A THOUGHT BEFORE THE ELECTION: OUR COLLECTIVE REDEMPTION

A thought before the election: OUR COLLECTIVE REDEMPTION

Over the past few months I having been reading and re-reading, again and again, the apostle John’s account of the life of Jesus.

I see how Jesus chose, as his closest disciples, flawed and unqualified people. Without any credit to himself, Jesus covers the mistake (and pending embarrassment) of a friend at his wedding. With kindness, he engages with a woman who behaves and believes very differently to himself.  Jesus does not avert his eyes from a severely disabled person but rather has compassion and heals him. When a large crowd is hungry, he feeds them, even though he knows that many of these very people will turn against him and reject him.  Jesus is merciful to a beggar, bending down to his level and connecting with him as someone who truly matters. He comforts sisters who are mourning and returns their brother to them. He shows love to his mother and provides for her before his death. He washes the feet of his friends and serves them a meal.

We also see how Jesus often went away from the crowd to a quiet place, to pray to the Father.

God’s kingdom comes in different ways than the kingdoms of this world. It comes in quiet, not in noise. It comes in kindness, not cruelty. It comes in humility not humiliation.

Jesus taught by example to move away from the shouting crowds and that on bended knee is when we find the kingdom of God.

In this posture, we find that we can accept that not everything in life makes sense and that people are complex.

We can embrace compassion which is the richest of character traits and a virtue to be pursued our whole life.

We can learn that what we choose to not say is sometimes more important that what we do say.

We can forgive, understanding that conflict is inevitable but broken relationships are not.

We can wash the feet of one another, which is God’s high call to all of us – this humble act of acknowledging that the other person matters enough for us to lower ourselves and to esteem them.

It is in this loving of our neighbor that we truly love ourselves.

It is in loving God first and foremost.

This, then, is how we enter his kingdom. This is how we participate with God in the story of our collective redemption. There is no other way.

I write this a few days before the 2024 elections in the USA. I am a South African by birth and a US citizen by naturalization. I pray that the people of the United States of America who I have come to know, respect and love, will find the ability to humbly, on bended knee, accept that we may have differences. Let us participate in the redemption story of our creator by connecting with one other in a deep and meaningful way - despite the election outcome and despite our differences.

May we think on these things!