On the last Sunday in October, Christian churches around the world celebrate what’s known as Reformation Sunday. Reformation Sunday is always celebrated on the last Sunday in October, because it was at the end of October in the year 1517 when a man named Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on a church door in Germany, which led to the Protestant Reformation.
Now, our church, The United Church of Rowayton, is a Protestant church, so the Protestant Reformation story is part of our story.
Martin Luther was a German priest who became so outraged by the hypocrisy and greed and abuses of the Church that he bravely spoke up and called for reform, which led the formation of the Protestant Church.
The word “Protestant” has the word “protest” in it, because Martin Luther was protesting the abuses of the Catholic Church. He did this not because he hated the Church, but because he loved the Church so much that it wanted it to live up to its ideals.
We, in the United Church of Christ, come from this tradition of reform and protest. In our rich history, we in the UCC have taken to the streets to march for Civil Rights in the 1960’s, Women’s Rights in the1970’s, LGBTQ Rights in the 1990’s, and Gun Reform and Climate Care in the 2,000’s.
And like Martin Luther, we didn’t do this because we hate our country, but because we love our country so much that we want it live up to its ideals.
That’s what the UCC’s “Our Faith, Our Vote” initiative is all about. As you may have seen on the banner in front of our church, it says, “Vote with Love.”
Now, we are a church and so we can’t tell people who to vote for. Our Founding Father were very clear about the separation of Church and State. So, the UCC’s “Vote with Love” initiative is not about endorsing a specific candidate or particular political party. Rather, it is about focusing on the importance of making our voices heard and putting our faith into action.
There are over 1 million members of UCC churches in the United States, and the purpose of this initiative is to encourage everyone in our churches to vote. We can’t tell you who to vote for, but we are allowed to help you to register to vote and to even give you a ride to your polling place, if you need.
In the UCC, we believe that voting is not only a civic duty, but a sacred duty, one that people fought and died for.
That’s why it’s shocking to me that in the last Presidential election, more than 80 million Americans did not vote. 80 million people decided their voice didn’t matter. But it does matter! That’s what the “Our Faith, Our Vote, Our Voice” initiative is all about.
Now I know that we’re living in a time of great division in our country, but if you read the Bible, you’ll see that the ancient people also lived through divisive times. Jesus, himself, lived through a time of great division.
Like Martin Luther, Jesus bravely criticized the religious and political authorities of his day, calling them ‘hypocrites’ to their faces. And, as we just heard in today’s gospel reading, Jesus overturned tables to protest the abuses outside the temple.
Jesus was calling for change, for reform, for a New World Order. One in which, he said, the “last would be first” and the “least of these” would be given the most importance.
He instructed us in the gospels to “feed the hungry,” to “care for the sick,” to “welcome the stranger,” and to “lift up the lowly.”
You may remember the story when Jesus said to his disciples, “When I hungry, you gave me food. When I was sick and in prison, you visited me. When I was naked, you clothed me. When I was a stranger you welcomed me.”
And the disciples were confused. They said, “Jesus, when did we ever see you any of these ways?”
And, Jesus replied, “Whatever you do to the least of your brothers and sisters, you do to me.”
Jesus wanted us to look out not solely for own self-interests, but for the interests of others: to love our neighbors as ourselves.
That’s why voting is an act of love.
Our UCC National leaders, Rev. James Moos, said voting is an act of love, because it’s a way for us to follow Jesus’s greatest commandment: to love our neighbor as ourselves.
He writes, “In following Jesus’ commandment to love my neighbor, I reach beyond my own self-interest and consider the interests of my neighbors and what their needs are. And, who is my neighbor? It is the low-income worker who works multiple jobs but can’t make ends meet because pay is inadequate. It is the child whose option in life are limited because he/she is attending a sub-standard school. My neighbor is the undocumented worker, the Muslim, the refugee. The decisions we make on Election Day will impact their lives. So, please vote and think beyond your own needs and think about the interest of your neighbors. That is why voting, for me, is an act of love.”
Now, we have people in our church who are Republican. We have people in our church who are Democrats, and we have people who are Independents. One thing that unites us is our love of Christ and our Christian faith. So, let’s put that love and that faith into action when we go into the voting booth.
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he gives us the instructions for putting our faith into action. He instructs us to “be humble, gentle, patient with one another, making every effort to keep unity through peace. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another.”
That is the ideal we seek to live up to. That is the world Jesus wanted us to bring about: a world that’s more loving, more peaceful, more inclusive. So cast your vote not out of fear and self-interest, but out of love.
Rev. Rafael Warnock said, “A vote is a kind of PRAYER about the kind of the WORLD you want to live in.”
And, so, my friends: The choice is yours. You get to vote. You have a voice. So, make your voice heard.
Isaiah 58, Verse 1 says: “Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet!”
So, let us lift up our voices and put our faith into action this Election Day, so that we can continue Jesus’s mission and our church’s mission of bringing about the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth, a just world for all people.