ELECTION DAY NOVEMBER 3, 2020

ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2020 I am among the nearly 100 million Americans who have already voted, but this day does not feel anticlimactic or superfluous. It feels monumental, properly charged with both concern and hope, no matter who wins. This burden of democracy was never felt by Jesus or Peter or Paul. They never listened to endless passionate speeches trying to decide who would be the best ruler. They did not have the right of the vote. They lived under the heel of a Roman Empire that told them how things would be. Their engagement in any political process was not about control but about survival. The gift of participatory government is in part an outworking of the Christian view of humans—their full dignity and worth no matter their economic or social standing. “The ground is level at the cross” theology spilled over into “the ground is level at the courthouse” political philosophy. Together with a similar view of humans in the secular Enlightment, this doctrine of human equality produced “a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” (Lincoln’s Gettsyburg address). Lincoln’s words originally resounded when our nation was “engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” The test was about democracy itself, Lincoln said, the idea that human beings are competent to choose their own leaders and that those leaders derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed” (Declaration of Independence). Today, President Trump and Vice President Biden are seeking the “consent of the governed.” The democratic process, most importantly symbolized by this first Tuesday of November, is itself far more important than who is elected. A single presidential term lasts four years. This elective process has been in place since the U.S. Constitution was ratified by the states in 1787. It replaced the Articles of Confederation which James Madison, a key player in the creation of a new constitution, saw as too weak to address the economic, social, and international issues that already threatened to topple the new nation. This democracy can endure just about any difficulty as long as the power of the vote is respected by all. People of faith have prayed for this nation from the very first, and we continue to do so today. Our prayers are couched, not in the either-or—“either you give me the president I want or I am out of here”—but in the both-and—“I am willing to embrace both the person I voted for AND the person that did not get my vote, depending on the outcome.” SCRIPTURE: Romans 13:1-7 PRAYER: Dear God, thank you for entrusting to us such a wonderful nation as the USA. Thank you for the power I have to cast my vote. Give me wisdom as I do so. And give me grace and courage, joy and hope, whatever the outcome. Make me an instrument of your peace.