My disappointment and anger with the Church and with my country does not rule the moment. This is a moment for prayer- and more prayer…then it will be the moment to practice the politics of “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” We are called to “share the peace of Christ with those outside the church with whom we do not share the faith and with those inside the Church with whom we strongly disagree.” Trumpism in the church disrespects those who disagree. Jesus in the church calls us to “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us.” That includes everybody!
When Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012 Donald Trump tweeted, “We can’t let this happen. We should march on Washington and STOP THIS TRAVESTY. Our nation is totally divided.” That was a call for an illegal insurrection, a violent revolution, by the man who is now President of the United States! That in and of itself is terrifying. Now he is upset that “Not my President” is being chanted all over the United States. Trump is reaping what he sowed. We always do.
He should take notice that he lost the popular vote; that he won the election by winning three states by a total of ninety thousand votes out of one hundred and twenty million cast. He has no mandate to do anything. He has sown the wind. He WILL reap the whirlwind.
His blatant and racist disrespect of the sitting President is bearing bitter fruit. He planted the seeds of hate all over the United States for eight years, now he expects a very troubled nation to rally behind him. He is in dreamland. Except for Abraham Lincoln, nobody has taken office under such a cloud in the history of American politics . When you preach violent rebellion and threaten to reject the results of an election if you lose, you have no right to expect anything but the worst.
But …. returning what Trump gives out and will continue to give out is not what we do. There is a higher call. There is something that has happened among us that changes everything. Trump is uniquely unqualified and dead in his narcissism, but so are we. Though he says he has no use for God’s forgiveness and reconciliation, “He just takes care of his sins himself,” we claim God’s grace for Trump and for ourselves. For all of us …“ were by nature children of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” It is by grace America will be saved.
And so as we live through this moment in history we dedicate ourselves, not to Trump, but to Jesus as Lord of the nations. He is above all powers. He is Lord. So we embrace the Peace of Christ and declare that we love our enemies, that we will not let unwholesome talk come out our mouths; that we will not return evil for evil; that we will practice forbearance toward Christ’s wounded body and toward our terribly broken President elect.
Trump does not get the Grace of God, but we do. So his hate politics do not rule the moment. Jesus does. It is as simple as that. I will support Trump when he is acting justly, but I will oppose him publicly and vigorously when he is wrong. But never will I give him what he has given America for eight years. He in no way is my model.