a market-place, he took action. He overturned tables, let sacrificial animals free, and proclaimed that the situation was intolerable! Did he hate the people who were responsible? Of course not! But he took a stand. Maybe we should learn from his example and take a stand ourselves. Maybe we should stand with those who are the targets of hate. In the mid-1700s, Irish statesman Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men (and women) to do nothing.” That’s as true today as it was 250 years ago.

This past Wednesday, the national leaders of the United Church of Christ sent “A Pastoral Letter to a United Church in a Divided Country.” This is a part of that letter.

“We are… a deeply divided people. Because this election sharply separated us over matters of race, gender, human sexuality, faith, economic inequality and political persuasions, we all bear a heavy burden moving forward. It is our call, our shared mission, to heed the call of God's Spirit and to work to repair damages in our deeply wounded and fiercely broken body. Mr. Trump was able to win this election in spite of clear evidence… of racism, homophobia, xenophobia, misogyny, and Islamaphobia. …He must now lead a country where people of color, women, Muslims, immigrants, the disabled, and an LGBT community all feel the sting and impact of his public speech. But as the United Church of Christ, we will live into our Vision: "United in Christ's love, a just world for all." Dear United Church of Christ, we were built to heal bodies broken and divided. This is our calling. Our core values of love, hospitality, and justice for all must be fully embraced in the days to come. It could well be that we were called into being for just such a time as this. We… call upon the church to seek a pathway that envisions a just world for all. Those who celebrate this election must show a humility that honors the pain of those whose dreams were dashed by the outcome. Those who grieve must find a courage and hope found in a faith not in earthly power, but in the redemptive love of our Risen Christ.”

I agree with them. We can only move ahead by standing fast where we’ve always been, where the church of Christ has stood for 2,000 years, and where we still stand – on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I, for one, intend to stand there. I invite you to join me.