One Divided Nation Under God

I know that for many of you, last night’s election results were shocking, troubling, and confusing. Perhaps you woke up angry as hell.

I also know, that for others, the results were shocking, but not troubling. Perhaps you woke up with a sense of hope.

The real risk, whether you awoke feeling despair or victory, is in having people continue to divide themselves one against the other. If we learned anything last night, it was the extent to which we are a divided nation. This is not what God intends for the creation God loves.

We must keep focused on the source of life; the author of our faith, who calls us to love.

Therefore, I urge you in these first days of the new normal– to be gentle with each other and with yourselves. Listen to your heart beating and imagine breathing in calm with every breath. Allow God’s first language of silence to wash over you and speak to your heart. Do the simple things that restore your soul.

Systemic change takes decades. In 1989, on this very day, the Berlin Wall came down. That wall remains down today and it’s absence reminds us that change is possible. though it is rarely easy.

Today, we remain free to talk to one another, to pray together, to reflect on where and how we are being called to be part of the solution. This is a time to consider our own complicity in the situation we now find ourselves and to trust that by grace we are able to change. Guard your thoughts against worries of what might happen; such anxieties threaten to compromise our ability to act with justice and mercy by overshadowing our hope with fear.

If you need a safe space to land, I invite you to come to King of Kings Lutheran Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan. You are so much more than welcome; you are wanted with us here.