Scripture texts: Malachi 4:1-2, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, Luke 21:5-19
Eight years ago, as all of you I’m sure can recall, we had an election. One for the history books. The first African-American President, Barack Obama, was voted into office. This was cause for great exaltation on one side of the political aisle. Jubilation at this sea change in our society. Racism was done. It was over. It was a time of hope and change. Everything was going to be different now.
Good times.
Image from Wikipedia
On the other side, things weren't quite so happy. There was suspicion, fear, trepidation. He’s coming for our guns. He going to make our lives harder. He’s a usurper, not even born in America. The end of the world is at hand. The anti-Christ has come. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Everything was going to be different now.
Well, here we are eight years later and American society is neither a Star Trek-like utopia where everything is perfect and wonderful where no one has any problems, nor it is “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.” All of our excessive jubilation or fear and trembling at the prospect of an Obama presidency at its start seems wildly misplaced now. It was, now that we have hindsight to see it, a pretty ordinary presidential term. Some people benefited and some more than others. Others were hurt and again some more than others. There were a few exceptional moments, but the idea that it was going to be some sort of massive transformation of our society (for better or worse) seems silly now.
What will we say four or eight years from now when now-President-elect Donald Trump finishes his run?
It is easy to buy into the hype, either as the winners or the losers. Part of our political process is to create hype for the chosen candidates. Trump, the brilliant salesman that he is, was exceptional at this. Secretary Clinton, not so much, hence why (in part at least) we have the outcome that we do. But all eyes now turn to the future. What happens next?
I don’t know the answer to that. What I do have are the words of Scripture that (probably not coincidentally) come out of the lectionary today. Words fitting for recent events. Words of Jesus warning us not to get too caught up in hype and hyperbole as the disciples do upon witnessing the grandeur of the temple. Words of the prophet Malachi warning us about evil among us and how it will not stand the Day of the Lord. Words of Paul to the church of Thessolonika exhorting them to keep doing what they’re supposed to be doing.
There was a part of me that almost wanted to skip the sermon entirely because these three texts speak so perfectly to these times. The simple truth of the matter is that, for whatever else we might want to believe of him for good or ill, President-elect Trump is still a human being. He is not a god. He is not an ubermensch. He is not a superhero. He is, like all of us, a mix of brilliant gifts and massive flaws. He is not a demon. He is not our savior.
He is not Satan nor Jesus incarnate. He’s just a man. Satan is Satan. And Jesus is Jesus. And as Christians, it is the real Jesus that we follow and the real Satan that we oppose.
And how do we do that? We follow Paul’s counsel here. We keep doing what we’re supposed to be doing. Loving our neighbor. Caring for people in need. Feeding the hungry. Speaking up for the voiceless. As I said of Obama’s tenure, there are people who benefit from the work of our government and there are those who suffer. That will be true of Trump as well. People who will thrive in his Presidency and those who will suffer. That’s the way of things.
And our job as followers of Christ is to proclaim the Gospel and one of the best and most powerful ways to do that is stand there and catch those who fall through the cracks of society. The poor, the different, people of color, the gay, immigrants, refugees, all those the world would rather forget. But not Jesus, our TRUE Savior. He won’t forget them and he wants us to not forget them as well.
Make no mistake my friends. There are going to be a lot of folks falling through those cracks in the years to come. Even if Trump does his utmost to make good on his victory speech promise to be a President for all Americans and becomes a model President, there are still those who supported him because they WANT to hurt people. They are still out there. I hope and pray they are a very small percentage of our population, but they do exist. And they are going to want satisfaction for their hate and anger. And they’ve already begun their work.
Kids bullied in school for being.Latino. Swastikas graffitied in a dorm room. Black people hung in effigy. Welcome to the future.
A small sample of what's been happening out there. We can pray it never gets any worse than a few obscene marks on buildings, but I'm not holding my breath.
Image from The Federalist
The question before us is what are we going to do about it. The tribunal that Jesus speaks of in his Gospel may take the form of you and I standing in the gap between a mob of haters and a gay man. Or we may be called to be the Samaritan to an Arab or Black man lying on the street bleeding after being attacked. It chills me to think such things can happen here, but there are those hungry for such things. What are we going to do about it?
Standing in that gap is not going to make us popular. It will make us enemies and it will not feel good. But fear not. Our enemies are nothing to the God we serve. NEVER forget that as we seek to do the good in the world in which we live, whatever form it takes.
Friday night, I was off to Washington DC to see one of my favorite musical groups, the Pet Shop Boys. I was juggling a few thoughts in my head as I was heading down there. The Boys have a very loyal following among the gay community and are themselves gay, and I was thinking how welcome will they and many of their fans be in this country in the future (The band members are British by nationality.)
"It's a Sin" is one of their more challenging songs on the issue of being gay in this world
I was also wondering if there would be protests or even riots by those frightened by a Trump presidency. All the while I’m listening to my wife’s curious mix of Broadway showtunes that’s she’s playing while we’re driving down: Jersey Boys + Les Miserables.
Now Les Mis is my favorite musical of all time and I’ve used it numerous times as a sermon illustration. It occurred to me that’s fitting today. It takes place in a revolutionary time in 19th century France. There’s a rebellion, an effort to overthrow a corrupt and tyrannical government in the midst of the story. People trying to change things. People wanting things to be different. It fails utterly.
Nothing changes. The nightmarish reality of France at the end of the story is the same as at the beginning.
But that’s not really what the story’s about. The story’s really about the revolutionary act that occurs within one man, Jean ValJean, to go from being thief and scoundrel to a man of God. For him to do as Paul has called us to do, to not cease in doing good. And in the end, he is welcomed into the arms of his Savior not because he’s made this transformation, but because that’s what God does. ValJean realizes this. God is love. God is mercy. God is forgiveness. And ValJean realizes God offers all these things to him long before he’s changed his life. He changes because of those things, not because that’s how he gets them.
You and I, my friends, are ValJean for this time and this generation. The world’s going to do what it’s going to do, for better or worse. You and I, we have work to do. Caring for people. Loving them in our Savior’s name. Doing for them what others can’t or won’t do. Showing the world that there is a throne greater than the chair in the Oval Office. There’s a heavenly throne upon which sits the one who will truly save the world. Correction, one who HAS saved the world through the cross and empty tomb. That’s not hype. That’s not hyperbole. That’s not showmanship or politics. That’s truth. Go and tell. Go and show. Do as you are called. Amen.
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