Only "Once?"

I am writing this on Monday, 4 November, one day before what used to be called "Election Day" and probably should now be called "The Last Day of the Election Season Preceding the Post-Election Recounts and Lawsuits Season." I suspect that I am like most of you in being heartily sick of the steady diet of impossible promises, baseless accusations, misrepresentations, and outright lies that seem to be delivered with more and more fiery hatred every day. It is no wonder that we are hearing over and over again that this election is “the most important election in our lifetime” or even “the most important election in America's history,” a sort of secular Armageddon, a battle between ultimate Good and absolute Evil, a battle that absolutely must be won.

It all calls to mind the opening lines of Hymn 519:

Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood,
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah,
Offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever
Twixt that darkness and that light.

That was written by James Russell Lowell, one of the most prominent, influential, and popular literary and academic figures of nineteenth century America, in 1845. It's still a popular hymn, but the opinion expressed in that first verse was and is dead wrong.

You see, that wasn't written as a hymn at all, but as part of “The Present Crisis,” a poem opposing the United States' war with Mexico, and it wasn't until fifty-one years later that sixteen of its ninety lines were published as this hymn. In those intervening years this country had been through major financial crises, bitter and often bloody labor strife, and four years of the War Between the States. Lowell lived through all of those events. Had Lowell lived for four more years he would also have seen the outbreak of a Cuban revolution against Spanish colonial rule that was to cause a great deal of concern and political division in the United States and that eventually led to a U.S. declaration of war against Spain in 1896.

My point here is that challenges that present difficult moral and ethical questions most assuredly do not come only “once to every man and nation;” they are continual. We are faced every day with such choices. Most are small. Should you give up your seat to someone else on a crowded metro train? Should you tell a cashier that he or she has given you too much change for a purchase? These may not seem to be choices at all, but they are. The reason that your response to these situations seems obvious or even automatic to you is that your character has been formed by years of making similar choices. They have become, to use a lovely phrase from Alexis de Tocqueville, “habits of the heart.” We become habitually inclined to act either selfishly or unselfishly in such a variety of small matters that our will to do so becomes so strong that we do not even consider acting otherwise in new small matters or even in some large ones. As Jesus says in Luke 16:10 “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.”

But of course not all moral choices are small or easy. Some are very significant and some are very difficult with serious consequences for many people. Consider someone in a troubled and unhappy marriage – should that spouse attempt to improve the relationship or seek a divorce? Or perhaps an employer finds out that a trusted and valued employee of many years' exemplary behavior has cheated a customer out of a sizable sum of money? Should he simply fire that employee? Should he report the matter to the police? Or should he confront the employee and give him or her another chance to make amends and “sin no more?”

I believe that we will be faced with what Lowell would describe as “moments to decide” for as long as we live as fallen creatures in a fallen world. That's the bad news. The good news is a bit more complicated.

The first part of that good news is that Christian people of good faith and good will can and do come to make different choices in similar circumstances. Without further evidence we should not ascribe base, selfish or evil intentions to those whose choices differ from ours. Not everyone with whom we disagree is an enemy to either us or an enemy to God. What we must do for our own souls' good is to examine our own motives for our own decisions, always recognizing that our character is being formed by them and that we are becoming either more or less the sort of people Christ is calling us to be by the effect upon us of making and acting upon those decisions.

The second and better part of the good news is that we are taught that in the final analysis and judgment God's will shall be done. Imagine a novice chess player sitting down to a match against an International Chess Federation Grandmaster. The outcome of that match is, in human terms, inevitable. The Grandmaster will win. But exactly how he will win, what specific moves he and his novice opponent will make, is yet to be determined. Yes, there is a battle between good and evil being waged in this world, and every Christian is called to be a soldier in that battle. But the outcome of that battle is truly inevitable. God will prevail.

No matter what the final outcome of this election, do not expect me to react as if it were the end of that battle. If my preferred candidate wins, that will not mean that all ills and evils will be banished from the earth. If my preferred candidate loses, that will not mean that all that is good and true and beautiful is forever lost. In either case there will still be choices to be made and stands to be taken. Neither God nor the Devil will vanish from our lives as a result of the outcome of this election or any other earthly event. They will both be with us until the end of time, until God's truly final, inevitable, and eternal victory, a victory in which we are all called to share.

Having begun this with a hymn reference it seems appropriate to close with the fourth verse of another hymn, number 126, one which we sang just yesterday and which I hope will serve as source of encouragement for us all:

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

-- Fr. Bragg+

All things come of thee, O Lord,  and of thine own have we given thee

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Wednesday at 7:30 PM,  Bible study with Fr. Bragg  on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews (bring your Bible and for parishioners and our readers across the country who are not able to attend in person you can see it online at https://www.facebook.com/saintsofscotland)  It will also appear later on St. Andrew & St. Margaret of Scotland's YouTube Channel.

Men's Group, Saturday November 16, 8:30 AM, Breakfast, Fellowship, Bible Study

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Saturday, November 30, 7:00 PM, Kirkin of the Tartan and Evening Prayer with bagpiper followed by a great reception with Scottish foods and beverages.  Please put it on your calendar now and start inviting your family, friends and neighbors.

Current list of needs for MaRIH crisis pregnancy center

MaRIH Center with its all volunteer staff provides help to mothers-to-be and mothers in need.  Please provide some of the items that are needed.. (You can leave the donations where the food for the food bank is collected on the pew in the undercorft.)

Especially Needed
 In Bold and with an asterisk are a critical need.

Diapers (sizes newborn, *1, 2, 3, *4, *5, & *6)
*Lovies
*Baby wipes
*Diaper rash ointment
*Baby shampoo
*Baby blankets
*Baby bottles
*Bibs toddler
*Formula: Simulac Advance Formula
Formula: other but not recalled
*Wash clothes
*Hooded towels
*Fall Winter clothing: 3-6 mo, 2T
*Winter coats 2T
*Grocery gift cards
 
Food Bank Needs
Please help this month with a food donation if you are able. Those we help feed are very thankful for the food we provide to them each month. Please also buy low sugar cereals (and not the kid's types that have lots of sugar).  Current needs include the following:
canned meats (chicken, corned beef, spam)
peanut butter
jelly
tuna
canned vegetables (corn, green beans - (regular and low sodium)
 individual fruit cups (low sugar)
canned fruit (low sugar)
canola or vegetable oil (48 oz)
boxed cereal (low sugar) and instant or old fashioned oatmeal (18 oz or 42 oz)
pasta (regular and gluten-free):
instant potatoes
single serving fruit juice
macaroni & cheese
soups: Chunky or Progresso,noodle soup; chicken broth, cream of mushroom
 coffee, cooking oil, flour, sugar
 
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