Election day prayers

No partisan prayers here, but asking for something more

People are streaming into our church today. You’d think it’s a spiritual revival — but no … our church is a polling station for today’s federal election. Of course this means we’re hours away from a shiny, new federal government (U.S. friends, you’re pretty much always in an election cycle so this post likely connects with you too)

Election days have an odd feel for Christians, people who are spiritual dual citizens. While holding a Canadian passport, Christians in Canada are first citizens of God’s Kingdom, which distinctly shapes one’s politics. Yet that’s not a passport we quickly flash. Many Christians can more closely identify with a particular political party or partisan agenda than with God’s Kingdom. We have grown very comfortable in the polis of this world that we easily forget we are citizens of a heavenly city.

Since the Kingdom of God and this world are intertwined, a shared space at this time, we don’t abdicate engaging the political realm and opt for complacency. Rather, political participation, including the important privilege of voting, is engaged as an act of faith and done with a distinct posture, allowing the bigger vision of heaven to direct our living and shape our hopes.

So on this election day, I’ll go cast my vote but I’ll offer a few prayers, not for any specific party to win out but for something better - for more of God’s Kingdom here on earth, here in Canada, as it is in heaven.

Here are two prayers for this election day:

If we are pleased with the results of today’s election, let us yet in humility remember that every earthly authority must one day give way to your eternal rule — so let us in grace love all our neighbours well.

Or, if we are disappointed, let us resist all fear, anger, accusation and bitterness, but instead renew our trust in you — and let us in grace love all our neighbours well.

Whatever the outcome of this election, let our citizenship and our hope be rooted first in your heavenly kingdom, that we might live in exile here as winsome ambassadors of our soon-returning King — always in grace loving all our neighbours well.

(“For Election Day” Jessica Smith Culver & Douglas McKelvey, Every Moment Holy, vol. III)

And a second prayer that I wrote:

God of good order, government is your gift through which you rule earthly life. And on this election day in Canada we begin in the place of gratitude – there is so much to thank you for despite the flaws of this campaign. Thank you for the goodness of this country you’ve placed us in; thank you for a day like this that many across the globe can hardly imagine; thank you for the privilege, so easily diminished and discounted, of a genuine voice in our political system.

We thank you for all those men and women who have run for election among the various parties, people who stood for something and so afforded us a choice. Thank you for these candidates, their families, staff and all the passionate volunteers who have worked so hard to present a compelling vision for this country rooted in their deeply held convictions. After a long campaign, give them rest and a sense of your affirmation, no matter what happens today.

God of grace, we pray today not for the government we deserve but for something far better. We’re praying today that you tally all our votes and gather our voices to raise up a wise government that is good for all, not just for a few. We pray for a government that will remember the poor while while keeping a flourishing economic house in order. We pray for a government that will treasure the environment, finding innovative ways to care for creation and embolden all in our responsibility as its stewards and caretakers. We pray for a government that will lead us to live harmoniously across this amazing country, despite our profound diversity and differences, helping us to find common ground and enabling us to disagree with civility and respect. We ask for a government that will be a courageous and compassionate world neighbour, taking wise stands against global bullies and providing generosity and protection for those in great need around the world.

God of love, too often fear, contempt, and suspicion fill our lives and our politics. Today remind us that it is love which casts out fear. No matter how we mark our ballot, may we vote for the visions and ideas that inspire hope for the future rather than tempt us to cower in fear or suspicion. Regardless of the outcome, make us a people of hope committed to building bridges and working together for the common good.

And, please God, help us to do this with some hilarity and joy. Election campaigns are necessarily serious business but we play politics with all too much glum and stuffy earnestness. Forgive us our humourlessness. Remind us to laugh at ourselves, at all our posturing, bluster and puffed up self-importance. Fill us with a greater joy in your Kingdom and your guidance of this good nation.

And we pray this in the name of Jesus, our King, the one who was branded a rebel and executed by the government of his day. Amen.