Dear Friends,
I thought I’d share some of what I am thinking after the election.
First, I recognize that we do not all have the same political beliefs. Some of you may disagree with me, and that is ok. In fact, if you do disagree, I would be honored to have a conversation with you.
For me, this election result is a huge disappointment. Those words don’t even convey the horribleness. Right now, I am numb. Sad. Concerned. Angry. All the emotions are present this day.
Except tears. For some reason, I have no tears this time. If Kamala had won, I would have shed tears of joy. But for now, they are gone. I guess that is really what numb feels like.
My favorite Christian ethicist, David Gushee (co-wrote the textbook, Kingdom Ethics, for one of my classes), shared some of his thoughts in an email. As an ethicist he feels this week as if he’s failed in his work. As a pastor, I share his pain. Professor Gushee also shared a passage from Hosea, with the following being the key part:
For they sow the wind,and they shall reap the whirlwind.
-Hosea 8:7
(Gushee is also careful to point out that the United States is not the Israel to which this passage was directed. This is true, yet many Christians have trouble making that distinction. )
I remember, many years ago hearing someone preach on this text and he said something that I always remember: the thing about whirlwinds is that people who had nothing to do with sowing to the wind also reap the whirlwind. We often suffer through the effects of others’ actions. What kind of whirlwind will we experience? What kind of whirlwind will our world experience?
I’ve also been thinking about the prophetic texts in a different light. I know they were written to a different people in a different time and place, yet these ancient words continue to have value for me, for us. Today I remember that the prophets were continually calling people back to their better natures. This call was continuous, because the better natures so rarely won the day. If you are caring for your neighbor, then there is no reason for a prophet to need to call you to do so!
Jesus also called people, then, and now, to our better natures. His ministry was an invitation to a different way of living. I cannot reconcile a people choosing to dehumanize, degrade, and insult others while also identifying themselves as Christians. I don’t believe that God intervened in this election.
God did as God does, and let people have agency, even if it is sowing to the wind.
Eight years ago I questioned my Call as a pastor because I had trouble reconciling that the majority of white Christians (yes, Lutherans too) voted for someone who mocks love of God and love of neighbor. Four years ago, I questioned my Call again, for why was the election not a repudiation of the previous four years?
Today, I am not questioning my Call in the same way. I do believe that God, for whatever reason has Called me to this sometime wild ride of pastoral leadership. I recognize this. I also know that the church as we know it is dead. It’s like we’re Bruce Willis’s character in The Sixth Sense and we still think we are alive as we go through the motions of being church. Eventually we’ll discover the truth.
With this truth, we will also discover that God is still present. She loves us and she loves her creation, and she will never abandon us. Ours is a journey of discovering and then going to where God invites us.
This is something that I’ve known for some time (as have others). I’ve just not had a good vision of where that invitation will take me (or us). To community.
We don’t have real community in the United States. Maybe we are a mosaic of lots of communities. But as a nation we have become so polarized that we are no longer able to see one another as precious. I confess that I struggle with this!
But we must struggle. I don’t think there will be the same energy for protest marches this time. I don’t have the energy for them. While participating in marches I felt like I was part of a movement, like I was not alone in my frustration. But other than that, I wonder what they have done. Have they helped to divide us? I honor your own differing opinion on this.
What I hope to see is a quieter but more powerful movement. Kamala Harris campaigned with the words along the lines of “we have more that unites us than divides us, so let’s work together.” She repeated these words in her concession speech. They are good words. Can we be part of a movement toward relationship? Towards community? Towards finding a way to work together for the good of us all? Is this possible?
“Don’t let the issue become more important than the relationship.”
This quote, from Walter Smith, Ph.D., is the most important piece of advice I’ve heard in years.
It’s a hard piece of advice. For many of us the issues are indeed more important than the relationships. How can we stay in relationship with those who we so, so, so disagree with? It wasn’t until these past eight years that I understood the words of Jesus,
“they will be divided:
Father against son and son against father,
Mother against daughter and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law.”
Luke 12:53
These words remind me that we, as a people, are not particularly good at getting along with one another. We find it easier to divide and demonize than to work through our differences.
“Don’t let the issue become more important than the relationship.”
This is such a hard piece of advice. When I share it, I get pushback. “Yeah, well, I can’t be in a relationship with some who ______.” I get it. It’s hard. We see and hear awful stuff. We also do and say awful stuff. Awful stuff is not ok! We need to defend one another. Especially we need to defend those who have no voice. Yes we do! But it seems like the way we’ve been going about it isn’t working. Maybe we need to try something new.
“Don’t let the issue become more important than the relationship.”
Jesus was asked, which is the most important commandment, to which he replied, to love the Lord your God with all your might, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.” To which he was asked, who is my neighbor?
In response to this question, we get one of the most well-known parables, the Parable of the Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). Many people do not understand the way Jesus shocked his hearers with this story. You see, the person who did the right thing, the person who was the neighbor, was the enemy. A group of people is not usually an enemy for no reason!
So Jesus was teaching them, and us that relationship is important. It’s how we love God and how we experience God’s love. And it’s HARD! So INCREDIBLY HARD!
Being in relationship doesn’t mean acquiescing. We are called to have beliefs and to stand firm in them. We are also called to learn and to grow and to possibly change our minds. We are called to first see the humanity in our neighbor. To know and share what we believe while also striving to stay in relationship. Did I say this in HARD?
It is hard! But I’m willing to try, because what we’ve been doing is not working!
What might this mean for ALC? How might God be calling the good people of ALC to be church for a time such as this? We have discernment to do. We do so knowing that God, who loves us, is inviting us to better learn how to love and be neighbors.
I will be in Ohio for a wedding this weekend. Which means I will be needing to live these words as I interact with family members who see the world so very differently than I do.
Peace in Christ,
Pastor Nancy
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