Turn and Bind Up the Nation's Wounds

Sermon for Nov. 10, 2024
Mark 13:1-8

Note: With the bishop’s permission, we switched the readings appointed for Nov. 10 and Nov. 17 because the parishioner scheduled to be interviewed on Nov. 10 had to reschedule for Nov. 17 … and her interview is tied to the readings appointed for Nov. 10

First, I need to let you know this homily will sound a bit strange.  That’s because I wrote it the morning of Election Day, before we knew any outcomes.  So, I’ll read it (rather than preach it) more than I usually would.  Think of it as a letter from me to you, written Tuesday morning.

* * *

The polls opened a few hours ago, and a steady stream of people are coming to HJ’s to cast their ballots.  It’s good to see, regardless of the outcomes of the races and ballot issues.

Also, since 8 a.m. today, the church has been open for individual reflection and prayer, as it will be the day after the election.  We put out three resources: a “Season of Prayer for an Election” handout, with prayers from the BCP; a set of Prayers of the People for an Election; and Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inagural Address.  In fact, I’m wearing my Lincoln socks as I write this.

Here in the Diocese of West Missouri, this isn’t the only important Election Day we’ll have this week.  On Saturday, our Diocesan Convention delegates –  lay people and clergy – will elect the ninth bishop of West Missouri, someone who likely will serve longer than whomever is elected president today.  Having been on the Bishop Search Committee, I can tell you that any of the four candidates will be a good and faithful chief pastor for us.  That said, among the candidates is one of my best friends, the Rev. Amy Dafler Meaux.  So, I can’t exactly say I’m objective about the outcome.

By Sunday, we’ll know who our next bishop will be.  I may be more or less happy about that personally, depending on the outcome.  Also by Sunday, God willing, we’ll know who our next president will be.  If so, I’d bet my next paycheck that 50 percent of you are happy and relieved, while 50 percent of you are dismayed, maybe depressed, maybe angry.  

What do we do in the days after these elections?  If my friend wasn’t elected bishop, how will I work with the winner?  If your candidate wasn’t elected president, how will you walk alongside those who are happy with the outcome?  If we know nothing else about our nation after these months of campaigning, we know it will be tough to move forward together toward the common good.

So, where can we look for hope?

It turns out, our Love in Action series this week is taking up the spiritual practice of turning: pausing, listening, and choosing to follow Jesus.  We actually didn’t do that on purpose, scheduling “turn” as the spiritual practice to follow Election Day – but the Holy Spirit helped us out.  I say that because I believe our only way forward together is to turn together – not toward a “good” winner or away from a “bad” winner but toward the only One who will lead us toward the common good.

Our Gospel reading is another Holy Spirit moment – again, given to us regardless of the elections’ outcome.  This story may be a little hard to hear as “good news” on a first reading, and it certainly wasn’t comforting for the disciples or the early Christians.  Jesus is talking about the end of the world as we know it, and nobody feels fine.

The writer of Mark’s Gospel is looking back 40 years or so from just after the Jewish Revolt of the years 66 to 70.  The end of that conflict looked a lot like what Jesus is describing in today’s reading:  As his followers marvel at the Temple’s grandeur, Jesus says, “Do you see these great buildings?  Not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” (Mark 13:2)  For the early Christians, when the Roman army crushed the Jewish revolutionaries, slaughtered thousands, and destroyed Judaism’s holiest site – when the worst thing they could imagine happened – they saw it as the “beginning of the birth pangs,” God bringing fiery judgment on the people who hadn’t accepted Jesus as the Messiah (13:8).  And they were sure God’s judgment would be completed soon, with Jesus returning in the “clouds with great power and glory” (13:26) to reign on earth the way he was reigning in heaven.

And as the early Christians remembered Jesus promising to return in power and glory, they also remembered him saying, Be careful who you follow in the meantime.  “Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.”  When everything around you seems to crumble, Jesus says, “do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come.” (Mark 13:7)

“Beware that no one leads you astray.”  Why does Jesus say that?  Because he knows how susceptible people are to following gods of their own making – then and now.  The fact we’re so divided about which candidate is our savior might be a hint that neither candidate is our savior.

But our temptations toward idolatry go further than that.  We may be tempted to see our system of government as our savior.  Or our economy.  Or maybe our nation itself.  My hero Abraham Lincoln called this nation “the last, best hope of earth.”¹  But Lincoln also saw that earth’s last, best hope was itself deeply in need of repentance.  In his Second Inagural Address, he named slavery as our original sin, the cause of the war that had cost the lives of more than 600,000 mostly White men.  Lincoln saw the war as nothing less than God’s judgment:  He wrote, “If God wills that [the war] continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, ‘The judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.’”²  This last, best hope of earth needed to make a serious turn toward righteousness.

And it still does. God calls us always to turn around, to change our minds toward God’s purposes. That’s why turning is a spiritual practice and not a one-time dramatic moment.  What we need to turn from may not be sexy, like most people’s images of sin – and that’s why idolatry is so pernicious.  Putting our hope on that which is not God – power or money or candidates or parties or nations – it’s just what people do, right?  But it doesn’t help us.  Instead, when things don’t go our way, our idolatry just makes us anxious and fearful, and we respond as humans do – with anger.

“Beware that no one leads you astray,” Jesus says.  Instead, as your post-election resolution, take up the spiritual practice of turning – of pausing, listening, and choosing to follow Jesus instead of the many other forces that come and say, “I am he!”  And how do we do that?  Go back to our foundation, the covenant we renewed last Sunday as we welcomed new followers of Jesus through the waters of baptism.  Just as the Baptismal Covenant was there during the campaign to serve as our voting guide, so it’s there to navigate us through the uncertainty of the coming weeks and months.  We’ll find our way forward when we turn toward God to discern, “What can I do to foster the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers?  What can I do to resist evil and turn to the Lord?  What can I do to proclaim by word and example the good news of Jesus’ reign and rule among us?  What can I do to seek and serve Christ in all people, loving my neighbor as myself?  What can I do to strive for justice and peace, and respect the dignity of every human being?”

So, what might look like if we lived out the answers to those questions?  I think we might find ourselves following the call to turn that Abraham Lincoln gave us, as individuals and as a nation:  “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 his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”²

1.       https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/congress.htm

2.       https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/second-inaugural-address-1865-2