The Day After

 And there was rejoicing and celebrating in the streets! And there was deep angst and fear that taints the mind and soul.

I remember such a day. It was the day after the 2016 election. Donald Trump had been elected president, defeating Hillary Clinton. My work as a pastor took me out to Sun City, a 10,000+ enclave on the edge of Georgetown. It was a stronghold of Trump supporters. As I exited Sun City at its main entrance, a man stood on the shoulder of the busy highway, wearing a red MAGA T-shirt and cap. He was waving a sign that read "We Won!!" As people exited onto the highway, they responded to him by honking their horns, waving, and giving the thumbs up. There was rejoicing and celebrating in the streets. 

But I had not voted for Donald Trump. I felt none of their jubilation, none of their joy. I felt deep angst and fear. From where I sat in my car, their celebration felt like gloating. It fueled my angst and fear, making me feel like an outsider in my own country. 

This year, the situation is reversed. Again, I did not vote for Donald Trump. So I am a part of the rejoicing and celebrating as Joe Biden has been declared the president-elect. I am celebrating as the first woman is the vice-president elect. That she is the daughter of immigrants and a person of color makes her election even more historic. 

The dominant feeling that drives my celebration is relief. I am relieved that an authoritarian president has been removed from office. I am relieved that the threat I believed he posed to our nation is gone. I am relieved that his flagrant disregard for the law and his exploitation of his office for personal gain will come to an end. I am relieved that the poison of us-them polarization will no longer be fed daily through a stream of Tweets. I am relieved that lies and an alternate reality will no longer replace logic, scientific knowledge, and reality. I am relieved that the American people stood up to this president's bullying when the Congress refused to do so. I am relieved that racism, hatred, and bullying have once again been repudiated as having no place in our society. I am relieved that the diversity of our nation has proven more powerful than entrenched, patriarchal white supremacy ... at least for now. 

And this election stirs hope. Hope that our democracy will not give way to authoritarianism. Hope that the partisan politics that has dominated our country for too many decades will finally be overcome. Hope that we might overcome the polarization and become "One Nation, Under God." Hope that "justice for all" will become a reality. Hope that we as a nation will deal honestly and repentantly with our racist, white-privileged past that has scapegoated citizens of color. Hope that we will find creative ways to address the economic disparity of our nation. Hope that our better nature, not our most base nature, will shape who we are and how we live as a people. Hope for progress, not regression. Hope, at least for now. 

But as I rejoice and celebrate, many - over 70 million voters - are feeling angst and fear ... the same angst and fear I felt in 2016. I read the posts of friends and family on Facebook. They are certain that Biden and the Democrats will destroy our nation, replace capitalism with socialism, destroy the economy, do away with the oil industry, take away their guns, defund the police, and kill even more of the unborn through free-reign abortion. As a side note, I do not believe any of those things will come to pass. I believe their fears reflect catastrophic thinking. But I must remember they are responding to the defeat of Donald Trump with grief. They are stunned that so many people - over 74 million - would vote to destroy our great nation.  

As we celebrate, these who grieve remind us that our celebration must not be gloating. It must be laced with humility. And it must be tempered with realism. 

The election of Joe Biden will not make the polarization in our nation go away. He has promised to work to bring the country together, to be the President of all Americans, but his efforts to overcome the polarization rather than exploit it and feed it will not automatically translate into unity. Hard work will be required. And that hard work involves reaching out to those on the other side of the isle, listening to and hearing their fears, and working together to address those concerns in a way that is for "the common good." 

Such an effort requires humility. Humility involves living with the knowledge that I know my truth, but not the whole truth, that my perspective is not the only perspective to be considered. Humility allows us to listen to and hear the other's truth, to understand their perspective. Humility positions us to work together. 

And such an effort requires patience. Those who did not vote for Joe Biden will not automatically abandon their positions. If anything, they will become more rigid in their thinking as the fear-based thinking that drove their voting has become reality. They will likely oppose and resist Biden as President in the same way that President Obama's initiatives were opposed and thwarted by a Republican-controlled Senate. 

Humility and patience position us to live out of compassion and understanding as we refuse to give up on or abandon those who think differently - a significant challenge indeed. 

Without humility and patience, those of us who helped elect Joe Biden run the risk of becoming what we rejected - living out of an "I'm right, you're wrong" attitude, using power to impose our way, discounting and dismissing those who do not agree with us, protecting our power and places of power that the election bestowed on us, operating out of self-interest rather than seeking "the common good." 

In short, the work the day after brings calls us to live out of the ways of God that Jesus taught: the servant use of power, self-giving love, compassion and forgiveness, humility and patience, the refusal to give up on or abandon anyone - even those we view as our adversaries. 

May we who are the followers of Jesus be a part of the healing work that moves us beyond the self-destructive polarization of our nation! May the Spirit empower us to do so!