And so I have felt the need to prepare – not by reading policy statements and platforms; not by watching “debates”. The positions and implications of the various candidates are, after all, patently clear. No, the preparations are more personal; more fundamental.
These are some of the basics I’m pondering while waiting for the letter carrier to deliver today’s mail:
§ “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”Deuteronomy 10:17-19
§ “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8
§ “This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.” Ezekiel 16:49
§ “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it…” Psalm 24:1
§ “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40
§ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Matthew 25:41-46
§ “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Galatians 5:22-23
§ “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8-9
§ “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
§ “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Hebrews 13:2
§ “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.” James 1:27, 2:14-18
I know, I know, we aren’t electing a savior, a “Saint-in-Chief.” As flawed as we are, these are aspirational goals. We will get it wrong as often as we get it right. More often, if I am honest. Anger will distort. Greed will pervert. Vindictiveness will completely twist us out of shape. Power will seduce. But their aspirational nature is precisely the point. Or, rather, it is the question. To what extent am I actually seeking their particular shape? I, but of course also those for whom I am casting my vote? Because while it is true that we are not electing moral models, we are electing representative leaders – which is to say, among other things, someone representing me. Whoever gets elected will certainly not embody my particular set of values, but I cannot cast my vote for anyone who stands as their antithesis. I don’t require the recipients of my vote to share my confessional commitments, but values and behaviors and ideologies oppositional to those commitments are deal-breakers.
And so it is that however much my vote says something about the various candidates on the ballot, and about the county or state or nation they aspire to serve, more than anything my vote says something about me. And so I sift again through the sketched values articulated above – the life parameters assigned to me and adopted by me - to remember all over again…
…what they are…
…what matters to me.
To trace, again, their lines.
To reaffirm their aspirational shape.
And then, with fear and trembling...
...and clarity...
...to vote.
