Homily for Election Day - Luke 14:15-24
What a blessing it is to have the opportunity to say our prayers together on this historic day. Offering a service of Holy Eucharist on election day has become a tradition at Christ Church. It feels important to say prayers for the common good and to honor those things that bind us together. It also feels important to pray about the things that divide us. And maybe on this election day in particular, it feels important to have a place to bring our anxieties. Everyone I’ve talked to is worried about the results of this election in one way or another, and about what will happen after the results are announced. On this day, we could all use a bit of the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.
And so we gather once again on Election Tuesday. Of course, that is not the only day that it is. It this place, it is also Tuesday in the week of Proper 26 in lectionary year B, which comes with the lessons we just heard. Perhaps the simple reminder that the Church continues to keep God’s time no matter what happens with earthly elections can help calm our nerves. And it also means that there is good news on this day, as on every day in the Church year. Today’s good news comes to us from the Gospel of Luke.
The parable Jesus has just told at a party is brilliant. There is a host preparing to throw a dinner party, who sends out invitations. The first round of invitees decline, coming up with excuses as to why they cannot come. We don’t know why, but for some reason they don’t want to spend the evening around the host’s table. So the host sends his servant out again, this time to invite the B list of those less fancy, the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. They are glad to come to the party. And since there is still room at the table, the host keeps inviting, sending the servant out once more, even into alleys and under overpasses, to invite everyone who is left. He clearly wants all kinds of people to enjoy the great dinner, which is a vision of the heavenly banquet.
That vision of everyone around the table feels like a direct counter to the news cycle we are in. As we doom scroll about how much divides us, about how much hatred and distrust has grown between people, in this room we are reminded that our God is a God of unrelenting invitation and indiscriminate gathering. God calls us into community, over and over again, no matter who we are, and no matter how low we think we or anyone else might be on the invitation list. As we sit down at the dinner party today, around this altar for Holy Eucharist, we will be transformed once again from disconnected individuals into the body of Christ, gloriously diverse and deeply loved by our gracious host.
My friends, whatever worries or anxieties you hold today, you have come to a place of peace. God has invited us to the host’s table once again. Earthly elections cannot disrupt the ongoing heavenly banquet. I pray that this time together can be a respite for each of you. May you be reminded of your place at the Lord’s table, and carry the peace of Christ with you into the rest of the day.