When this edition of the Caller is sent, it will be just a handful of days away from Election Day 2020. Hopes and fears related to the election have been coursing through our private lives and in broader public life, providing energy and anxiety alike. Families and friends have found themselves at odds with one another. Many of us have unfollowed or unfriended people on social media platforms, and some have more formally ceased being in relationship or in conversation with folks who have expressed opposition (sometimes hostile opposition) to all who hold certain views.
Don’t get me wrong: some of this boundary-creating and holding is healthy, to be sure. It’s an appropriate self-protective measure when there is someone calling into question or deriding core parts of who you (or loved ones) are as a beloved child of God. Blessed are the healthy boundary keepers.
Occasionally, though, folks from all political parties are too quick to write someone off or to cast them aside. To sacrifice relationship so that we can “correct” them. To believe every email or meme, no matter how skewed and inflammatory. And this election season especially, we’ve all witnessed folks calling others “monsters,” “animals,” and much worse. This sort of behavior – name-calling, assuming the worst about our neighbors, and taking on a dehumanizing perspective of individuals and groups – is not the Christian way. It’s not Jesus’ way. Jesus’ way is the way of seeing the imago Dei - image of God - in each and every person. Jesus' way is the way of compassion, forgiveness, and grace.
It’s the way of lifting up the lowly. It’s the way of doing justice and loving mercy. It’s the way he preaches about in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, which is one of the lectionary readings for All Saints Day (that happens to fall on the Sunday before the election this year). Jesus tells us: blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful and pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Heading toward the election, let’s remember the best of what our beloved saints taught us about walking in the way of Christ. Let's pray for peace, for reconciliation, for fears to be allayed, for this world that God so loves to be healed and to be made whole. Let’s pray for our neighbors who don’t vote the same way we do. And let’s keep up those prayers after the election, too, no matter what happens in any of the races. Every single day, the same things are true: God loves you; God loves each person on this earth; and God redeems and sustains it all.
Peace,
Megan