Now What?: A Post-Election Reflection
Sermon by Steve Edington
November 9, 2008
In January of 2004 I departed Nashua for a sabbatical leave, which took me to Chicago to be the "Minister in Residence" at our UU seminary there, the Meadville Lombard Theological School. Minister in Residence is akin to a visiting faculty position. The seminary is located in Chicago's Hyde Park section right along side of the University of Chicago. As I drove through the streets from the freeway to the school, and to the apartment where I'd be living, I kept seeing all these signs saying "Barack Obama for Senate." Two thoughts came to mind: Who is this guy [I assumed it was a guy] with such an odd sounding name? And, Which Senate is he running for - Illinois or the United States? Not only had I never heard of Mr. Obama, I didn't even know he was an African-American. If by some chance I would have driven by him on my way to the seminary (and for all I know I may have) I would not have known who he was.
Several weeks after my arrival, and on the night before the primary election to choose the Senate candidates, I went out to do a little grocery shopping. As I walked out of the store a campaign volunteer came up to hand me a "Vote for Obama" flyer with information about the locations of various polling places in the area. I explained that I was not a resident of Illinois, and therefore would not be voting the next day. Undaunted, she said to me, "Well, take one of these anyway, it will make a great keepsake someday." I had a sack of groceries in each hand, and my hands were already starting to get cold. I didn't want to shift things around to take the flyer. So I politely declined the offer, wished the campaign worker good luck, and went on my way.
I thought about that incident last Tuesday night after it became apparent which way the election was going. I had to wonder: That energetic, peppy, young African-American woman, with whom I had the most fleeting of a conversation in a Chicago grocery story parking lot; did she know something even then that the rest of us didn't? "Well, take one of these anyway; it will make a nice keepsake someday." I'm guessing that "someday" has gotten here quicker than even that optimistic bright-eyed young lady could have imagined.
Just what all this "someday," at which we have arrived, will actually entail remains to be seen. I'll attempt to speak to that at some point in this sermon this morning. You may have noticed that I'm not speaking on the topic I'd originally put in the Newsletter. I was holding out for myself the possibility of doing a post-election sermon if I felt moved to do so. I don't believe I've ever devoted an entire sermon to a post-election reflection, but since this has been an election like no other I decided that I would.
Last Sunday, as I generally do on a Sunday before a major election, I spoke to the values I saw as being at stake, and that I would have in mind in choosing candidates for office. I did not endorse anyone; first of all, as a matter of principle since I don't feel it is my place to tell my congregants who they should vote for any more than it is to tell you what you "should" believe; and, in a more practical vein, because the IRS could, conceivably at least, take away our tax exempt status if I did so endorse.
But today I know I wouldn't fool anyone - and I'm not about to play you good and wise people for a bunch of fools - by pretending to not be affected by the outcome of this Presidential election. I'm delighted. My delight, I must hasten to add, is a tempered one. I'll speak to that when I get to the question of "Now What?" - as this sermon is titled. But before going there I'd like, in something of a collage fashion, to just share with you some of what has been going through my mind since around 11:00 p.m. last Tuesday.
Senator, and now President-Elect, Obama very wisely kept the issue of race in general, and his race in particular, tamped down throughout the campaign. But it would, again, be foolish to pretend it wasn't and isn't there since there were others who weren't shy about surfacing it at all. When I looked at the often-teary faces of Mr. Obama's listeners as he spoke following his victory I knew that there was something in the hearts, minds, and souls of those folks that I as a white person can never fully know.
But there are some things in my heart, mind, and soul as well. I know I've reached the sixth decade of my life, but it still doesn't seem all that long ago that I was a high school student in a community south of the Mason-Dixon line, where the largest and best equipped public swimming pool was for whites only - that's in my lifetime. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was jammed into the small television lounge of my seminary dormitory where we, black and white seminarians alike, watch in stunned silence the unfolding news of Dr. King's assassination. In those broadcasts, as we watched them on a small black and white TV screen, the networks kept replaying the clip from Dr. King's last speech and sermon from the night before where he said - playing off of the Exodus story of Moses - "I have been to the mountain top...and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get there someday."
Our next President was seven years old when Dr. King made that speech in Memphis. And as I listened to President-Elect Obama play off that final speech of Dr. King's as he spoke to that huge throng of people in Chicago's Grant Park on election night, saying "we as a people will get there someday" - that was when I had to take off my glasses and wipe my eyes as well.
No, we have not fully arrived at that Promised Land of complete racial justice, peace, and reconciliation, but there's no denying that we're considerably closer than was the case 40 years ago. A few months hence, near the very same date that we as a nation will once again observe the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. we will also inaugurate our first African-American President.
I also - and I do need to speak to this - recalled a morning here in Nashua about a year ago, again after it became clear on Tuesday night where the election was going. Because of my, and our, ongoing relationship with Harbor Homes I was invited to attend and participate in the Dedication Ceremony of Buckingham House. That's the facility next to the Post Office downtown on Spring Street that Harbor Homes was able to get built and staffed for military veterans who otherwise would not have a home. The Dedication Ceremony was held in the assembly hall of St. Patrick's Church, which is catty-corner across the street from the Buckingham.
The guest of honor was Senator John McCain. His campaign was not in too good a shape at that time; but this was not a campaign stop so he left his stump speech behind. He kept it pretty short. He told a few army jokes and then went on to thank Harbor Homes for what they had done. He emphasized the need to never forget what our veterans have done for our country - and of our responsibility to attend to their well-being when the situation calls for it. Then he got back on the campaign trail. I was sort of listening to him, but I was mostly looking around the room at the faces of the many military veterans who were there as they looked at, and listened to, the Senator.
Here again, I saw something I could recognize, while also realizing I could not fully grasp or fully know about it. There was a bond and a connection there which only those who have experienced the sacrifice of military service can really take in. He was one of them; and he knew them even if he didn't know their names. That flash of insight has stayed with me. As frustrated as I sometimes got with some of what Mr. McCain said in the intensity of this campaign - especially those silly "socialist" references - I was very moved by what he had to say Tuesday night. I felt I was now once again seeing the same person on the television screen that I'd seen downtown here a year ago. He is a remarkable and dedicated American. We remain indebted to his service.
A commentary on where this election leaves us when it comes to the interplay of faith and politics, and of religion in the public square, would require at least one full length sermon, so this cannot be it. I would say that one hard lesson for the Republican Party is that vying for the vote of white evangelicals, and making that your base, to the diminishment of other potential constituencies, is not a wise political strategy any more; but that's not my issue to deal with or resolve. Questioning the faith of one's opponent doesn't always seem to work too well either anymore. One of the more telling Senate races in this regard was the unseating of Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina after she labeled her opponent - a Presbyterian Sunday School teacher no less - as "Godless."
As I said last Sunday, I found it deeply disturbing that calling Mr. Obama a Muslim - incorrect as it was - was seen as a slur. In any case it did him no more harm in the end than did the absurd and shameless accusation that he "palled around with terrorists."
Actually both Senators Obama and McCain quite forthrightly called themselves Christians; and while neither of them really wore their faith on their sleeve they didn't hide it either. I largely view this as a positive thing, in that it demonstrated that religious faith, and being a person of faith - Christian or otherwise - is not the province of any one political party or candidate or political philosophy. I need more time to develop this point further, so stay tuned for another sermon on the matter which I'll probably offer around the time of the Inauguration.
For now I'd think I'd better speak to the title of the sermon while I still have some speaking time left. This is the place where I come off my euphoria to do a reality check, with just a couple of points. My first reality check point is that we have elected a President; we have not anointed a Messiah. I say that not to take anything away from the highly momentous and historic nature of this election; but only to say - as I'm sure Mr. Obama himself would like remind you - he's still a fallible human being.
A few weeks ago at the Alfred E. Smith dinner in Washington - where good natured humor is the rule of the evening - Senator Obama engaged in a little self-parody when he quipped, "Contrary to what you may have been told, I was not born in a manger." It was a good line. It got a good laugh. But the quip was not without its serious angle. I believe our country is headed for better days, both domestically and in the global community, under an Obama Presidency.
At the same time I have few illusions about the monumental challenges that we - not just our new President - but all of us face in the immediate future. There's a broken economy to repair, a war to end, a health care system to make more just and accessible, and any number of plain basic human needs that must be addressed much more fully than they have been. We're not getting ourselves a Savior who's just going to up and fix all that ails us - intelligent, skillful, and politically astute as our President Elect is.
It's probably the height of conceit to quote yourself, but I'll underscore this point by repeating a few lines from last Sunday's sermon, which remain as true for me today as they did a week ago: I do not expect any one office holder - President or otherwise - to fix all that ails us. What I do look for is leadership that will call us to what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature," so that we will each and all feel we have a common stake, a common share in the well being of this nation. Leadership is not just about getting things done, necessary as that is. It's also about getting others to believe in how they can get things done in ways that will ultimately enhance and promote the common good.
I happen to believe that this is the kind of leadership we have chosen, and I believe the success of President Elect Obama's Presidency leadership will depend as much upon how we respond to what he'll call upon us to do, as it does upon what he himself will be able to accomplish.
I don't doubt that they'll be times when I'll be disappointed in our new President over the next four years. I accept that ahead of time. Barack Obama will be the 12th President to hold office in my lifetime. Some of them I've definitely liked better than others. Not a single one of them has completely fulfilled all of my hopes, wishes, and expectations for this nation of which I'm a citizen; and that's OK. What I'm looking for in this President, above and beyond what I believe he will be able to accomplish, is a call to a renewed motivation and a renewed dedication - both on my part and on the part of many of my fellow citizens - to do my, and our, part when it comes to the greater fulfillment of the hopes, wishes, and expectations we have for our country.
This gets me to my second and final point of the morning. If I take his opinion pieces on an issue by issue basis there's not much I can find to agree with when it comes to what Cal Thomas has to say. He does give me a good excuse to vent now and then with a lot of what he writes. But there's an underlying, and ongoing theme - actually it's more of a caution - in some of what he writes with which I can agree. His caution is that persons of faith, whatever their faith may be, should not become overly reliant upon, or over deferential to, the workings of government alone, when it comes to seeing their principles and values put into practice in the larger society. Mr. Thomas does get it right on that count, I feel.
When it comes to the living out, and advancing, the principles and purposes of our Unitarian Universalist faith there are any number of ways in which we find ourselves engaging with the political order. But as we do we should also be mindful that the workings of government and politics alone - however friendly or not we might find them at any particular time - are not the sole vehicle upon which we should rely. The day to day things we do, here in this congregation and in this community, to affirm the inherent worth and dignity of all persons, to promote justice, equity, and compassion in human relations, and to honor the respect the interdependent web of life, remain as crucial as ever. Our commitment to these principles and values remain as crucial as ever as well. This would have been the case regardless of how last Tuesday's election turned out.
The task of bending the moral arc of the universe towards justice - as our Unitarian forbearer Theodore Parker put it - is as much in our hands now as it always has been.
I'll finish with this. A personal highlight during this long - seemingly endless at times - campaign was when I was asked to offer the Invocation at a rally and community forum with then Vice-Presidential candidate, Senator Joe Biden. It was up at the Nashua Community College. This was the one where Senator Biden supposedly made the gaffe of saying that Senator Hilary Clinton would have made a better Vice Presidential candidate that him. As is so often the case in these kinds of situations Mr. Biden's off the cuff remark got taken way out of context. But as soon as I heard him say it I knew he was going to get whacked with it, which he did.
The thing that really bothered me about that episode, however, is that with all the media attention given to our now Vice-President Elect's off-hand remark... well, my little prayer just got completely overlooked! It just wasn't fair! But be that as it may, with just some slight tweaking, I'm going to close with it today. While the outcome of the election was far from certain when I offered these words at that gathering, I hope they continue to speak to us now:
To You, who are the Source of all Life, and the Spirit of Life; you who are known by many names and through many faith traditions, we seek a special blessing as we choose the future we desire for ourselves, for our nation, and for this precious and fragile world that has been entrusted to us.
We are called here today because of our love for this blessed and beautiful land of ours - and land "made for you and me" as one of our troubadours has reminded us. May such love guide us...and may we be guided as well by our sense of dedication and commitment to the unfinished work that still remains before us as we strive towards what our founders called "a more perfect union." As we celebrate the freedom that makes our being here possible, may we also renew our energies for the greater attainment of "liberty and justice for all."
You who are the Giver and Sustainer of All Life, remind us that the choices we made in this election season are not only about our lives - but about the lives and well being of those with whom we share citizenship in this nation, and those with whom we share comradeship around the world. Bless and protect our nation; bless and protect our world. And grant us the wisdom we need to be responsible citizens of our nation and caring stewards of our world. So May It Be.
Stephen Edington
November 9, 2008
