god’s love and politics

Twenty-fifth Sunday After Pentecost ● November 10, 2024

Rev. Jeff Wells © 2024

You can view the full worship video recording at:

https://youtu.be/sEz6bushQ0o?si=1MmJ9pUPXeXd4ZKY

Scripture Readings: 

Amos 5:7, 11-12, 15, 21-25 and Mark 12:28-31 (Inclusive Bible)

The texts of the readings are in the worship bulletin linked here.

Okay. First, I have to tell you I have felt pretty crummy since Tuesday night. For the first couple of days, I felt pretty depressed, unfocused. Then, we had a powerful prayer service on Wednesday night with St. Paul & St. Andrew and a couple other churches. That service provided those of us who gathered the space to express our lament, anger, fear, and other feelings. For most of us, it was a very needed salve on an open and painful wound. In the sending forth, I said it is important for us to allow ourselves to feel all of those feelings, but someday soon, we will need to move from lament and fear to determination, resistance, and action. We concluded the service by lighting candles and walking out onto the stairs to shine the light of love and justice into a world in turmoil. And we sang, “This little light of ours, we’re gonna let it shine.” I am so grateful to have been a part of that service. It lifted me up a bit in a very difficult week. 

Also, I am so very grateful to be a part of our community in the Church of the Village at this moment in history. I know not everyone will share it, but in my opinion, the election of Donald Trump and a Republican controlled congress has dumped us into a frightening, uncertain, and dangerous time and I feel more than ever that I need you and we need each other to draw courage and strength for the days ahead.

We cannot predict exactly what will happen, but it is surely going to be a rough ride over the next four years. We have to face the reality of our situation and figure out how we will move forward together. We need to move from lament to resoluteness. And we will need to hold and support one another in this in order to get through it and carry on the work we had already laid out for this congregation long before the election.

A lot of people are questioning God right now, even angry with God. That came through in one of the prayers on Wednesday night when Rev. Andrea Steinkamp cried out, “God where are you? Why did you allow this to happen? We need you to rescue us.” It is natural to wish that God could swoop in and fix everything for us. But that isn’t how God works. God can and does, with all God’s power, try to lead us through shadowy valleys and on pathways of righteousness and justice, but God cannot unilaterally determine the outcome of elections, or fix the broken immigration system, or bring peace in the Middle East, Ukraine, and so many other war zones. But we often make choices that go against what God desires.

Yet, even as I say that, I believe in the depths of my soul that God’s love is very powerful and persuasive. I trust in God’s love and I believe that love is stronger than hate. Why, then, does it feel like God is failing to persuade human beings to be better? All religions and wisdom traditions have embedded in them the teaching to love one another and care for the stranger. In spite of that, humans have evolved powerful forces and systems that push us to feel like there is never enough of everything to go around so we must selfishly compete with each other rather than cooperate for the common good. The truth is, there is always enough for everyone when we share and when we focus on everyone having their needs met. We hear that message repeated often in the Bible. I still believe there are more expressions of love in the world than there are of hatred and prejudice, but we seem to have a hard time seeing them and building upon them. Surely, without God’s persuasive love, the world would be a much worse place and it’s possible humanity would have self-destructed long ago.

What, then, is God’s role in the political arena? Does God take sides? I believe God is non-partisan in the sense that God does not choose one party over another. Yet, God does care deeply about what parties and politicians and voters say and do and stand for. God is not a patriot or a nationalist. God loves all nations. Yet the God we know from the Bible and the God we feel in our own experience and express in our theology most assuredly takes the side of the poor, exploited, oppressed, and marginalized. God desires the greatest possible goodness, beauty, compassion, care, and the common good. These, I believe, are all expressions of love. 

Many of those who voted for Trump must believe that God was on their side. I think God is on all sides, trying to move all of us toward the better angels of our natures and toward more humane and loving expressions of our humanity.

And God has to be frustrated by our failures to work together for the common good of all humans and of all life on Earth. Surely, that includes the horrific concentration of wealth in the midst of widespread poverty. It includes the hatred fomented between peoples over decades and centuries. The Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament are full of condemnations of those who fail to care for the poor, the sick, the outcast. Our reading from the prophet Amos is a powerful example. In this passage, God says, “you who subvert justice, trample on the poor, and extort inhumane taxes shall not profit from your actions…. But if you learn to hate what is evil, love what is good, and maintain justice, God might just let you off the hook. So, if you want to do what God desires, let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream.”

I was moved by Governor Tim Walz’ concession speech this week. He said in going around the country during the campaign, he found that people across the political spectrum were fearful and anxious. They all want to feel safe and secure. They want a chance to get a bit ahead in their lives and make a better life for their children. They want the freedom to make choices for themselves that may be different from their neighbors. Many of them voted for Trump. They are not all white Christian nationalist or deniers of climate change. And they are certainly not all against reproductive rights for women. So, in our current political climate, I think God is calling us to build bridges of love rather than barricades on which to fight. We need to work to understand why this happened, why people made this choice, how we can build understanding and cooperation, where possible. In a very divided nation, we will have to find places to compromise.

Of course, we will also need to resist with all our might, with all of the tools we have, in situations where we cannot come together. But let’s not demonize our opponents. Jesus called us to love our enemies, even as we try to stop their worst actions. Rev. William Barber put it eloquently: 

“In this season, when some want to harden and stop the heart of our democracy, we are being called like our foremothers and fathers to be the moral defibrillators of our time. We must shock this nation with the power of love. We must shock this nation with the power of mercy. We must shock this nation and fight for justice for all. We can’t give up on the heart of our democracy. Not now, not ever.”

There are no perfect leaders or perfect governmental systems that are going to save us. The work is always still ours to do regardless of the outcome of any given election. God can lead and inspire us, but God needs us to do the work of creating a better, fairer democracy. God needs us to end poverty and oppression. God needs us to strive to do all that we do motivated by love.

There is no denying that having the MAGA movement in power is going to make our work much more difficult. I really was hoping for a Democratic sweep – not because I think the Democratic Party has been so much better at solving the problems of poverty, immigration, the horrible wealth gap, or addressing climate change. But I felt we would have much more room for advocating for fundamental change. Now we will be mosting trying to build relationships, tear down walls of animosity, and fighting defensive battles for at least the next four years. 

God’s love calls us to act in the political arena. As our new Church of the Village Vision and Mission Statement proclaims, “The Church of the Village is called by the God of Life to dismantle oppression, build kin-dom justice, and actively work towards the creative transformation of ourselves and this world.” We have a responsibility to act between elections to bring about policies and practices that promote love, justice, and the common good in the world and to oppose policies that do not. 

I hope we will all grow stronger, more compassionate, and more loving in the process. I hope we will come to understand better and to have compassion for the hopes, dreams, and motivations of those with whom we disagree politically and otherwise. 

We cannot know exactly what the future holds. We cannot predict how God might persuade us and even our opponents and perceived enemies to act in ways that advance the cause of love, justice, compassion, and peace. Even God does not know exactly what the future will bring. But God is always trying to coax us toward the best possible outcomes. God is building a new way and God has work for us to do. So, let’s live into our vision and our calling to work with God to create the future God desires and that we require for sake of and in the cause of love.