Hi First Presbyterian,
It’s time for our Mid-Week Meet-Up. I usually send these to you on Wednesdays, but I thought it was important for me to send this week’s email out earlier. Today is election day. To start, allow me to encourage all of you, if you haven’t already mailed in your ballot or voted early in-person, to grab your mask and go to your polling location to vote. You have until 9 pm to get in line. Thanks be to God for the privilege to vote in a free and fair election.
As a pastor, I consider my relationship to the church to be non-partisan, and I take that very seriously. At the same time, I realize that politics have a very real impact on our lives. I am assuming that most (if not all) of you care very strongly about the outcomes of this election season. When we learn the results of the election, some of you will be satisfied (maybe even elated) and others of you will be disappointed (maybe even devastated). Before we know the results of the election, I want to encourage you all toward unity. After the election, you may feel an urge to be angry (maybe even outraged) at the people who voted for “the other side.” I ask you to resist that urge. After the election, you may feel an urge to gloat in front of the people who voted for “the other side.” I ask you to resist that urge, too. Those might feel like natural reactions. It may even seem like that’s what everyone else is doing. However, Christians must be different, because Christ calls us toward radical unity. Instead of allowing this election to divide us, I pray that you will use this as an opportunity to put your faith in Christ. Allow me to offer two reasons for pursuing unity with one another.
First, the Gospel commands us to pursue love in spite of our differences. Read any of Paul’s letters in the New Testament and you will likely read about Paul’s encouraging of unity under Christ, because the early Christian church was VERY divided. They were divided about a very important question having to do with inclusion, justice, and the future direction of their movement. They were divided specifically over the issue of including Gentiles into the Church. To a congregation struggling over this, Paul said, “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:7). You have one thing in common with one another: your love of Jesus Christ. That is no small thing. Allow your common love of Christ to unify you despite whatever differences there are between you.
Second, before we are Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives, or even Americans, we are Christians. We must not allow our partisan differences to divide the church. Jesus said to the crowds who followed him, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). That’s strong language, but what Jesus means is that not even our loyalty to our closest family should come before our loyalty to Jesus. If that is true of our closest family, then surely it can be said that our allegiance to Jesus must come before our allegiance to country or political party. The apostle Paul said that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20), which is interesting because Paul (unlike many of the other early followers of Jesus) had the great privilege of being a Roman citizen. Yet for Paul, the citizenship that mattered most to him was his citizenship in heaven. There is a new world coming, a world that Jesus himself will create. In that new world, Jesus will be king. There will be no elections, and we will live in perfect justice, kindness, and love, all in obedience to our king. To be a citizen of heaven means recognizing that every earthly government is going to fail us in some way until that new world arrives, and it means living now as though we live in that new world already. Together, side-by-side, hand-in-hand, we seek to live out now the values of the kingdom of God: justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Brothers and sisters in Christ, before you are anything else in this life, you are a citizen of heaven. Look at one another that way. Don’t see a liberal or a conservative. Instead, see a citizen of heaven. See a fellow follower of Christ. See a brother. See a sister.
Peace to you,
Pastor Neff