Transcript:
Bishop Kym Lucas:
I’m Kym Lucas, bishop of the Episcopal Church in Colorado.
Bishop Meghan Johnston Aelabouni:
I’m Meghan Johnston Aelabouni, bishop of the Rocky Mountain Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Bishop Kristin Stoneking:
And I’m Kristin Stoneking, bishop of the Mountain Sky Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Bishop Kym Lucas:
Together as ecumenical colleagues and as siblings in Christ, we offer this word to the Church:
Bishop Kristin Stoneking:
In this election season, many of our congregations and communities have been experiencing uncertainty, division, and worry. So much about this time has felt like more than just politics as usual. Many feel that the future of our nation and our world is at stake. With misinformation, distrust, and calls to violence permeating our political discourse, it is becoming harder to know the one thing that guides us as citizens and people of faith, the truth.
Bishop Meghan Johnston Aelabouni:
In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his followers, “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” His followers are surprised to be offered freedom because they don’t think of themselves as unfree. But Jesus makes clear that human beings are trapped by sin, not merely individual choices and behaviors, but whole systems that can exploit, manipulate, and hurt people, including the most vulnerable among us.
Bishop Kym Lucas:
One of the ways sin works in the world, including the world of politics, is through fear. When people are driven by fear, we become more suspicious of those who are not like us of different ideas and perspectives that might be new to us. Yet one of the most common messages in our Christian tradition is be not afraid, because perfect love casts out fear. It is this love, the love of God in Jesus, that is the truth that sets us free. Free from fear and free to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Bishop Kristin Stoneking:
This election season in our voting and in our conversations, our advocacy and our community relationships, let us remember the freedom we are given in the love of God for us. This freedom is given to us that we do not fall prey to greed, self-centeredness and hate. It is the freedom to love as Christ loves and to shake off the trappings of this world. We who follow Jesus must be vigilant about noticing and resisting messages that tempt us to vote and act from a place of fear and actively discern how we use our civic privileges to live out the command to love our neighbor. Let us always seek to be people of the truth.
Bishop Meghan Johnston Aelabouni:
Let us pray. Wise and loving God, you call us to be people set free by the truth in all aspects of our lives. When we are in doubt about what is true, help us to look to Jesus, the way, the truth and the life who came in love because God so loved the world. Help us to remember that our true unity and salvation is not in political parties or even in national identities, but in Jesus Christ, whose body we are. Strengthen us in your perfect love that casts out fear that we may bring your love to the world always. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Bishop Kym Lucas:
Amen.
Bishop Kristin Stoneking:
Amen.