The Day After

Today, many of us have woken up in a different America than we had imagined only yesterday. 

We are a divided nation, which is evident from the election results. 

Statistically, more than half of the people reading this today are elated, and the rest are despondent.  Some feel this might be the end of America as we know it, and others are triumphant that their ideals were upheld. 

I don't have it in me to share a bunch of platitudes about how this is a time for us to put our differences aside and work together in the business of unity. 

That's an admirable and worthy conversation, but it's for another day.  

Instead, I will speak to the Christian Church, particularly those within it who still believe that the ultimate purpose of anyone who says they follow Jesus is to Love God and Love Everybody. 

We've got some work to do.  

There has been so much divisive and awful rhetoric during this election.  We've demonized one another, become more fearful, walled off from people, not like us, and retreated to our corners to stare balefully out into the world, unable to trust and unwilling to reach out. 

We've allowed politicians to do the destructive work of tearing our society to shreds to gain power over us, and we've done so against our own self-interests.   

This is why those of us who follow Jesus need to follow his Greatest Commandment more than ever.  

Regardless of how you voted in this election, it's time for soul-searching.  Jesus-followers who believe that Jesus meant what he said have a higher purpose, a calling to be emissaries of God's kingdom and not the kingdoms of this world.  

We need to listen to each other more and not spend our days filling our heads and hearts with the language of fear, hate, and division that are so much a part of the media, politicians, and even some pulpits.  

Even the people who voted differently from us have been created in God's image and are beloved by God.  

And if we call ourselves Christians, we cannot shy away from the hard work of being vulnerable, open, and willing to cross our own self-imposed boundaries to discover one another's true humanity and inner light, placed there by a God who wants more for us all. 

We should also be aware that for many of us, there are often implications for election outcomes that go far beyond the simplistic balderdash of candidates who want one thing, and one thing alone, to get elected.  

This means that we should take the needs of others seriously rather than brush them aside in favor of our own.  We need to live as Jesus did for the sake of the world. 

We have work to do.  There's no time like the present to begin.  

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all, now and forever.  Amen.