That We All May Be One

Let me add a few thoughts to those of many of my colleagues on the role of our faith following the volatile presidential election cycle through which we have just lived. Like most Americans, Christians were and are deeply divided in the way we voted and in our reaction to the outcome.

Many liberal Catholics and Protestants supported the more progressive policies of the Democratic Party and its standard bearer, lifelong Methodist Hillary Clinton. Many conservative Catholics and Protestants supported the “change candidate,” Donald Trump perhaps especially because of his promise to appoint strict constructionists like Justice Scalia to the Supreme Court, assuring a halt to the perceived leftward drift of the Court in recent years.

There has never been only one way for committed Christians to vote. It is possible to “agree to disagree” precisely because the issues are so complex and much depends on how one prioritizes the most important ones we face. Is it more important to reverse Roe v. Wade or assure universal health care for all people? Is it more important to combat global warming and the negative effects of climate change or grow the economy to provide jobs for everyone who wants to work? We will have to “agree to disagree.”

One thing we can agree on is this: while it is important, as Christians, to work for a better world which more closely resembles the Kingdom of God, governments — no matter how dedicated and effective — will never usher in that Kingdom, that Commonwealth, that Reign of God. Only God can do that. (While I am sensitive to the patriarchal ring of the phrase Kingdom of God and often use the alternative ways of referring to it, I can’t get away from the deeply biblical use of “Kingdom” and am helped by biblical scholars from John Dominic Crossan to N.T. Wright who continue to remind us that — for Jesus — God is King…and Caesar is not!)

In my tradition, the way we are to live has not changed because of an election. The vows we took at our Baptism and/or Confirmation have not changed. And they are these:

1. We are to continue to put our trust in the one God we have experienced in Jesus as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
2. We are to be obedient to the teaching of the apostolic church as we have received it in our tradition, particularly by our commitment to the community, to its sacramental life, and to prayer.
3. We are to (non-violently) fight against evil as we perceive it and, when we fall short of the mark ourselves, ask for forgiveness.
4. We are to be bold in sharing with others our experience of the loving God we see revealed in Jesus.
5. We are to look for the image of God in every person, no matter how different they may be from us in background or ideology, and to love that image.
6. We are to treat other people as we believe God would treat them and strive for the peace which will prevail if we respect one another’s inherent dignity, if we do unto them as we would have them do unto us. (See the Baptismal Covenant, Book of Common Prayer, pages 304-305)

As an example, we will have to be as critical of the Trump Administration’s likely punitive policies on undocumented immigrants as many of us were of the Obama Administration’s immoral use of drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists who had never been convicted in a court of law. You will be able to think of many more examples. A guiding prayer for us all might be this one for “The Human Family:”

O God, you have made us in your image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (BCP, page 815)

As voting starts on this Election Day, I pray that “…we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of your favor and glad to do your will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride, arrogance, and from every evil way.

Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought here out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in your Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to your law, we may show forth your praise among the nations of the earth.

In the time of our prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in you to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

Amen!

(Book of Common Prayer, page 820, “For Our Country”)

Today is All Saints’ Sunday. That’s the Sunday following All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day; the first, celebrating the great Saints of the Church on Nov. 1 and the second on Nov. 2 celebrating those lesser saints like you and me who are saints in the N.T. sense…saints, because we are baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ! And the Gospel reading for this day is always the Beatitudes  (Luke 6:20-31), those beautiful “blesseds.” Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who are hungry, blessed are those who weep,” and all the rest.

Episcopal clergy normally don’t title their sermons like our Protestant brothers and sisters, but if I had to title this one it would be “The Illogical Logic of the Kingdom of God.” The Illogical Logic of the Kingdom of God! Because, when you first look at them, the Beatitudes are downright illogical! How are the poor blessed? How are the hungry blessed? How are those who are weeping blessed? How are those who are hated and excluded blessed? That’s illogical!

At least it would be illogical if Jesus was talking about the present. Today the poor and the hungry and the grieving are not blessed at all. But Jesus is not talking about the present. He’s talking about the future. He’s talking about a Day when God will finally intervene and set things right again – once and for all. ON THAT DAY, Jesus is saying, the poor will be blessed. On that day, the hungry will be blessed, and on that day, the weeping will be blessed.

(And, by the way, on that day, he says, the rich will be poor, the fat cats will be hungry, and those who are laughing at the rest of us now, will “mourn and weep!”) Now, that may sound illogical, dear friends, but I submit to you that the Gospel today tells us that it is the illogical Logic of the Kingdom of God! When the Kingdom of God finally comes in its fullness, what seems illogical now will be the logic that saves us all!

So that’s our hope for the future. But what are we to do until then? What are we to do right now? Well, according to Jesus, we are to live our lives as though that Kingdom has already dawned. Because it has. It’s not here in its fullness yet, but because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Kingdom of God is within us and we are to begin to live the ethics of the Kingdom:

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat, do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.” The illogical logic of the Kingdom of God!

Well, that’s just impossible, you might say! How are we to live like this in today’s world? Jesus answers us in one sentence. “Do to others as you would have them do to you!” That is, of course, The Golden Rule and it appears in one form or another in every major religion in the world. Because that is so, the great Roman Catholic theologian Hans Kung has called it “A Global Ethic.”

In Judaism it reads: “What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man.” (Talmud).  In Christianity, “Do to others as you would have them do to you (Luke). In Islam, “None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” (#13 of 40 Hadiths). In Buddhism, “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” (Varga 5:18). And in Hinduism “This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you.” (Mahabharata 5:1517).

It’s almost as if God has written this Golden Rule deep in the human heart, across cultures and religions and across the centuries! If we just lived like this, the Kingdom of God really would be evident. The poor would be blessed and so would the hungry and the mourners! We would begin to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us. We would be able to bless those who once cursed us, and pray for those who were formerly our abusers!

So, on this All Saints’ Sunday, there’s a sense in which we have to wait for the promises of the Beatitudes to come true. Wait for that Day when things will be set right again.

But there’s another sense in which we can begin to live those Beatitudes right here and right now. We can love our enemies. We can do good to those who hate us. We can bless those who curse us. And pray for those who abuse us.

We can begin all this by “doing unto others as we would have them do unto us!”

“A wise magistrate educates (the ) people, and the rule of an intelligent person is well-ordered. As the people’s judge is, so are (the) officials; as the ruler of the city is, so are all its inhabitants. An undisciplined king ruins his people, but a city becomes fit to live in through the understanding of its rulers.

The government of the earth is in the hand of the Lord, and over it he will raise up the right leader for the right time. Human success is in the hand of the Lord, and it is he who confers honor upon the lawgiver. Do not get angry with your neighbor for every injury, and do not resort to acts of insolence. Arrogance is hateful to the Lord and to mortals, and injustice is outrageous to both.

Sovereignty passes from nation to nation on account of injustice and insolence and wealth.”

(Ecclesiasticus 10:1-8)

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s people!

I was one of the half-dozen or so who watched the vice presidential debate last night. It was, from my perspective, a mixed bag at best. I was disappointed in Tim Kaine who has been declared the loser of this match-up largely because he came out uncharacteristically aggressive and repeatedly interrupted his opponent a la Donald Trump.

This tactic, brought unhelpfully into the debate from his attack-dog role on the campaign trail, began the unedifying spectacle of two white men talking over one another, and the female moderator (whose questions were actually quite good) to such an extent that few, if any, could understand what they were saying for the first half of the contest.

Things settled down in the second half, but again, Tim Kaine spent most of his time quoting Donald Trump, and Mike Pence spent most of his time saying that Trump could not possibly have said, or at least meant, that! No surprise there; it is what the Donald’s surrogates have been doing since the campaign began. I had hoped for better.

For these are two pretty articulate spokesmen for their parties’ positions. They clearly have respect for one another, if not for their opponent’s choice for president, and could have used the debate to articulate those differences. Had they actually tried to answer the questions CBS moderator Elaine Quijano asked, rather than use them as launching pads for sound bites, and had they listened to, rather than talked over, one another, those stark differences might have been highlighted for all to see.

The one shining moment, I thought, was when Quijano asked Tim Kaine and then Mike Pence, when — as people of faith — they had been tested to square those commitments with their lives as politicians. Kaine answered immediately, “That’s an easy one,” and described his personal struggles as a Roman Catholic who opposes the death penalty having to enforce it as Governor of Virginia when he could not persuade the people through its legislature to change the laws.

His defense was much the same as John Kennedy’s all those years ago who made it clear that his personal beliefs, and the doctrines of his church, could not override his sworn oath to uphold the laws of this country in the administration of his duties as chief executive. In the land of separation of church and state, this is the only way to govern.

Mike Pence was not as forthcoming with times there may have been a conflict between the tenants of his faith and his duties as a government official, but I thought he was sincere and articulate about his right-to-life stand. And he actually complimented Kaine for being a person of deep faith and lauded his courageous decision to vote for a ban on so-called “partial birth abortions” even though that flew in the face of his party’s and his President’s position.

I thought that was a moment of honesty and candor in a debate which largely lacked both. However one expects Tim Kaine to walk the tightrope between his own, fairly conservative position on abortion with Hillary Clinton’s much more pro choice stand, one must at least applaud his “consistent ethic of life” balanced by a deep commitment for a woman’s right to choose in her reproductive life.

And, however one may disagree with Mike Pence’s stated goal to work to repeal Roe v Wade, one must at least acknowledge his commitment to adoption as an alternative to abortion and his rejection of Trump’s desire to “punish” women and/or doctors deciding for abortion. I believe the vast majority of the country will come down on the side of the Democrats’ pro choice platform, provided its goal remains, in the words of Bill Clinton, “to make abortion safe, legal, and rare.”

So, in an otherwise disappointing debate, it was refreshing to see faith discussed in an open, honest, and ecumenical way. It was the one thing I could believe, coming from both men.