The Election, Jesus and the Bull****
While many in our nation are celebrating the election results today, I am particularly aware of the amount of fear many others are experiencing, especially in marginalized communities, of what the next presidential term may bring for them. Considering the public rhetoric the president-elect has used throughout his campaign, it would be genuinely irresponsible to claim that those fears have no merit. Many are already asking — for those who follow Jesus, what are we being called to do over the next four years? The answer, I think, is relatively simple.
A famous quote from theologian and ethicist Stanley Hauerwas is, “Jesus is Lord. Everything else is bullshit.” It’s important to note here that Hauerwas is NOT saying, “Go to church and worship Jesus and forget the rest.” That could not be further from his writings. Hauerwas argues for a clear and rigorous link between theology and ethics. If we love Jesus, we do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8), and we love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:30–31). It’s that simple. Any worship of God on Sunday that does not translate into actual on-the-ground kindness and love of all those around us, regardless of race, religion, or any other factors, does not reflect the life and teachings of Jesus. Christians who see themselves as a separate group who have an identity to defend that requires them to denigrate their neighbors have missed the entire point of Jesus’ incarnation, teaching, death, and resurrection. They are like the Levite and the priest who pass by the injured traveler in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30–37).
The answer, then, to what we, as followers of Jesus, are to do is the same as yesterday. We are to show radical love for our neighbors. If the rhetoric of the president-elect’s campaign translates into actual action by the government, then many marginalized groups may find themselves under active persecution. In that case, love of neighbor will dictate that those who love Jesus will take a stand for various ethnic and religious minorities, as well as LGBTQIA+ folks and others in the name of Jesus. We will have to do so understanding that some of those who carry the name Christian may be part of those carrying out the persecution in the protection of their self-interest.
This could be costly. But the Gospel is always costly. The witness of the martyrs and confessors, both ancient and modern, point to the sacrifice that is often asked of those who challenge their society by loving their neighbors fully. But if we are to affirm that “Jesus is Lord” without giving in to the bullshit, this is what we are called to, ESPECIALLY if we are not part of the minorities under threat.
We do not do this alone. Nor are we without hope. One of the most famous quotes from the 14th-century English mystic Julian of Norwich’s writings is that of Jesus saying to her, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” People often misread this as some religious version of “Don’t worry, be happy,” but that is not an accurate way of reading it. Julian lived in a time with multiple breakouts of the black death, peasant and religious rebellions, and two competing popes on the continent. Jesus utters this phrase in her vision when she is most at her wit’s end, pleading for some solace that the world can be made right. Jesus tells her that humanity can’t make everything right on its own but that in the end, God shall take all our striving and perfect it in a way we cannot now perceive. It is an argument that when we do the work of loving our neighbor, it is never hopeless — that the arc of the moral universe does indeed bend towards justice because God stands at the beginning and end of it. I often explain this to people by saying, “All manner of things shall be well in the end, but that doesn’t mean that everything does not suck right now.” Jesus as Lord is the ultimate master, but bullshit often reigns supreme in the meantime.
In this time, as in other times, we are called to love God and our neighbors in radical ways, even if that puts us at odds with our society or government. We must understand that while politics are important, those who follow Jesus should put their ultimate faith elsewhere. We should realize that it will not be electoral processes that bring about the peaceable Kingdom of God, but a process already set in motion at the resurrection of Jesus that we participate in as his followers. Jesus is Lord. Everything else is bullshit.
Fr. David Simmons, ObJN, is an Episcopal Priest, a Presbyterian Pastor and an oblate of the Order of Julian of Norwich in Waukesha, WI
For more about Julian of Norwich, listen to “Five Takeaways from Julian of Norwich” by Fr. David and Mo. Hilary Crupi, Prioress of the Order of Julian of Norwich.
The Election, Jesus and the Bull**** was originally published in Preaching from the Rood Screen on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.