“You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.” (James 1:19-20)
In recent days, I have had multiple conversations with people across the political divide, and just about everyone is anxious about the presidential election. It is interesting that in many of these conversations, it doesn’t take long for someone to express their fears in an emotional way, and rational thought goes out the window, and anger shows up. I freely admit that I am not immune to this. In my mind and heart, there are times when my emotions get the better of me, especially as I think about the election next Tuesday. It is like a million different “what-ifs” on everyone’s mind and heart. A bunch of those “what-ifs” send us into an emotional tailspin, resulting in anger, anxiety, hope, and everything in between.
The author of the Letter of James encourages us to be “quick to listen, slow to speak, [and] slow to anger,” which is a tall order for most of us – and, I fear, might become even more difficult for us and our fellow citizens in our beloved United States of America over the next few weeks and months. I hope and pray that I am wrong, but I want to be clear-eyed about just how hard it is for a whole lot of people to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger in these days before the election and just how hard it might be for all of us to be so after the election.
To this end, I would like to invite you to a time of prayer on the day before the election, and then on the day after the election.
Next Monday, November 4, a group of us will gather in the sanctuary at 9 AM for a time of prayer – for our community, our church, our nation, and ourselves.
Next Wednesday, November 6, a group of us will gather in the sanctuary at 12 PM for a time of prayer – again: for our community, our church, our nation, and ourselves.
The plan for these gatherings will be simple:
First, we will listen – to the Word of God, found in scripture, and spend some time in the quiet act of listening.
And then, in light of what we might hear from God’s Spirit, we will speak – voicing our hopes as well as our fears, entrusting them all to God, in prayer.
I will also provide a copy of the readings and the prayers as a brief YouTube video that we will share on our church’s YouTube channel.
In the days ahead, I encourage ALL of us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger – even if we find ourselves listening to those with whom we disagree and those who might make us angry. Remember: most of the anger we might feel – the unrighteous anger that has nothing to do with the commandments to love God or love our neighbor – does not produce anything good for God. When it comes to any righteous anger we might think we feel, we would be wise to test it by holding it up before us and rationally examining it in light of God’s grace and greatest commandments to us.
In the days ahead, may you and I be in prayer and be instruments of God’s peace. . . May God make us so. . .
See you in church!
Grace and Peace,
John
Prepare for Worship
This Week: “Make it Shareable – Grace and Gratitude – Week 4”
- Read Psalm 119:1-8
- Reaed Mark 12:28-34
- Read or sing Hymn # 730 – “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God”