"More than Prayer." Homily given at St. Dunstan's Election Eve Prayer Vigil

I hadn’t planned on preaching this evening, but I was walking the dog this morning and felt an urgency to share some thoughts.  Maybe it’s the Holy Spirit or maybe  it’s simply my ego. 

Yesterday as I was scrolling through Facebook—I came across a friends post that said simply said—“Praying for the election.”

I thought great and then I saw one lone comment. The comment said “We’re going to need more than that.” 

The comment struck me as snide and off putting.

My immediate gut response was first to think “idiot!”

My thoughts then jumped  to being defensive of the importance of prayer.  

Given what I do—I obviously find prayer somewhat significant and was turned off by someone who I assumed thought that prayer was insignificant and meaningless.  

And then this morning happened—I was walking the dog and realized that the guy was right.  We are going to need more than prayer. 

In the days—weeks and months and years ahead— yes, we are going to need prayer, but we are also going to need peacemakers—folks who stand in the whirlwind and be a non anxious presence that others can anchors themselves to—we are going to need agents of reconciliation – folks who can bring together folk from across the political spectrum to heal the deep divide- we are going to need healers to bind up our wounds we’ve inflicted upon ourselves.

We are going to need people of mercy who will say, “I forgive you and I love you anyway.” 

We think this ends tomorrow and maybe all of the commercials do and hopefully all of the divisive rhetoric does, but how we respond tomorrow and the next day and next day will be vitally important to the future of our country.  Tonight, we begin on our knees and tomorrow we get up and we are the peacemakers- the light bearers—we are agents of reconciliation. 

AMEN