Thoughts on the Morning After

Wow. Just, wow… I never really believed this would happen. I could go on for a while listing all the reasons that I thought would prevent Donald Trump from becoming President of the United States of America, but there are many are doing that better than I could ever hope to.

I will not engage in apocalyptic rhetoric, although I do fear what President Trump might do as Commander in Chief of our military. Nor will I lament the state of gender or race relations in our society, although our new President’s rhetoric speaks for itself.

Let me preface this by admitting that, yes, I speak from ridiculously unfair privilege as a white, heterosexual, cisgender, Christian male who has little to fear in the America that Trump and many of his supporters imagine. But I am also a father of daughters, one who knows and loves people in the LGBTQAI community, and others of different ethnicities and religions. I have genuine concerns for how they will be treated by our society and our government over the coming years, and I will stand with them no matter what.

All that being said, I speak first and foremost as a follower of Jesus Christ, and one who worships the God who is revealed in him. I believe that God became incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth and “moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14, The Message). I believe that Jesus lived our life, died our death, and rose again to proclaim in no uncertain terms that while the violence and suffering, that death itself, may have its day, in the end, God wins. Life, eternal life, wins.

Jesus lived, died, and rose again under the reign of the Roman Caesar, who demanded ultimate obedience and loyalty. The earliest Christian confession was “Jesus is Lord!”, the implication being “Caesar is not!”- a statement which amounted to treason and led many to a death sentence. While Jesus-followers in twenty-first century America do not face such drastic choices, we must remember that our ancestors in faith clearly understood the choice between being a citizen of God’s Kin(g)dom and the kingdoms of humanity.

We who claim that citizenship don’t need anyone’s permission to love and serve others, because God first loved us (1John 4:19). So I choose to keep working on doing that, because that call transcends our political choices, lasts longer than any human kingdom ever will, and will be all that remains when all is said and done.