People are hurting and afraid after the 2024 election

 People are hurting, afraid, bereaved, bewildered, angry, sad...it is not helpful for someone who has the luxury of not having those same concerns tell them to relax, be calm, stay positive, have faith, in the end it'll be okay or "God's got this." There may be truth in those platitudes, and we will be more or less okay, but that does not preclude struggle, disappointment, & injustices along the way; and, it does not mean that we feel okay today. People worried about deportation, bans based on their faith, stripping away of their bodily autonomy, access to healthcare, or their marriage being invalidated don't need those not in similar peril to be dismissive of their experience. Yes we hope. Yes we work & believe in the work. And, we also can be overwhelmed by disturbing news, by cruelty, by attacks against our agency & right to live authentically. Some of us may need a minute, & it costs nothing to allow people time to process their feelings, start getting a plan together, connect with their tribe, & find their path back to hope.

The Strange Mixture of Anxiety and Hope

I’m worried. I’m worried about Christian Nationalism, which is really white nationalism, it has nothing to do with jesus.

 

I’m worried about rights being rolled back. The right to support gay and trans kids, the right to talk about LGBTQ families in public spaces, a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, the right to vote,

 

the right to learn history as it occurred even if some of it is ugly, the right to hold even the most powerful accountable for their abuse of power…

 

I’m worried for those who have known discrimination and who are being told they will know more of it if certain agendas are enforced.

 

I’m worried, but not hopeless. Because for now, we can vote. We still have a say in how our future will unfold.

 

Democracy is from the Greek, Demokratia meaning “power of the people.” If we don’t use our power, it will be taken from us, and then democracy gives way to something far removed from Jesus’ dream of a divine kin-dom.  

 

Instead of leaving our fears unchallenged, let’s take Jesus’ advice and seek God’s kin-dom, that realm of peace and justice-love where the last are first and the first are last, where even a widow’s mite is meaningful,

 

where hunger isn’t allowed, where the elderly are safe and children are encouraged and people are never demonized for their love and where the sacred value of all people is recognized.

 

The kin-dom of God is in our hands. We can reject Christian empire and embrace instead God’s kin-dom, the non-kingdom, the anti-empire.

 

I’m asking people of faith to dare to dream Jesus’ dream of God’s universal family making sure that no one is oppressed, forgotten, or left out, and then let that dream inform your participation in our democracy, which if we are as Christian as we claim to be, will look more like Jesus’ dream, and less like empire.

 

May the divine kin-dom come and the divine will be done. Amen.