Together Sermon Series | Newsletter Column for Summer 2024

Together

This November, our nation will elect a president. Whoever this new president is, they will appeal to a nation to come together after a divisive election. There will be protests. There will be lawsuits. Perhaps there will be recounts.

Our nation is undeniably polarized right now. In a recent CBS poll, the top answer people gave when asked to describe the state of our country was “divided.”

In the next few weeks, the rhetoric will become even more intense. With one political party holding a convention just down the road from us, and another convention following a few weeks later, with criminal convictions of candidates and their family members, with hundreds of millions of dollars being spent, of course we feel divided. Ad after ad and speech after speech tell us how terrible the other candidate or the other party are and how they’re going to destroy our country.

I wonder, what is the good news we as Christians have to proclaim in this climate? How does our faith resonate in a polarized society? Let me be clear: I’m not here to tell you who to vote for. As a citizen of this nation, I obviously have my opinions, but I know we have faithful people in our congregations on different sides of many issues. We have people within our own families who disagree on the best candidates.

Voting was not an issue Jesus spoke or taught about. He did not live in a democracy or a republic; he lived and died under the oppression of the Roman Empire. And yet, Jesus certainly has something to say to our present situation. He prayed that his followers would be one. He prayed that we would be a people who are known by love. He called us to love our neighbor. Not just our neighbors who agree with us or vote for the same candidates, not just some of our neighbors, but all who are created in the image of God.

Throughout July, we’re going to be focusing on the theme of Christian unity in a divided society through a worship and sermon series I’m calling, “Together.” As God’s people, we are Stronger Together. Our task is to Serve Together. We are Created Together. And God calls us to do Justice Together. 

I hope you’ll join me this month in exploring what we have in common as children of God and the ways our faith calls us to engage in the public sphere. We share a mission and a calling. We share a common Creator. And we share with so many in our nation and world a desire for liberty, peace, and justice for all. I pray that in this divisive season, the Body of Christ will stand as alternative to the anger, hatred, and fear that dominate so much of our society’s public rhetoric, and instead model God’s way of love revealed in Jesus Christ. 

See you in worship!

-Pastor Daniel Flucke