Post-Election

It has been a week since the election and, in spite of my best intentions, I have failed to blog about how I experience this 24 hour period. The picture says it all: I prayed and challenged others to pray. OCA serves as a polling place, so there were signs VOTE HERE TODAY. I decided to open our sanctuary for drop in prayer all day. I made and hung a sign PRAY HERE TODAY. I spent the majority of my day in the sanctuary praying. There were some that came and joined me. 

It reminded me that our world cannot trust in political parties or candidates or even democracy. Our allegience is to Jesus and we align ourselves with Him and learn from him in all of life. We cling to Jesus!

********************RE-POST FROM BOARD OF BISHOPS, FMC***********************
The world woke up on Wednesday morning to the surprising news of a Trump victory. Some Free Methodists cried; some Free Methodists celebrated. But even those who celebrated did so with grave concerns over the moral demise of this country. To those who cried, it seemed the end of life as we know it.
May we, as your bishops, offer words of orientation and encouragement to the church:

1) Followers of Jesus are good citizens and patriots, but our primary citizenship is in the kingdom of our God; He is our Lord. Neither our identity, our success or our failure is tied to any particular political party, politician or country. We are “supra-citizens” with as much concern for the well-being of all countries as for our own.

So what? We are neither elated nor discouraged by what happens to our government; Jesus is Lord. Be at peace.

2) Followers of Jesus win by losing. Perhaps that’s stating it too crudely, but Jesus won by dying, and we live by serving. Followers of Jesus do not grasp power as the world knows it. We don’t win by imposition of laws or morality. We win by inside-out transformations of men and women, families and communities.

So what? Nothing significant was won or lost in the elections. Everything of eternal significance is being gained through a powerless process of transformation. Be at peace.

3) The church of Jesus thrives in persecution. The church rarely thrives when the church has no opposition. In our self-sufficiency, we are led to the delusion of thinking we are gods.

So what? The church is willing to suffer if it purifies us and enables stronger witness to the power of Jesus in our lives. Be at peace in the suffering.

4) In a world of anger, division and strife, followers of Jesus must be agents of reconciliation, Peter would name us “priests.” Seek to know people who are different, befriend them, and defend them against aggressors.

So what? Demonstrate that the lives of those different from us matter. If we are white, that means that black lives matter. It means persons of other religions, even Islam, matter. It means that those who voted other than you in the recent election, matter. Be at peace.

5) In a world of anger and violence that spins into scary and vengeful cycles, terrorizes people and cannibalizes humanity, we will not live that way — not face-to-face and not on social media. We love our enemies. We pray for our persecutors. We pay back good for evil. We calmly and prophetically seek the grace to love peace and to make peace, even if it kills us, trusting Jesus’ word that making peace marks the makers as children of God.

So what? Be at peace.

6) In obedience to the Scriptures, we pray for those in authority over us — civil (Romans) and spiritual (Hebrews). Rather than complain, or argumentatively resist leadership on every level, we understand that our best posture is submission and seeking God’s will to be realized not only for our leaders but through them. We believe, as John Wesley himself was convinced, that God does much if not everything He does in answer to prayer. So what? Let’s pray — alone, in our churches, with those we love and with those who view life and politics differently.

Free Methodists come from an activist tradition. We pay attention to our cultural context, and we advocate for good. We denounce evil in all its forms and engage in every way, including politics, to make the world more pleasing to the God and Father of all humankind. As your bishops, we are not advocating withdrawal from the world or some kind of numbing of our citizenship responsibilities. We are simply reminding ourselves of our ultimate citizenship, our ultimate loyalty, our ultimate hope and our ultimate peace.

Board of Bishops
Free Methodist Church – USA