Today, the United States of America will inaugurate the 46th president of our union. It has been a difficult election, to say the least. The country is divided with hundreds of millions of votes divided between the two major candidates. It was a tight race with over 81,000,000 votes going for Joe Biden while over 74,000,000 went to Donald Trump. Just over 4% of votes separated the two candidates.
It seems that only the votes were close. We are divided on many issues as a country. Many people have strong and passionate feelings about their political views. We also feel extremely connected to one candidate or another (or perhaps we feel deeply opposed to one candidate or the other). Our impassioned political culture causes us to draw lines, chose sides and push against others. To be sure, there are things worth being passionate for and things worth working towards to better our country, our state, our communities. But we must be careful to not lose ourselves in the midst of our politics.
As a people of faith, we are first called to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with our mind, and with our strength. We are next called to love our neighbor. I often think we find it easy to love God, because we assume God must align with the same political party as we do. However, on days like today, we find it hard to love all of our neighbors, because we see they don’t support the same people and political agenda that we do. When our friends post thoughts on social media that are contrary to what we believe, we quickly move from loving them with all our heart, mind, and soul to assuming the worst.
Today, as we inaugurate another president, let us be reminded that our friends, family, co-workers and neighbors will most likely be with us through multiple presidents. We cast our vote every four years and it makes a difference. However, we have the ability to make a positive impact on the people we know each and every day. That means, between now and the next time you vote for president, you have 1,460 days to bless the lives of the people you know.
Our country is no stranger to division. At the end of the bloodiest time in our history, as the civil war drew to a close, President Abraham Lincoln stood to take his second oath of office. As he addressed those gathered that day for his inauguration, he spoke to them about the terrible political, cultural and violent divisions that they had experienced. He reminded them that both sides prayed to the same God, both sides read the same Bible, yet both sides fought a war with consequences so severe. It would be a way that would remove the scourge of slavery and begin the process of realizing the hope our country. Even at the end of this terrible way, Lincoln understood the division was still present and so he asked;
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and for his orphan; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with the world.
As the events of today unfold, I hope that you will join me in praying for our country, for our leaders (even the ones we did not vote for), for our local community and our neighbors. Let us set our hearts and minds on the things we can do and the things we were called to do… to love God and love our neighbor. And may we do these good works “with malice toward none; with charity for all.”
– Rev. Keith King, Pastor of Worship
