The Comma

Tuesday night was the first presidential election night in twelve years that we went to bed knowing the outcome.  I really was not aware of how much I had gotten used to waiting days (or weeks) for the results in a “too close to call” election until at 8:01 p.m. when we heard that the election was over and the winner had been declared.  That was rapidly followed by news that John McCain had called Barack Obama to congratulate him on his win.  Then I watched McCain’s gracious concesion speech.  And, gathered with good friends and riveted to the television screen, I listened to our president-elect, Barack Obama, speak eloquently again of hope, and the possibilities and the challenges he sees ahead for our country and for our world.  All this, and in time to catch the 10:00 ferry back to my home on Whidbey.

Our country has taken an amazing and historic step forward.  Yes, there is much work ahead for all of us.  There is much that must be done in the time ahead to relieve the suffering brought about by economic crises and two wars.  Yet we were called last night to begin that journey together.  Last night, I felt a call to healing when Obama quoted President Lincoln, who spoke to a divided nation saying “We are not enemies but friends.  Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection,” And this healing work, and this building work is work we as a faith community can help do.  As a nation, we so need to find a path of reconciliation rather than recrimination, and collaboration rather than divisiveness.  As a church, we regularly practice building community that celebrates diversity, and we regularly look for paths that lead to healing forgiveness.  As Peter Ilgenfritz often says in his benedictions, quoting William Sloan Coffin, The world is too small for anything but truth and too dangerous for anything but love.”  The work is there to do, and I anticipate this work eagerly. 

But that is work for tomorrow.  Today I am still glowing.  And Tuesday night, on the ferry ride home, I really was surprised that I was going home so early.  I was grateful for the sense that we as a nation had made a clear choice.  And I was thankful for the sense that, with the whole world watching, we decided to something new and something familiar too.  We decided to move forward with hope.