Bishop David Bard says that when the election is over, and the ballots have been counted, the work for the common good begins for everyone, including the church.

BISHOP DAVID ALAN BARD
Michigan Conference

Many of you may be familiar with the work of Howard Thurman (1899-1981). While I knew of his work before, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself bumping into it again and again. It was a serendipity of God’s grace. Thurman’s writings combined powerful insights into the inner spiritual journey with a prophetic call to engage the wider world in the quest for justice. Perhaps his best-known work is Jesus and the Disinherited, a book Martin Luther King, Jr., carried with him during the Montgomery bus boycott.

Here is one of Thurman’s brief meditations that particularly caught my attention during the pandemic: “There must be always remaining in every [person’s] life some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful and, by inherent prerogative, throws all the rest of life into a new and creative relatedness, something that gathers up in itself all the freshets of experience from drab and commonplace areas of living and glows in one bright white light of penetrating beauty and meaning — then passes. . . . . Despite all the crassness of life, despite all the hardness of life, despite all the harsh discords of life, life is saved by the singing angels.” Thurman was a black man in twentieth-century America. He knew hardness and harsh discords. His words rang true and touched me deeply during the hard days of the pandemic.

Another of Thurman’s profound meditations is on the work of Christmas. I know it seems I am a month early on this one. The brief meditation begins with “When the song of the angels is stilled / When the star in the sky is gone,” and it continues for a few more lines about the ending of the birth story of Jesus. Thurman goes on to say that when the story ends, “The work of Christmas begins.” For Thurman, the work includes finding the lost, healing the broken, feeding the hungry, and making peace. I hope you will look this meditation up and ponder it during Advent.

Yet, I have been thinking about Thurman’s words as our election approaches. As I write, we are in the final stretch of the campaign season. Given what I am reading about some changing election laws and pending lawsuits regarding the election, I anticipate things could be messy and unclear in the days immediately following Election Day. It will be a time for all of us to put on patience and love.

Eventually, the election will be behind us, and I hear parallels to Thurman’s Christmas meditation. When the ballots have been counted, the elections have been certified, and the oaths of office have been administered, the work for the common good begins. This work for the common good is not only the work of our political and governmental systems; it belongs to us all.

It is part of the work of the church, which proclaims that God so loved the world. We often personalize John 3:16, and that is appropriate. God loves each of us in Jesus, and that is good news to share. Yet “the world” also means communities of people and how they live their lives together. “The world” includes the planet on which we live. God’s love is meant to be embodied in systems of governance by which people organize their lives together. God’s love for the earth is meant to influence how we care for the planet.

Our political and governmental systems will never fully embody God’s love and justice. We are always waiting for a kingdom yet to come. That’s the danger with a Christian nationalism that baptizes candidates or parties in a way that indicates they fully embody God’s love and justice. Even if God’s love and justice are never fully embodied on this side of God’s kingdom, we seek to do what we can to make God’s love and justice more real.

When the ballots have been counted, the elections have been certified, and the oaths of office have been administered, the work for the common good begins. It involves feeding the hungry, healing the broken, rebuilding communities, creating peace, fostering justice, building more beloved community, recognizing our common humanity as created in the image of God, and encouraging each person to grow in love. It is work we engage in as followers of Jesus Christ who proclaim that God so loved the world.

Before signing off this month, I want to note that November is a time for gratitude. Among the things for which I give thanks is each of you who are part of the Michigan Conference. Thank you for your faithful ministry for Jesus Christ. I look forward to our upcoming conversations at the four listening sessions. The first one is in Marquette on November 23. Read more about this upcoming tour in the recent MIconnect article.

Last Updated on November 12, 2024