Election Season Sermon Notes: November 15

By the Rev. Nathan Empsall, Episcopal priest and Faithful America campaigns director

A coalition of national faith organizations including Faithful America, Faith in Public Life, and others have provided suggested post-election resilience messaging for clergy and faith leaders. The following is a set of examples from Faithful America for how lectionary preachers can tie that messaging guidance to the week’s Scripture readings for November 1, 8, and 15. See the sermon seeds for other Sundays here.

Most weeks, the Catholic lectionary and the mainline Protestant Revised Common Lectionary have different lessons from the Hebrew Bible, but identical (or at least overlapping) lessons from the New Testament and the Gospels. These sermon notes draw on the shared portions of the lectionaries.

Election Season Sermon Notes -- November 15, 2020: 24th Sunday after Pentecost, Ordinary Time 33, Proper 28

Scripture readings: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 (7-11), Matthew 25:14-130

The theme of this week's readings continues what we heard in 1 Thessalonians last week: Be prepared. Be patient but watchful. We cannot bury our heads in the sand when trouble comes or when opportunity knocks; we must act. Well, trouble -- and the opportunity to stand for our values of justice and dignity -- are both here.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul compares the future return of the Lord to a thief in the night: If we allow a false sense of "peace and security" to lull us into complacency, it will be our downfall: the thief will strike and "there will be no escape." Instead, we must be watchful for the big moment.

For weeks if not months, we heard voices say that there was no way any elected official could deny a peaceful transition, refuse to concede, declare victory before the results were known, or interfere with ballot counting. These things simply never happen in the United States; our elections are always secure. "There is peace and security," we were told, lulling us into complacency.

But now, the thief in the night is here, trying to block vote counting and steal the results. Fortunately, it is not too late to act; this is the opportunity to take nonviolent action, stand for what’s right, advance our values, and save democracy and the people it protects.

We can stop that thief by being like the people with five and two talents in today's parable from Matthew 15:14-30. Jesus's point is that these two prepared for the future, taking what they had and using it to benefit God's kingdom, whereas the third man stuck his head in the sand and ignored the possibilities around him.

We don't have to stick our heads in the sand. We can respond to the thief in the night, and prevent him from harming God's children by disrupting democracy. As Christians, we demand that every vote be counted, for that is how we can responsibly respect the dignity of vulnerable voters this month. Protecting the election results is an opportunity to grow our investments not in Biblical talents but in justice itself, to build a movement based on values and build a better future for this country.

This sermon seed was written shortly before Election Day in anticipation of a possible assault on democracy; be sure to reference specific current events and adapt the content as necessary.