Some Post Elections Thoughts

By Rev. Martin Eldred

Like Michael, I have had music running through my head all night and into the morning. I also thought of U2, although the song the came to mind for me as I drove home last night was, “I Still Haven’t Found What I am Looking For.” 
The last part of the song goes has these lyrics:

I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Oh my shame
You know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

In the middle of Holy Week, these words seem appropriate to me right now. As one of my colleagues posted today, I too am feeling the darkness of Good Friday today. I am also trying to remind myself that these struggles are hard. (Otherwise, they wouldn't be, "struggles", I guess) Working for justice is not easy. I know that, but it is hard to bear sometimes. I am so thankful to the clergy and lay people who have joined together to stand together. The Body of Christ is at work in our community.

This morning I was also reminded that 44 years ago, The Rev. Dr. King was taken from us. Before I knew that, in one of those serendipitous moments of the Spirit, I woke this morning after a fitful attempt at sleep, with an old civil rights song, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” That song was a sort of unofficial, “official song” of the Movement, and was, in many ways, as influential as “We Shall Overcome.” What came to mind was especially the beginning of the second verse, “Stony the road we trod….” I like the words of verses two and three:

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chast’ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way
that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path
thro’ the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from a gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam
of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places
Our God where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world
we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.

I am clinging to the hope in the journey. It will be a struggle. There will be stones, tears, and crosses. There will be love as well. The love we share for one another. The love we have for our GLBTQ neighbors, friends, colleagues, and family. The love Jesus share with and through us – for ALL people.

We are not done. As people of faith, we live between Good Friday and Easter, in the, ”already/not yet” of faith. We work. We struggle. We press on. I am proud to be associated with our group and once the heaviness in my heart ebbs a bit, I am ready to begin again in the work of the gospel.

I close with a quote from Pastor King:
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate:
only love can do that.

From: Testament of Hope

We shall overcome.
Martin