On Wednesday morning, half the population of our country
woke up shocked and horrified at the election of Donald Trump as the 45th
president of the United States. The
other half woke up elated and joyful. This week’s election and the reaction in the
days since have revealed, in striking terms, the real divisions at work in our
nation. The results of the election have
caused many people, on all sides of the divides, from pundits to passers-by, to
ask, “So, what now?” I have heard the
same question from friends and colleagues within the church. “So, what now?”
Tumultuous and uncertain times are really nothing new. In this week’s reading from the Gospel of
Luke, Jesus is with his disciples in Jerusalem.
It is Holy Week. He is just a few
days away from dying on a cross. While
the people around him are infatuated with the ancient structures surrounding
them, Jesus sees tumultuous days ahead. By the time Luke wrote his Gospel, the tumult
Jesus described was happening in real time.
It would be easy to get caught up in Jesus’ description of the
tumult: false teachers, wars, famines,
plagues, earthquakes. We often do. But focusing on the promises Jesus gives in
the midst of his hair-raising predictions is more important. In the midst of the uncertainty of the times,
Jesus promises to give us the words and the wisdom we need. In the midst of the tumult, he promises
protection and life. These are not empty
words. Three days after dying on the
cross he rises again to prove the power of God’s love and life is greater than
the tumult, the uncertainty and even death itself. Fifty days later, the promised Holy Spirit blows
like a mighty wind giving the apostles the words and wisdom they need to take Christ’s
message of hope and promise into an often hostile world.
So, whether you were shocked or elated on Wednesday morning,
maybe Jesus’ promise is the best answer people of faith can give to the
question, “So, what now?”
In our time, as in all previous tumultuous times, the Church
of Jesus Christ is called to do what it has always done: proclaim the Good News of God’s love and
grace for all people in Jesus Christ, walk with the poor, the powerless, the
lost and the forsaken, work for healing and shalom among the broken and the
suffering, and pray for the words and the wisdom we need to be the Body of Christ in the world. The promises of Jesus give us the hope and
the courage to carry out this mission.
As I reflected on the results of Tuesdays election as
Wednesday dawned, Paul’s words to the Corinthians bubbled up in my meditations:
“So, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:
everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to
himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation…” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).
Reconciliation. Building
bridges of justice, hope and peace in a divided and tumultuous world. Christ’s work.
As people of faith, that’s what we always need to be about… no
matter who is occupying the Oval Office.
Peace,
Bishop Mike.
Thank you for reading.
Please join me in praying for our nation and for our world.
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