A Pastoral Message for the Day After the Election

Dear Members and Friends of Abiding Presence,
 
On this day after the election, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the wide range of emotions held in our community of faith. We are not of one thought when it comes to the outcome of the election – nor should we be as a faith family. 
 
Today, I know many of us grieve. The world does not feel okay. We are not okay. For people across the political spectrum, much has been lost through this election cycle of divisive and hate-filled rhetoric. As people of faith, we embody what it means to grieve with hope. When all the signs before us point to the end, we trust that God is not done. We hope in what we cannot yet see. The promise that God is with us and still at work in our lives and our world allows us to grieve with hope. 
 
Tomorrow (and maybe even later today), we pray. We pray our way into the love for our neighbors and enemies which God calls us to have. Love is the only way of Jesus and his followers. There are no exceptions. Love for neighbor. Love for enemy. Love for all God’s people – and all really does mean all. We cannot allow hate to become normative. When we struggle to love people, we must pray. We keep praying through every moment, encounter, conversation and social media post for God to work in our hearts, swaying them towards love for people we would instinctively choose not to love. Love is the only way. 
 
Having taken time to grieve and spent time in prayer so our hearts are swayed to Jesus’ love, we will be ready to act. God has never relied on the powers of this world to be the in-breakers of God's kingdom. From Moses and Pharoah to Jesus and Cesar, scripture tells us that earthly powers have never been the primary fighters for justice, bearers of peace or proclaimers of hope. That work – the work of justice, peace and hope – has always been done by ordinary people who God has called out of ordinary places. The same is true today, as it was yesterday, and as it will be tomorrow. 
 
You and I might not have been elected to anything last night, but we are most certainly called. Each one of us, by nature of our baptism, has been called to be God’s coworker in bringing forth the kingdom of God to earth. We are God’s fighters for justice. We are God’s bearers of peace. We are God’s proclaimers of hope. God has called us – all of us – for such a time as this. 
 
At Abiding Presence, we live out of the core value “All are Welcome.” Our unity has never been found in political parties or votes cast, but in the cross of Christ traced on our foreheads in baptism. However you voted, whatever feelings you hold this day, there is a place for you in this community. There is also a calling here for you to be the body of Christ for the sake of the world. 
 
God’s got this – whatever this might be today, and in the days to come. God’s got us. God dwells with us and calls us to act. Abiding Together, we will continue to be the church for the sake of the world. 

Blessings, 
Rev. Meredith Lovell Keseley
Senior Pastor