The Election, Your Spirituality, & the Soul of our Nation #26: the Morning After

“The Morning After.” Just that word pair, “morning after,” implies it’s over, it’s done – maybe with a hint of regret, or relish. The 1986 film “The Morning After” opens when a way-past-her-prime alcoholic actress wakes up on the ground next to a dead man. Panic ensures. Did she kill him? How much trouble might she be in? And then, the 1983 film, “The Day After,” imagines the world right after nuclear war has broken out.

Whatever happened yesterday, whatever the results (and I’m writing this days before, so I don’t know as I write! – and we may not even know the final results as you’re reading!), it wasn’t apocalyptic. The kingdom of God didn’t dawn, and the world didn’t end either. And hopefully, you aren’t personally in any trouble.

Today though is an outstanding time to think of those who are. Half the people you know are in various shades of agony… so hold them (and maybe yourself!) in your hearts with much love and compassion, even if their choice strikes you as incomprehensible. More importantly (by far): if you firmly believe the new regime will harm this or that group, it’s time – today – to get busy, and for the church to be about its mission.

I’ll never forget how our small Hebrew class began at Duke on November 5, 1980. The professor trudged in (uncharacteristically) a few minutes late, sat down, then buried his head in his hands and wept. I’d known nothing of his political inclinations… Finally he gathered himself, looked at us and said, believing what Reagan had pledged in his campaign, “Our systems to help those suffering from mental health will largely be lost.” I did know he had a personal stake in that, with a grown child barely coping in an institution. But then he urgently instructed us: “You will be pastors soon. You and your churches will have to step into the breach, and be sure we care for those who suffer.”

Of course, the church could never do enough to replace massive government programs. We work together, or not at all… But if you believe the election will result in harm to this or that group, let’s get cracking today to alleviate what we can and labor for change – as citizens, not whiners – for a better, not bleaker future.

Think of the candidates. One winner, one loser. But neither is a loser. Both offered themselves for public service, have lived under intense scrutiny, with a schedule that would exhaust any of us, all the while enduring slander and misunderstanding. Winning voters are tempted to strut; losing voters are tempted to shudder with disgust. But we are the people of God. The church was birthed, and grew and thrived, under a brutal government that oppressed the church’s work. But the church only grew stronger. Our society, and the world, need a vital, hopeful church today more than ever.

George Bush left a handwritten note in the Oval Office for Bill Clinton in January, 1993, saying “I wish you great happiness here… Don’t let the critics discourage you or push you off course. You will be our President. Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you.”

What if God left a letter for us today? My grandparents, back in January 1961, took down the photo of President Dwight Eisenhower in their den and replaced it with one of the new President, John Kennedy. I know you’re thinking No Way. That’s fine. But they prayed for the President. Imagine if all the people in America who claim to believe in God actually prayed for their leaders, for the nation, for its people? Or spent one-tenth as much time in seeking the heart of God as they do in griping?

So let us conclude by recalling the immortal words of Lincoln, trying to lead a divided nation, and make them our hope, our prayer, our marching orders: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.”