People in this congregation wrote over 1,000 postcards to get out the vote or to support specific candidates. Some of you made phone calls to get out the vote or to help cure ballots that were missing a security envelope or a date or had a mismatched signature. Some of you got out there and knocked on doors here in Washington or in other states. You understand that democracy is not a spectator sport, and the stakes in this election were extremely high.
So now that the election is over, let’s take a little poll:
How many of you voted?
And somewhere up or down the ballot, how many of you voted for a candidate that didn’t win or an initiative that didn’t go the way you had wanted it to?
Seattle is a pretty blue city in a blue part of blue Washington State. The presidential candidates were not campaigning here, because both of them already knew the way things would go here, so they focused on the swing states. Given that this is a pretty blue area, I’m guessing that most of us—not all, but most—were wishing that the Democratic candidate for president had won. I’m not going to ask for a show of hands on this because I know we’re not all voting the same way, and that is actually healthy. But for one candidate or initiative or another you may be experiencing shock, grief, rage, heartbreak, sadness, depression, frustration, a sense of helplessness or hopelessness. For many of you that may be the presidential race. Or maybe you did vote for the winning presidential candidate, but other candidates down-ballot that you wanted to win did not. So you may be experiencing all those feelings of grief, etc., about that.
I’m going to be focusing today on some of the justice implications of the presidential race. I know we didn’t all vote the same way, and that’s fine. I hope that everyone will find something worth hearing and know that we are all community, all in this together.
I invite you to put your hand on your chest. Start with your feelings. If you’re feeling grief, feel it, and do not try to suppress it. If you’re feeling joy, let that guide your next steps as well. Whatever you’re feeling, let it happen. Only when we’ve felt the feelings and worked through them can we come out the other side and say, “Now what? How are my feelings guiding me forward?” Trust yourself. Trust your feelings and your understanding of what’s true and just. Find others you can trust and gather with them to help process whatever you’re going through. Call your pastor and set up a time to get together for coffee, or just talk through things on the phone. Call your therapist or best friend. Talk to a trusted family member. Connect.
Keep in mind as well that, for better or for worse, no human ruler lasts forever. Our reading this morning says, “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help.” Put your trust in God, who is eternal; God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed;
who gives food to the hungry. (Psalm 146)
That’s where we put our vote. That’s where we put our energy, our hope, our focus, regardless of who wins or loses elections.
Find time, even in the rain, to go outside and take a walk, to breathe clean air, or sit under a tree, or rake leaves, or listen to the birds sing. Breathe. Pray. Connect to the Divine however you need to do it. An election goes the way you want it to go, or it goes awry—and either way, the next day, the sun comes up, the waves wash against the shore, and life goes on. The people we love are still the people we love. The justice issues we care about continue to call to us.
But now vulnerable populations will be even more vulnerable: for example, immigrants (documented or otherwise), women seeking reproductive healthcare, members of the LGBTQ community. The president-elect has said he will expel 13 million immigrants. Imagine what that round-up might look like, how many people will be traumatized, how many families torn apart. These are not rapists and gang members; they are our neighbors. They are the people who grow our food and build our houses. Many people voted how they voted in this election because they want food and housing prices to come down to what they were pre-pandemic. Imagine what the economy will look like if those parts of the social structure collapse without cheap labor from our immigrant workers on whose backs our economy is built.
Our president-elect also threatens to withdraw from climate accords, to open more public lands to drilling for the fossil fuels that are burning up our planet. There is work for us to do there.
Our president-elect rails against inclusion of trans people and fosters intolerance of our LGBTQ community. These are not strangers to us. They are us.
The United Church of Christ stands for complete acceptance of LGBTQ people as beloved children of God. The UCC stands for immigrant rights, economic justice, labor rights, women’s rights, environmental justice, and an end to racism. All of these are now under threat.
We cannot take on all of them. We can’t do everything. But we can do something. We can refuse to hate, refuse to be divided, refuse to acquiesce. We can stand together. We are stronger together. We can work with organizations that are already tackling these issues, form alliances that amplify the possible solutions. We can insist on loving our neighbors. We can build community across differences, across boundaries of race and class and orientation. Insisting on love is a radical disobedience to those who seek to have us live in fear and isolation and hate.
This sounds exhausting. Many of us are already tired, and our spirits groan at the work to be done. We don’t have to finish the work. We won’t finish the work. But neither are we free to desist from it. We must do what we can on the issues that we choose to address.
You may recall that in the presidential campaign in 2008, candidate Barak Obama ran on the words “Hope,” “Change,” and “Yes we can.” Very smart, because the words themselves are neutral. Everyone has hopes, no matter their political party. Everyone wants something to change. Everyone wants to believe that the right leader can make things better. So people projected their hopes and their desires for change onto this one candidate as if he were Jesus and could just wave a wand and make things happen. He had to remind them that the saying is, “Yes WE can.” Don’t pin all your hopes on a mortal leader, says the scripture. One person can only do so much. So much damage, so much good—either way. Put your hope and trust in God—and then show up to do your part. I have spoken before about how hope is an active verb. Hope is not passive; it requires us to do something. Yes WE can, if we stick together, if we trust God and each other, if we insist on love instead of hate, community-building instead of fear, hope and persistence instead of caving in. Yes WE can, if we rely on the God of Jacob, the God of Mary and Jesus, the God of Paul, to show us how to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.
This week I heard an interview with a trans woman on NPR. The interviewer asked her how she was feeling after the election. She said something along these lines: “Our Pledge of Allegiance says right there, ‘With liberty and justice for all.’ I am part of the ‘all.’” And she’s right. She deserves justice. She deserves to feel safe in her community. So do you. So does everyone.
So let’s play with that phrase, “With liberty and justice for all.” Who is the “all”?
With liberty and justice for Muslims. What would that look like in Oklahoma, which has now decreed that all schools must display the Ten Commandments and have copies of the King James Bible?
With liberty and justice for People of Color. Who are pulled over for Driving While Black. Who have been systematically oppressed and refused opportunities such as the GI Bill purely on the basis of skin color. For four centuries.
With liberty and justice for prisoners. Whose are more often People of Color because of the racism endemic in our society.
With liberty and justice for undocumented immigrants. Who have no labor rights. Who get cheated out of their meager pay and have no recourse. Who are sexually assaulted and cannot call the police or get healthcare.
With liberty and justice for all women making reproductive choices.
With liberty and justice for lesbians, gays, bisexual people, trans people, queer people, and those who don’t fit into gender and sexuality binaries.
We live in a country where our schoolchildren recite a Pledge of Allegiance that promises liberty and justice for all. I pledge allegiance to God, who is faithful, who is just. Our reading today says,
God sets the prisoners free and
opens the eyes of the blind.
God lifts up those who are bowed down;
God loves the righteous.
God watches over the strangers [—the people not like us—]
and upholds the orphan and the widow,
but the way of the wicked God brings to ruin.
If we are disappointed in the election outcomes anywhere up or down the ballot, let us pause to grieve and feel the feelings. Let us reach out to comfort each other, even if we didn’t all vote the same. Let us celebrate that diversity here in this congregation. And then, let us be about God’s business of love and justice. As we have been. The need is great, and although we cannot do everything, still we can do something. Love each other. Care for each other. Work together, and we will make a difference. We do make a difference. Praise be to God.
We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.
[Sweet Honey in the Rock]
Amen.