A Note from Pastor Sarah
This past weekend, I met up with a friend who lives in Tennessee for lunch. She’s in town for a few days, just visiting, but one of the first things she told me was “oh my goodness, THE COMMERCIALS. How do you do this?!”
She, of course, meant the incessant campaign commercials for every race at every level. Apparently, those are much less frequent and much less demanding in states considered “safe” by one party or another. We’re just that special.
This election season has been stressful. As we inch closer to election day itself, that stress and anxiety continues to ramp up. I see it, you see it, we all feel it. It would be malpractice on my part to just pretend nothing is happening.
However, because of the culture we find ourselves in, I know that bringing it up without some care and warning can also make things more stressful, not less.
So in that spirit of care, here is what you can expect from Parkwood over the next few weeks:
1. We will pray. We’ll pray in worship for peaceful, free, and fair elections. We will pray for God’s guidance and God’s courage, that we may follow where the Spirit leads us. We’ll also offer some prayer resources next week for you to use at home or with your loved ones.
2. We will maintain our commitment to be nonpartisan. The gospel is political in that we are called to organize our lives around the love of Christ, but that gospel call does not fit neatly into party platforms or ballot circles. You will not hear me mention candidates or political parties by name at any point. We will not be handing out voter guides.
3. We will make space for one another. On Sunday, November 10th, I will host a ‘Still Processing’ gathering after worship for those who want to process whatever happens that week. We will make space for one another’s thoughts, feelings, fears and hopes. If you would like to chat with me privately before or after that day, I am more than happy to hold that space for you.
4. We will love our neighbors. I find it fitting that on Sunday, November 3rd – the final Sunday before election day – we will bring our Harvest Bags to worship and bless them. These bags full of food will represent not only a holiday meal, but our commitment to loving God and neighbor no matter what comes.
When I was a kid, there was a cartoon called “Pinky and the Brain.” The details aren’t important, but the liturgy it accidentally taught me is. At the beginning of every episode, Pinky would ask: “what are we going to do tonight, Brain?” And Brain replied without fail: “the same thing we do every night, Pinky: try to take over the world!” Cue maniacal laughter.
I think of this cartoon every time someone asks me “if x happens, what are we going to do?”
We’re going to do the same thing we do every day: love God, love our neighbors. How we do that might shift – but our core purpose will not.
