Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
I’m writing this to you before Election Day in the United States, and as the people anticipate its outcome, we are reminded to look past a president for our leadership.
Shane Claiborne recast the traditional political statement for us in a book of the same name: Jesus for President. That we, as followers of Jesus, declare Jesus is Lord, which is to say, our chief, leader, and liberator. He is the one we listen to.
This, of course, is not to suggest that the person holding the highest office in the country doesn’t matter, or that we are to abstain from making a morally-convicted decision. But it is to say that which ever person holds the job, they aren’t God. And all of our hopes should never rest in them.
On the other side of the coin, our conviction in the risen Christ empowers us to work for the Kin-dom, through service, love, and generous giving. We are called into partnership of world-changing proportions, of the public transformation of unjust systems, of growing welcome of the outcast, the immigrant, and the refugee, and the healing of wounded, forgotten, and abused.
Our true president calls us to serve our community in sacrificial love, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, heal the sick, and visit the incarcerated as how we meet Jesus on the road we’re walking. Because our first citizenship is to the Kin-dom of God. And our command is to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. This is the hanger from which our entire way of life is dependent for support.
With love,
Drew