Today is a day for hope, whatever you expect to happen by tonight. Paul says in Romans that hope that is seen isn’t hope. We hope for what we can’t yet see, and certainly none of us can see the future.
Most campaigns come down to one of two promises, stay the course or change it, and both are promises about a future nobody has seen yet. Whether you’re confident, discouraged, or still undecided, you walk into the polls with the same hope for what comes next, for the kind of town, country, and world our children will inherit.
I’ve watched that hope fill another kind of room. Part of my work is ushering dioceses through the process of bringing a list of nominees forward for the election of a bishop. When the delegates cast their ballots, a room full of people waits in near silence for the result to be announced. Nobody in that room knows how it will go. They vote anyway, and plenty of them pray first, asking for guidance toward a future none of them can see. In any election, hope and the future go hand in hand.
Whether you’re at the polls, in a parish hall, at diocesan convention, or even at General Convention, it’s the same hope. You show up, you cast your ballot, and you hope the future will be built by all of us, including the people who voted differently than you did.
By the time you read this, I’ll be on my way to the polls. If you can vote today, please do. If you can’t, for whatever reason, you can still hope for the future right alongside the rest of us. The Prayer Book has a prayer for elections, which I’ve put at the end. I’ll say it when I cast my ballot and again when the polls close, because the hope is the same either way, and so is the prayer. I’d love for you to join me.
Whatever the count looks like tomorrow, one thing won’t change: we’ll still be neighbors. On Sunday we’ll be back in our own pews, beside the same people we sat with last week, however they voted. When it’s time to pass the peace, we’ll turn to them and mean it, still hoping for the same future.
A Prayer for Elections
Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges: Guide the people of the United States in the election of officials and representatives; that, by faithful administration and wise laws, the rights of all may be protected and our nation be enabled to fulfill your purposes; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 822)