After the Voting is Done - Part 2

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Wednesday, November 9, 2016

I lift my eyes to you, O God, enthroned in heaven.  We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy, just as servants keep their eyes on their master, as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.  Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy, for we have had our fill of contempt.  We have had more than our fill of the scoffing of the proud and the contempt of the arrogant.  Psalm 123:1-4^(NLT)

OK, so it’s been a long time…..a very, very long time since you didn’t snap on the TV and immediately get a snoot-full of politics.  And now, suddenly, the campaign season is over and the complain season is in full bloom. 

Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy!

I’m being something of a prophet here, because I’m writing this on the morning of November 8^th and will send it out tomorrow early – so I don’t really know who the winner is as of this writing.  But I do know there will be a winner and a whiner! 

How could there not be?  After a year and a half of wrangling, public life, adoration of the crowds cheering, and a schedule that is non-stop talking points, interviews, rallies and strategy sessions…to have it all stop because it’s November 9^th and the final poll – the one that trumps^(NPI) all the other polls – is counted…well, it’s like, OK, time to put away the madness, we’ve been cured now. 

How will that work for either party?

For one candidate it will be instant gratification and even more adulation, as the title candidate gives way to president-elect.  And the beat will go on. 

For the other, the title will fade from “candidate” to runner-up, loser, wanna-be-but-won’t-be and never-was!  In a word, it will really stink!

To put it in perspective, our election process is in some ways like children rearranging their sandcastles on the beach.  Once the tide (vote) finally comes in, you would never know there was a fierce competition to build the biggest and best.  Or it will be like two 7 year old boys wrestling on the playground to get the attention of that pretty little girl that is in their class; in two days the boys will be back to playing video games together and both will have forgotten her name.

There is the old fable about two tear drops that met in the river.  When they told each other their life’s story they realized they had something in common.  One was the tears of the woman who lost in the fight for the heart of the man of her dreams; the other was from the one who won him.

Today we will do perhaps two things; three if we’re smart: 

1.     We will weep with and pray for the loser without whining about what could’ve or should’ve been, and…

2.     We will rejoice with the winner without gloating, while we weep in prayer for the task ahead of governing and the nearly impossible task of trying to pull-together a fractured American people, and…if we’re really smart…

3.     We will, with the Psalmist, keep our eyes on the Master. 

For You Today

Every now and then a Christian, who is obedient to the call of Christ to be an involved citizen of the Kingdom of God, by being an active citizen in the affairs of humanity, must also be reminded that our true Sovereign sits on a throne, and not at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

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[i] Title image: By Ceridwen (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

After the Voting is Done

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Tuesday, November 8, 2016

I have no doubt in my mind that after today is over one political camp will be singing along with the Psalmist:

Sing a new song to the Lord, for he has done wonderful deeds.  His right hand has won a mighty victory; his holy arm has shown his saving power!

Psalm 98:1(NLT)       

If the President we elect turns out to be the candidate for whom you voted, I pray your trust was wisely-placed, and the course of our nation will be blessed.  And if it was not mine, I pray my choice will prove to have been foolish, and the course of our nation will be blessed.

And now, no matter which candidate wins or loses, and no matter if we get it wrong or right, on to more important things…after the voting is done, let’s see if we can’t get on with what the beloved Apostle John wrote:

I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning.  Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.  2 John 5-6^(NLT)

Our country has lately been acting quite third worldly in the sense that we are a hot, seed-bed of anger and terrible harshness in every way.  If art supposedly reflects the culture from which it comes, then politics is an even better mirror.  What we have seen in this political election borders on two children slinging insults on the playground. 

It would be laughable if the stakes weren’t so high.  And I’m not particularly singling-out the horrifying image of fingers on the nuclear buttons; I’m talking about the wake of these candidate-bashing sounds and images in media, destroying any vestige of what used to be at least civil discourse or debate.  Who can see the goodness of a heart when all that fills our eyes and ears is anger?

Paul told us that the only few truly lasting things would not be education, budgets, trade deals or healthcare; the truly eternal, indestructible legislations are birthed, nurtured and maintained in the human heart:

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.  1 Corinthians 13:13^(NLT)

That sounds like a landslide.

For You Today

So, if you’re reflecting on this after the voting is over, and you’re wondering what the next step is to do right by whoever was selected for the Oval Office, well, there you go!  The greatest step is to love!  Begin to exercise faith in what God has allowed.  Keep your hope vital and strong in Jesus Christ.  Love everyone God brings across your path.

Everything else is window dressing and weeds.

Everything!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

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[i] Title image: By Ceridwen (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

Is Rescuing a Sheep Breaking the Sabbath?

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Friday, May 20, 2016

Then Jesus went over to their synagogue, where he noticed a man with a deformed hand.  The Pharisees asked Jesus, “Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?”  (They were hoping he would say yes, so they could bring charges against him.)  And he answered, “If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to pull it out?  Of course you would.  And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep!  Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.”  Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.”  So the man held out his hand, and it was restored, just like the other one!  Then the Pharisees called a meeting to plot how to kill Jesus.   Matthew 12:9-14^(NLT)

Sometimes the miracles of Jesus are so spectacularly overwhelming our poor minds are blown away, and we miss the larger miracle of why.  Of course Jesus healed the man’s hand with a compassionate touch, and that amazing and fascinating; it is also huge as a teaching point to be tender and generous towards those in need. 

But when you truly wrap your mind around the context of what was happening (Jesus was sparring with Pharisees over Sabbath law), you see a loftier point than just one man’s suffering relieved.   Jesus was demonstrating that the law is our teacher, not our master.  In the case of rescuing a lost sheep (whether it is an actual sheep, or the kind of sheep that sits next to you in the pew on Sunday), the law’s command to not do labor on the Sabbath must yield to doing good as a matter of honoring God.

General Conference (of the United Methodist Church) ends today.  That body is the legislative branch of the church’s governance, and they grapple with Sabbath-breaking and such.  This quadrennial gathering typically is a tug-of-war between the left and the right, much as we see played out in today’s political/cultural drama over which part of the tribe will be in power for the next four years.  This meeting in Portland has been no different, and, in-fact, particularly contentious.

Back to Jesus and the Pharisees; when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand it authenticated his teaching.  Unfortunately, but typically, it didn’t convince the Pharisees, it made them angry; in fact, angry enough to convene a closed-door, back-room plotting session to kill Jesus.

Back to Portland; I suspect there will be lots of smoke-filled back-room deals cut over the issues facing the United Methodist Church leadership until the General Conference meets again.  My prayer is that, when the smoke clears, the more withered parts of the body will receive a compassionate touch, rather than being brushed-aside by the rising current of cultural storms.

And that is always the rub; squabbles over issues that are one person’s Sabbath-breaking, and another’s God-honoring, usually push people aside to the gutter while the big boys fight their fights.

Lord, have mercy!

For You Today

If you tend to get tense about the rumblings of church splits, agenda-pushing over Sabbath-breaking, or political campaigns of any kind…here’s my two-cent bit of help for the day that can actually make a difference:

Go find a withered hand and be compassionate.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image:  By Raja Selvaraj (Sheperd), via Wikimedia Commons