November is Coming

 

When I was a seminarian at Drew Theological School from 1985-1988, The Rev.William Sloan Coffin was the senior minister at Riverside Church in New York City. I got married in the spring of my first year, and worked at the Demarest United Methodist Church that middler year and then at Grace Episcopal Church my senior year. Whenever I had a Sunday off, Hathy and I would head in to hear Bill Coffin preach at Riverside. Not often, but more than a few times. An amazing preacher.

And then, after I was ordained, I served for four years as Protestant Campus Minister at Central Connecticut State University. Coffin had left Riverside by then but was heading up a group called SANE/FREEZE to eliminate the use of nuclear weapons. I wrote to him and invited him to speak with our students, an invitation he quickly accepted. (He'd previously been a campus minister himself, at Yale.)

For years I've used the words above as part of a final blessing I offer in congregations where I am serving. The words are embedded in my heart and soul. And I've been reflecting on them as we look to another contentious national election. 

I've lost friends, even family members, in the age of Trump. I don't want that to happen this fall, though. I see posts from people I love and respect asking for "no politics." I can't do that. I see posts that remind us we won't change any minds on Facebook. I agree. But sometimes we need to preach to the choir. Sometimes we need to preach to ourselves.

What I promise myself and those I love - whatever your politics may be - is that my own lens/filter for this fall (and I pray, always) is to hold both truth and love together. Gently. And kindly.

I don't think for a moment I have a monopoly on truth. I know that's complex. I know I am sometimes (often?) wrong. We are all works in progress. But I value the pursuit of truth. I try to stay open to being persuaded. I want to be engaged, in a desire to seek the truth. The truth sets us free. 

However, I am also committed to the way of love. I don't want to lose any more friends in this polarized environment. Whatever I may say, I want it to be in love.

I can't tell others what to do, but I offer this personal testimony as a way for us to work toward binding up the wounds of this nation. Whatever happens in the presidential election and in state and local elections, we are living in precarious times. Can we all commit ourselves to speaking the truth we have - knowing we live in a time when there is so much propaganda out there? And can we do so with love?