God, as citizens of the United States of America, every four years for nearly 250, an election cycle asks us to consider some fundamental questions:
Who are we?
What are we for?
What spurs us on and guides our decisions?
In a hierarchy of needs, what matters most?
And who should lead us there?
These are sweeping questions that tell big stories. You know that, o God. But we the people are individuals, each with but one heart to consider them.
Loving God, you know the hearts of each one of us who cast our votes this week. You know the fears that keep us awake at night, the hopes that draw us into our future, the griefs that bear witness to love. You know the calculus by which we made up our minds, what we expected and hoped for when we filled in the bubble beside a fallible human name, how our votes tried to answer those big questions. You know our hearts, o God. And because you know our hearts, you also know how we have judged our neighbors mightily: feeling the bitter chasm between us, struggling to be curious or try to understand, and wondering not if this gulf could be bridged, but should it.
So when these feelings stoked by each election cycle move from those inner considerations of “who am I as an American citizen” to outer criticism of our family, our colleagues, our friends, our neighbors, would you so clearly remind us that this isn’t our job to do? When you see us slide into the trap of assuming intent, thinking the worst, assigning meaning, and rendering judgment, would you nudge us in the way of Love?
Reorient us, o God, to the work that is, actually, ours to do. For you know it is our work to consider how the citizenship we have to our country intersects with our citizenship within your new world. You know it is our duty to pledge first our allegiance to Jesus. You know it is our responsibility to let his life shape ours.
So God, when – not if – when we forget this, remind us. When we confuse the order of our devotion, call us to repentance. When we need help, be near to us in the name and spirit of Jesus whose call of discipleship was clear:
… To love God.
… To love our neighbors.
… To care for the underserved.
… To protect the widow and the orphan.
… To welcome the immigrant.
… To extend hospitality to the stranger.
… To feed the hungry.
… To clothe the naked.
… To visit the imprisoned.
… To bring good news to the poor.
… To proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind.
… To loose the bonds of injustice and untie the yoke of oppression.
… To do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with you.
… To break bread together, and open scripture together, and share peace together, and worship together.
This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Doing as Jesus did. Living as Jesus lived. Loving who Jesus loved. Prioritizing what mattered to him.
So change our hearts, reconciling God, to pattern them on Jesus’s heart.
… Every time any political conviction we may have pulls us away from the way of Jesus, change our hearts.
… Every time we put our trust in princes and mortals like the Psalmist says, change our hearts.
… Every time we think the systems of this world or the government of our country deserve either our highest praise or our deepest woes, change our hearts.
And in so doing, recommit us, o God, to your work of Love in this world. Stiffen our resolve toward the vulnerable. Clear our eyes to see the overlooked. Make soft our anger toward each other, and righteous our anger for each other. Place us in a bigger and sturdier, truer and more beautiful story than the one on our screens and in our voting booths. Guide us continually. Satisfy our needs in parched places. Make our bones strong.
Then and only then will we be like watered gardens, says Isaiah, like springs of water, whose waters never fail. Then and only then will ancient ruins be rebuilt, and foundations of many generations raised up. Then and only then will we become repairers of the breach, and restorer of these streets in which we live and move and have our being. Then and only then can we be children of peace.
We pray these things, o God, in the restoring and resurrecting life and name of Jesus, who taught us how to pray, saying…