It certainly seems that both parties have embraced the joy that is early voting. Georgia reported record early voting numbers and anecdotal reports from poll workers back that up. I think it is easy to see why. Getting to show up to a polling place at the convenience of your own schedule, picking whichever day works best for you. No line. No wait. No Election Day stress—at least for your own vote. But now the election has passed and we are all adjusting to the afterglow of Tuesday night and the new reality it ushered in. For many in America it is euphoric and for many others it is devastating.
Both of these sentiments are present at Highland Hills. Truly, I am proud of our church for trying to live together in the tension of our divisive, two-party system. That's a hard thing to do when there are real consequences for our lives and the lives of those we love based on the outcome of the election.
Yet even as this election has passed, the task of the church has not changed. Whether on Monday or Thursday, we are still called to be people of peace, to care for the poor, to welcome the foreigner, to love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with God, to embrace our neighbors and to find neighbors everywhere we go. To pattern our understanding of strength on a Palestinian Jew crucified as a political criminal. To hold onto hope and live with faith. To practice resurrection. We are striving to live as if God is truly in charge. As if God's kingdom was here now.
In many ways we are still voting, but for something that totally supersedes our political systems. Voting with our lives for the Kingdom of God inaugurated, but not yet fully present. As we live and work in the days and years ahead, join me in this prayer of Saint Francis. It won't be easy, but it is ours to do.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.