[This past Sunday morning we took an unusual break in our service to talk about the recent presidential election.  Here are my notes.]

I want to take an unusual pause in our service this morning to have a pastoral chat about politics.  Carrie was kind enough to make room in the length of her sermon for us to do this and I think it is important for our life together – how we love each other and worship God together.

Our church is such a loving place for people who are black or white, rich or poor, gay or straight, young or old because Jesus and the love of Jesus is bigger than all our differences.  But even though this is a  place for so many different people to belong and be loved as unique human beings, as children of God, I wonder if those things would still hold true if everyone wore their “Make America Great Again” hats or their “Stronger Together” or “I’m with her” t-shirts.  Would we be able to hug each other, talk to each other, and worship together and see the person standing in front of us instead of the t-shirt or the hat?  Would we be able to see the person, the human being, standing in front of us? Would the spirit of Jesus flow out of us and fill this room the way it so often does?

I wonder and I have my concerns.

While the things it meant for me when I cast my ballot are really important to me, I care more about our ability to love, respect, and humanize our political other, to see each other as people, than I do who any of us voted for.  I care far more about whether the words and attitudes and actions that come out of us when we are squeezed reflect the character of Jesus than I do what hat or t-shirt any of us could be wearing this morning.

My concerns shouldn’t be too surprising.  After all, we have all been drinking in the toxic propaganda of a presidential election for over a year now – competing drinks of fear, anger, and hostility.  It’s one of the central ways politicians win elections, all politicians, and how news organizations maintain and grow their viewership – by making people afraid, angry, and even hateful – demeaning, belittling, dehumanizing, and marginalizing the political other.  They do this so we’ll pay attention to them, so we’ll vote for them instead of someone else.  Regardless of who won on Tuesday, half the country would have woken up feeling afraid, angry, and depressed.

It is the water we’ve all been swimming in for over a year and it couldn’t help but have an effect on the brightness of our souls and our ability to love and humanize our political other.  The Bible says that love drives out fear, but the opposite is also true, fear can drive out love.  Even a number of Christian leaders have been so affected by this toxic drink that the things that they have written and said this week couldn’t help but marginalize any political “others” in the churches or communities that they have been entrusted to love and lead towards Jesus.  Their words suggest to those who look to them for spiritual maturity that to vote one way is Christian and to vote any other way can’t be – as if Jesus was somehow on the ballot and it was clearly marked.

It’s spiritually immature and disappointing, but the toxic drink has affected all of us.

I want to take a quick moment to create intentional space to allow God to wash some of this toxic yuck out of our souls with the clear waters of God’s love and peace and hope – and with a little bit of truthful information.

I want you to remember who you are and whose you are.  I want you to remember that for many of us, we elected Jesus as our king a long time ago. I want you to remember that every human being, regardless of whatever hat or t-shirt they might wear, is a precious child of God, made in the image of God – both broken and beautiful.

I want you to remember how Jesus showed us what love is – by washing the poo off the feet of those who would soon betray him and by giving his life up for those who misunderstood and hated him.

I want you to remember that we are all wrong sometimes – wrong in our attitudes, wrong in our words, our actions, even wrong in our opinions.

Let’s all say, “I’m wrong sometimes.”

I want you to remember that there are forces outside of you and me that are pressing on each of us every day to shape us in particular ways – social forces, political forces, corporate forces, economic forces, psychological forces, and on and on.  Remember this and let it shape the grace, and mercy, and compassion you have for others, the grace, and mercy, and compassion that we all need.

Here is some truth.

Regardless of how the election went, half of America would have woken up the next day feeling like half of their fellow citizens voted against what they love, value, and believe in.  But it just isn’t true.  We human beings are far too complicated to have all that we are and believe in simplified into an A-B decision.

Here is how the votes generally break down every four years:

• Women – 55% Democrat, 45% Republican
• Muslim – 93% Democrat, 7% Republican
• White – 40% Democrat, 60% Republican
• Black – 90% Democrat, 10% Republican
• Hispanic – 65% Democrat, 35% Republican

These percentages drift here and there, but they tend to stay roughly the same from one election to the next.  Out of the 120 million or so people who vote every year, elections are won and lost based on the votes of a couple hundred thousand people or even a few hundred people, voting in key places.  The vote for president rarely reveals a dramatic sea change as much as a subtle shift in leanings.

Everyone of these votes doesn’t represent a member of a demographic voting block, but an individual human being and what it means to each individual when they cast their ballot is different from person to person.

For example, I know two women who have been victims of sexual assault.  They both went to the polls on Tuesday and voted for the opposite candidate but for the exact same reason – they didn’t want a sexual predator in the White House.  Regardless of what you believe to be true, that is what they believe, and that is what that ballot that they held in their hand meant to them and no matter who won the election, one of these women was going to wake up on Wednesday feeling like half their country didn’t care about what they cared about.  She would feel like half of her neighbors and citizens were essentially saying that sexual assault is okay, what happened to her is okay.  And she would be sick.

Two women, voting for the same thing, but voting for opposite people.

We know that many Muslim Americans voted for Clinton because they believed she would be more likely to have a favorable immigration policy towards Muslims or set a more positive example on how to treat Muslims.  Some Muslims interestingly voted for Trump because they are concerned about radical Islam and believe Trump would deal with that better or think he is less likely to blow up Muslims in their home countries.

The same demographic casting different votes for different reasons.

For a whole lot of people the way they voted had nothing to do with their gender, the color of their skin, or where they are from.  We human beings are far too complicated for that.

Another thing that we need to hold onto and remember to help us wash this post-election toxicity out of us is that our world is a far, far better place today for gender equality, race relations, and gay-straight relations than it was 50, 30, or even 20 years ago.  We always have work to do, but let’s not forget to celebrate how far we’ve come.

Whatever it meant to you to cast your ballot last Tuesday, there aren’t as many people against you or people like you, or even for you and for people like you as what you might think.  We are all far too complicatedly human for that.

Just like you and I can’t know anything truly meaningful about someone based on the color of their skin, we can’t know anything about someone based on whose cap or whose t-shirt they wear.  You can’t know anything about why someone supported a particular candidate until you talk to them, you watch them, and you listen to them – until you humanize them.

This is one of the many reasons why our greatest hope for the future for our church, our country, and this world is for more of us to become more like Jesus – for us to learn to listen and love the “other,” politically or else wise.  The Dream of God, God’s Good Kingdom, growing in us and in this world is the only hope and the only bright future any of us really have.

May Edgewood Church be a place where everyone can wear whatever t-shirts and hats they want without fear, because we are a group of people who elected King Jesus a long time ago.

May the love and peace and hope of Christ continue to flow through us.