The Election… and What’s Next?

So the election season is over. Half the people you know are delighted, or at least relieved, or hopeful. The other half are despondent, or annoyed, mostly baffled and a bit hopeless. Treat the others with some mercy – advice that only makes sense within our context of striving toward a holy spirituality.

I stick with Russell Moore’s prediction in Christianity Today late last summer: “Your candidate will not win.” We’re all still losers in this country. President Trump can promise a “golden age,” but most of the luster comes off if you consider that half (or an inch less than a half!) see him as not just as the one they didn’t prefer, but as one who terrifies them, one they regard as a farce. Pleas to “Come Together” ring hollow, if it just means Come on over to our side, go with us, trust us.

Mind you, as Christians we have good cause to rise above the us vs. them combat (which is endless, which never has a viable winner) and to ask Who are we as God’s people? What is God asking of the church? Our mission did not change last Tuesday – and would not have changed if the other side had won!

That mission? I keep thinking of Howard Thurman’s poetic vision which I usually only ponder once Christmas is over. The election is over, and so… “When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone… when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among people, to make music in the heart.” Let’s get busy. Post-election, we’ve got work to do.

I’ve been planning to pivot at this point to an exploration of the Gospel of Luke. I told this to a friend, who responded, “Whew, a diversion from the troubles of the world. Go to something light, and happy.” As it turns out, Luke has a feast of words, images and stories that could not be more pertinent to our current situation! How good of God to provide us with such a profound message.

We’ll say more – but Luke narrates the coming of Christ, not into an idyllic, sweet manger scene, but into a world where Herod is King and Augustus is emperor, unpopular, cruel tyrants everyone feared and despised. If you’re exhausted by politics in America, if you’re cynical about government and leaders – or even if you believe and hope our new leaders will deliver the goods (and be sure, many in Jesus’ day hoped for the best from those others despised), Luke is the story for you. So we’ll begin (well, we just began, didn’t we?) on Thursday to meander through Luke’s elegant, eloquent narrative of the coming of God into the world. God is coming into our world. We need God to come, to take on flesh once more, to show us the way to God and the pattern of healing we and our world need so desperately.

Thank you in advance for reading, for joining me in thinking about God and the things of God and what God is asking of us. I’m humbled and honored – and so very grateful. Peace to you!