From the Pastor – November 2024

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.    Galatians 5:22-23, New International Version

Every year, as election time draws close, the phone rings at the office from a member of the community or church. The person on the other end of the line begins with the usual comments on the weather, last week’s worship service and coffee hour afterward. Sooner or later the caller gets down to the reason for calling. “So, who should I vote for this year?”  It may sound surprising, but it happens several times every year!   No pastor worth his or her salt will tell you how to vote.  But, an important component of the pastoral office is to comment on the political process. This has been an important component to the pastoral office in the US that can be traced back to our founding.  | Here we are nearing the end of what is said to be one of the most contested elections cycles in our history.  To be sure, the rancor has been intense. And, not just muckraking from one candidate to the other.  But, now, it is becoming commonplace for a supporter of one candidate to berate a supporter of the other candidate, projecting all manner of derision upon them. This is a misuse of all the things that make us who we are and for which we stand.  Even more, it is a failure of our Christian nurture when civility is lost.  I believe there is a better way to live our faith.  

The journal of John Wesley records these recommendations during the election season.  

October 6, 1774
I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them

1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy
2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against, and

3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.

When I read this statement from times gone by, I thought what a wonderful world that would have been. How freeing it must be to be able to agree to disagree with your neighbors.  How comforting it must be to
respect each other’s freedom of conscience.  How
nurturing it must feel to hold in the mind and heart that we are all in this together.   
There is an old saying, that the time you become an adult is the moment you know that you must become the person you wish your parents were.  This may or may not be true for any given family. At times, we can
apply it to public life.  We can become the person we wish our leaders were. 
The Apostle Paul writes to the Galatians about what has become known as the fruits of the spirit.   His point is, you know that you are growing in relationship to God and your neighbor when these things are increasing in your life.  John Wesley’s advice is salted with the
wisdom of Paul’s words.  They (Paul’s words and John’s) mark out the better path for us now.  
Live so the fruit of the spirit grows in your life. Speak to others in ways the reflect your God’s Grace working through you.  It seems that the whole of the world is on edge right now. So, remember who you God is and what your God does in the world.  Our God created as an act of love. Our God redeems as an act of grace.  Our God
sustains to give you hope.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Deters