After the Election

I voted today. Now what? What are you going to do when the election is over?

No matter who lands in office, we have work to do.

I hope you will join me in a renewed and energetic commitment to repairing the torn fabric of our public life. Deep hurts that we have inflicted on one another need healing. Both we ourselves and our elected public servants need a re-call to civility and a persistent commitment to the common good over personal and partisan agendas. The post-election world needs ambassadors of reconciliation in every arena of influence that we have, in our families, our congregations, our communities, our church, our counties, our states, and our country.

Most pundits and social commentators agree that we will be sorting through the debris left behind by this election cycle for a very long time. As cross-marked, Spirit-sealed followers of Jesus, we are claimed, called, set free, and sent to stand in the breaches. We are sent to tear down walls that divide and build paths to peace. The cross on our foreheads and the Spirit in our hearts call us to turn the gaze of our common life – which has been saturated with attack ads and volatile rhetoric –toward those who have been overlooked, pushed aside, dismissed, disrespected, detested, and dejected.

If you and I don’t lead the way forward, who will?

Long ago, the apostle Paul reminded riven communities that in Christ, God has torn down divisive walls of hostility and has entrusted the message of reconciliation to us [Ephesians 2:14; 2 Corinthians 5:19]. We know the power of forgiveness and we are sent to offer it to others. We know the peace of being restored in relationship and we are blessed to be peacemakers. We know the transforming power of receiving mercy and the freedom and new life that ride the coattails of justice and we are empowered to give ourselves so others might know it, too. We know the commitment of Christ to care for the poor, the outcast, the captive, and the wandering ones and we are called to follow in that way of Jesus.

We follow this Way trusting the even more ancient call and promise from God through the prophet Jeremiah: Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For surely I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope [Jeremiah29:7-14].

Of course, this is not an easy path to walk. The divides are deep and the needs are myriad. But it’s the path the crucified and risen Jesus has always walked. He will continue to walk that way long after the election results are in. For the sake of the life of the world so beloved by God, he calls us to follow.

So, what do you say? Let’s cast our votes and get to work.

Think Creatively

[The mission territory that I serve as bishop is about to embark on a re-visioning process called "New Vision for a New Day: Listen deeply. Think creatively. Act boldly." This piece is a brief reflection on the second aspect of that process.]

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen

[Ephesians 3:14-21, NRSV]

From the very beginning of scripture to its ending, God engages in the sometimes irritating habit of calling people to think creatively. Over and over again, God’s people seem to limit their vision and, consequently, their creative energies, to the borderline where their own limitations, frailties and failings meet the threats, challenges, and impositions of life.

To weary people on the edge of a promised land fraught with well-armed giants, God says, “Go ahead; take it.”

      To people languishing in exile, God entreats, “Do not remember the things of old…I am about to do a new thing!”

      God in Christ, no longer bound by doors locked tight by fear, appears to dispirited disciples whispering peace and proclaiming, “Fling wide the doors! I am sending you just like the Father sent me.”

      In a multitude of languages, God’s Spirit permeates the people on Pentecost, calling them to dream new dreams.

      God calls to Peter, bound as he is by careful adherence to tradition, to stretch beyond the boundaries and borders at the very outer edge of his vision.

      The truth is, fear binds and faith frees. Or, more accurately, when all we see are the immense challenges in the light of our own frailties and failings we often become fearful, paralyzed, and held captive to our own imagination and to what we already know. On the other hand, trust in God’s redeeming activity in the world, combined with trust in God’s unfailing love and care for us and for the world, offers freedom to let go of what we already know and to reach beyond our own limited vision, well-worn pathways, and daunting challenges to receive with open hands God’s creative, life-giving future.

       Next time you are in a planning session at church, or trying to imagine your way through a difficult time at home, or working with a community committee on some new project, take a moment to consider the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s amazing grace and then let your imagination run wild and free into God’s imaginative future.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen