Friday, October 9th. 25 days until election day. And on that day – or perhaps some days later, if what all the pundits and prognosticators say is true – someone is going to lose.
You can see it on the TV; the ads are getting sharper. Those political ad voices – low-voiced women expressing quiet outrage, growly-voiced men telling us everything is wrong, muted, troubling graphics slashing through grainy black and white photos signaling warning and danger - will only increase. If you thought harsh words were used in letters and editorials now in this and any other newspaper, count the days down. It’s coming. We know it is. It seems to be the strategy. And it’s not new. In 1828 John Quncy Adams was battling Andrew Jackson for the Presidency. Adams accused Jackson’s wife of being a “convicted adulterer”, and Jackson’s mother of being a prostitute. Jackson’s wife, a devout Christian, was so mortified that she collapsed and fell sick, and died within a few days of the election. But we have 25 days, and an election day, and perhaps most importantly, a President, Cabinet, Congress, Senate and Supreme Court and government that we may be content, perhaps even happy with, or not. What guides us before, on the day, and after? To ask this question does not mean we set aside how and why we voted. I was at a gathering of pastoral leaders the other day – outdoors, socially distanced – and one participant in the meeting remarked how strange this time is; that people of faith are declaring their allegiance for one candidate or another that appear so different, with both sides insisting that it was inconceivable that a Christian could vote for the other candidate. People of faith have been in these situations before. But in our 25 days, the day of, and the days, weeks and months later, it’s our turn to live out our faith and our call as God’s people. A look at God’s Word tells us many things about our life in Christ. Allow me to suggest four things. First, is Prayer. Prayer has gotten a bad rap in recent years, because those who have suggested prayer suggest it in a way that STOPS action, or serves as a last resort: “I guess all there’s left to do is pray.” A look in Holy Scripture tells us that Prayer serves as a means to move FORWARD, in confidence, in activity, and yes, at times in acceptance, knowing God provides the way through our living. One of Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet members, in the heat of the American Civil War, apparently expressed that he was glad that God was on the side of the Union. Lincoln replied, “sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.” That’s the prayer I will pray for this nation – that our concern is to be on God’s side. Second is Singing. I’m not suggesting the singing that’s common after winning the Super Bowl, or some other national title – We Are the Champions, my friend! No, I’m speaking of the singing God’s people do in their story – our story – in the Bible. In wins, in losses, in uncertainty, they sing; they give their feelings of loss to God in song; they rise up to give praise to God when they see God’s hand in good things. Moses and Israel sang - Miriam grabbed her tambourine - after Israel crossed the Red Sea (Exodus 15). King David sang both in victory, and in crushing defeat. A song that expresses where our hope is – in Trump? In Biden? No, “my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus and his righteousness.” And there’s another song; Hannah, when she had prayed for so long to be given a child (I Samuel 1-2), sings to God not when the child is born, but when she gives her child away - a song that in her loss, still expresses full confidence in “God’s side,” and what that means not just for herself, but for everyone, when God’s purposes are fulfilled in this world. And notice that she sings this song of absolute confidence at a time when Israel is at its darkest time of corruption and uncertainty (See I Samuel 2:12ff). Third is venturing out for the sake of relationship, as opposed to shrinking back. Often when things don’t go the way we want them to – when we lose – the temptation is to harden the lines between “us” and “them,” the next moves and counter moves designed for “our side.” But Jesus, in his life, shocked the world, because he regularly crossed boundaries. “Zacchaeus, I’m coming to your house today,” breaking bread with a hated member of the community. (Luke 19:5) Jesus crosses ethnic boundaries, visiting with a Samaritan woman (John 4), the very definition of the person in Waynesboro that lives on the other side of town, and is not your skin color. The disciples are shocked, Jesus is not in the least. What would happen if, instead of wondering why the heck “they” would ever think to vote for one candidate or another, we crossed the boundary and asked, without judgement? Maybe in the congregation you may be a part of, or the neighbor across the street? Not ready for battle, but ready to establish a relationship, as Jesus did, as the Holy Spirit did through the early church. And finally, listening for God’s call for daily living. There is no more clear reference for living on God’s side in ANY times than Romans 12:9-21. Take some time to read it. I’ll reference one verse: “if it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” In the next 25 days, and far beyond, we will all need to continue to live our lives. Pray. Sing. Cross the boundary. Live on God’s side.
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There is a story in the book of Acts of the disciple Peter, who is told by the Holy Spirit to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with a Roman Centurion. We are told he was of the Italian Cohort, and that he was a Gentile. Peter was Jewish and a Middle Eastern Semite, so it is likely that his skin color as well as his culture and background was very different from Cornelius’. We also need to remember that the Roman soldiers were Enforcers; they quickly squashed any hints of protest and rebellion from the countries they occupied. Ancient historians tell numerous stories of how ruthless the Roman soldiers were in Palestine, where Peter lived. One story tells how the Romans crucified a whole village to make their point.
You and I know what can happen in situations like these. All Roman soldiers get labeled “ruthless pigs” or something like that by the Jews in Palestine, and then we all KNOW how those soldiers behave. And all the Jews get labeled as “rabble rousing Semitic troublemakers” by the Romans, and KNOW the Romans thought, “you’ve got to squash trouble and keep the peace,” the Pax Romana that the Roman Empire treasured as a sign of their noble civilization. And yet Cornelius and Peter shared something: The Spirit of the Risen Jesus Christ was pushing both of them toward each other. You may know the story. Cornelius and his whole household heard the Good News of God’s love for the world in Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit moved in a powerful way so that Cornelius and all his household experienced the new life that Jesus offers the world, and they were baptized. The reaction of Peter’s Jewish friends is telling: “The believers who had come with Peter were ASTONISHED – amazed, but also a little afraid, because they never expected something like this to happen – that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out EVEN ON THE GENTILES,” is what the Bible records. And God knows that we know what happens when something astonishing and NOT WHAT WE EXPECT happens: the news spreads like wildfire, as quick as CNN and Fox News, so that when Peter returns to Jerusalem, the Church there knows it already! And boy, are they ready for Peter: “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! Talking with people not like us?!” And here’s the powerful answer that Peter gives: “the Holy Spirit sent me, and who was I to hinder God?” This story tells us a lot about the early Church, and it tells us a lot about our humanity, and about God.
One of my pastoral colleagues wrote a few weeks ago a powerful article advocating for Racial Unity, citing a prayer meeting in which a black participant shared how God showed her that she could not harbor hate in her heart, and needed to forgive. I had a similar experience recently. It is amazing to witness the power of someone who has experienced so much negatively in her life that we would expect a hardening of heart against “them.” Against someone like me. This story was used as an example of the importance of our unity in Christ, and setting aside everything except our identity and one-ness in Christ. While this is true, the story of Acts is a witness that something MUST occur before we can talk about that identity and unity. Peter ACCEPTED Cornelius’ differences of race, skin color, background and culture in some way, otherwise, he wouldn’t have crossed the threshold of Cornelius’ house. And the same is true for Cornelius. You can HEAR in the story the fearful astonishment of Peter’s friends, and later the church in Jerusalem; “what were you thinking?!” And yet Peter and the Bible tells us the Holy Spirit is certainly the one acting to push the Church to cross lines and accept those who are different from “us.” If anything, it tells us what God’s intentions are for the Church of today. Last week there was an editorial in this newspaper entitled “We’re Witnessing a Social Secession.” It gave many examples of how, as a nation, we are gathering in like-minded groups to the point that we don’t even KNOW people who differ from us; that our society is coming to be “living in parallel” with one another. The editorial gave examples of how a Republican spoke at the Democratic convention – or a Democrat spoke at a Republican organized event - and people were astonished, even outraged that this happened. “What were you thinking?!” It sounds like the Jews and the Gentiles at the time of the early Church! You and I know so clearly we live in a time of division and uncertainty. And we know how the Church itself can be tempted to divide itself in similar ways. However, the witness of the Bible is that it is EXACTLY AT SUCH A TIME when the gospel of Jesus Christ and the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit pushes the Church to cross the same kind of boundaries the early Church had – political, social, cultural, and racial boundaries – to accept those differences, to talk with one another, and THEN be able to find the unity that God gives us in Jesus. For too long the Church has allowed itself the luxury of thinking we can somehow be God’s people, and show God’s love only with like-minded or similar-looking people. God’s Spirit blew that idea away a long time ago. I never thought to share a column about food. And the surprise of it is that the source comes from the New Testament, from the apostle Paul. And he doesn’t just spend a little time talking about it. About 20% of his first letter to the Corinthians is about food. And I was surprised to realize that almost 10% of his letter to the Romans – one of the most studied books of the Bible - is also about food, what people eat. It turns out that what people are eating is a source of conflict in the churches. That may sound like the silliest thing to us, though we certainly have experienced a bit of food conflict in our own day and time: those who are vegetarian, who do not eat meat, or eat only certain types like fish, eggs, or dairy products; or who will not eat any animal product (vegan). At Grace Lutheran fellowship meals (pre-Covid) we tried to be sure there were some vegetarian dishes, so there was something for everyone. Of course, like many subjects these days, these food issues have at times taken on a political tone. I remember a sign on a building near the Augusta Health hospital that advocated for buying beef “while you still could,” reacting to an article in the news at the time which connected excessive beef cattle grazing to global warming. In Corinth and in Rome, there were those who celebrated that their freedom in Christ from sin and death freed them from the Old Testament laws forbidding the eating of certain types of meat. And they believed this freedom should allow them to buy meat at pagan Temples, which was where you could get the freshest meat, since the animals had just been butchered and sacrificed, and then sold to the public. Strange to us, who are used to going to the Meating Place or Kroger, but a regular part of living in the Roman Empire. And yet for some Christians, the fact that the food had been offered to Zeus or Apollo was an affront to their faith. To them, all belonged to God, including meat; God says so in the Old Testament! So, to purchase meat that had been first offered to Zeus was not right, and so shouldn’t be bought or eaten; it was against the faith that God alone gives us everything. We can get stuck on the foodie part of this, and dismiss it as having little to do with us today. And yet why would the apostle Paul spend so much time on food, and how it was tearing the Church apart? Read I Corinthians 8-10, or Romans 14 - 15, and you’ll find it was getting in the way of what REALLY united the people that Paul wrote to: NOT the freedom they thought they had in Jesus to eat meat offered to idols, or the traditions they honored that gave expression to honoring God, but their unity in Jesus, who died for all, and rose again for all, to be Lord of all. For Paul this truth was far more important than food, and how their progressive freedoms, or their conservative traditions affected how they ate. What was important was their one-ness in Christ. The early Church was made up of all kinds of different people, who thought about their lives in many different ways (not unlike our day and time). But Paul’s appeal is to something (Some One) different: “…those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God, while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God… If we live, we live to the Lord. If we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die we are the Lord’s…Why do you pass judgment… [or] despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” (Romans 14:6b-8, 10) We live in a time where food is not the issue, even though one can see how food is a lens through which to view our differences – remember the beef sign out by the hospital, and the concern about beef and global warning! But what lies behind the food is the same. How can we, in these fractious times, hold onto what unites us? This is a question not only as Christians, but Americans. You’ve seen the Virginia license plates that have a drawing of a serpent, one of the earliest rallying symbols for the American colonies. What is easy to forget is the symbol, first used by Benjamin Franklin, is a call for unity, rather than division. “United we stand – divided we fall.” These next three months before elections will test that unity; including those who follow Christ. In recent years we have often chosen issues over our unity as Christians, as Americans. Freedoms, as well as Traditions, are important. And yet it is Jesus that brought, and brings the Church together, in unity. How did the apostle Paul appeal to unity? Well, he talked about love as greater than faith, or hope; he remembered that Jesus summed up the whole Law in the commandment to love neighbor. It’s in the idea that we are the body of Christ together, and then individually members of it. And Paul spoke of not making each other stumble, but of building each other up and pursuing peace. The great Christian writer C.S. Lewis wrote many years ago: “It takes all sorts to make a world; or a church. If grace perfects nature it must expand all our natures into the full richness of diversity which God intended when He made them…” Our unity in Christ, and our unity as Americans in the midst of our differences has never been more important than here and now. Food for thought. |
AuthorPastor Paul came to Grace to serve as our Pastor in October 2012. After a first career in product and graphic design, he was ordained in 1993, and has served as a parish pastor in Virginia and South Carolina. He is married to Jill and they have two daughters, one at Roanoke College and one at James Madison University. Archives
December 2021
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