1I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. 2Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forever and ever. 3Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable. 4One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. 5On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. 17The Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings. 18The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 19He fulfills the desire of all who fear him; he also hears their cry, and saves them. 20The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. 21My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.

Job 19: 23-27

??????????? 23?O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book! 24O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever! 25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; 26and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, 27whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

Let us pray. This is probably the most political thing I have and will say in this congregation. I ask you listen as I have listened to many of you share your excitement and concerns for our country based on this election season and results. I have spent the week trying to figure out what to say today in light of the election. I have struggled with finding the right words to express how we move forward as a country that is so divided. I am also having a hard time with how people across the political spectrum are responding to the election results. On one end there are protests that have not been completely peaceful, but they are full of tears of disgust, sadness, and fear for what is to come for people who are not white and male; while on the other end there have been more cheers of hatred spread against African Americans, more insults and demoralizing comments against women, more fear and hatred towards Muslims, fears of immigrants being deported, marriage equality being removed, and groups around the country spray painting symbols of White Supremacy. I am saddened for our daughter that I need to explain that the words that came out of Trump?s mouth are not okay, that the ad the Clinton ran stating his awful words was not okay for her to do, and I am sorry she had to hear them. I will pray with her that Trump will apologize for all the unkind things he has said about all of God?s children, that he will truly work towards bringing a divided country together by working towards making America even better than it already is. I have also had to share with her that people who voted for Trump are not bad people, but just have different concerns for our country than those who voted for Clinton. There are many people who are concerned with the economy, immigration, and other issues and these concerns lead them to vote for Trump or Clinton, and this is because they have different belief systems and perspectives for the best way for things to be handled by our country leaders. And all of these decisions do not make people good or bad, but it is what makes us Americans. ?There have been conversations about how we interpret scripture differently, and that is okay, and it leads to how people determine how they vote for leaders. Yet for other people, their faith isn?t connected to how they voted because they see their faith is separate from their politics.

And in all of this, I have continued to have faith in what is to come and that good will happen because God can work through people who have faith and those who don?t. God can take human words of hatred and turn them into words of love through actions for justice and against hatred. Because for me, I don?t put my faith in the various branches of the government, I put my faith in God, my God who is my Redeemer and the Redeemer of everyone made in the image of God. And through all of these situations, through everything in this election season, through everything that is to come from our decision to elect Donald Trump as the president, I will continue to live by faith and look through the lens of scripture to live out my faith. ?And I will pray for our country, our President elect, and for the Kingdom of God to be here on earth as well as eternally. And it pushes me as a pastor and person of deep faith to create more open environments for healthy conversation and wondering what the churches response needs to be to help bring together a divided country. For it is important that we truly create a way forward that brings together all of God?s children. Then I reread our theme for today and was reminded that ?Disciples LIVE by Faith? and I am recharged with helping us truly look at how we live out our faith being unified in Christ and with sisters and brothers who might be different than us.

Living as disciples takes work. It means living out our faith through all situations that life throws at us. And one of the things I love about our passage for today is that it is the great reminder that living by faith is hard. I would like to assume that most of us are familiar with the story of Job. Here is the one sentence summary: In spite of Job?s faithfulness, he lost his health, his financial assets, and even his children. Job exhibited remarkable faith (Job 1:20-21, 2:9-10). And as the story of Job continues, he questions, struggles, goes between belief and disbelief, and many would think his faith would waver. Job expresses his total and complete anger towards God in Job 10, yet in spite of everything that is happening in his life, to his family, in his country, through his pain and anger, Job held on to his faith. Even when he hurt at the core of his soul, he worshiped God faithfully, even in times of doubt. In our passage today, Job cries out, ?For I know that my Redeemer lives!?

Despite what is happening in our lives and our country and our world, Job reminds us that disciples are called to live by faith regardless of how difficult the situation or circumstance might be. Our faith as disciples might be a struggle at times. I believe Job struggled throughout his journey, but at the end of the day, we too truly need to be able to proclaim, ?I know my Redeemer lives,? just as Job did throughout his life through the good and the bad and the rebuilding. It is one of the ways we can show one another, our neighbors, those in our community, and country, that we have a truly authentic and real faith, even in tough times. And that having a faith through all different situations in our lives is enough to carry disciples through whatever circumstances come their way. More importantly, it shows others who are watching you that you live an authentic faith, not a fake faith to show people.

As we think about how we live by faith in a way that is authentic and honest, one of the things that I realize for me is the importance of being open. In my recent continuing education experience, we had a conversation about churches being liberal and conversation, open and closed. We discussed how Presbyterian churches are all across the board politically and theologically and that is something that makes us unique in how we approach one another and our faith. Then a second line was drawn that crossed the first line and at one end was written the word ?open? and the other end the word ?closed.? ?One of the things I love about our congregation, is that we are on the spectrum from conservative to liberal and are really well balanced in how we look at scripture from our political and theological understanding.

In addition, we are able to be in conversations with one another that I deem to be healthy, insightful, loving, fair, non-judgmental, and understanding. Not all congregations can do this. The reason I think we can do this is because we are a very open congregation. If we were closed off to learning, engaging, discussing, then we would truly be a congregation of Pharisees and not disciples. Yet, we are a congregation full of growing disciples. And I believe we are a pretty open congregation. As disciples who are open, we are able to be in conversation with one another, with God, and with our neighbors. Another aspect of being open is that we are open to all of God?s children, for everyone is made in God?s image. In addition, we are open to one another?s hardships, economic difficulties, the burdens that we share, the hope we have for the future, the joy we experience as a congregation?we are open with one another and to those who walk in our doors through worship, AA, NA, the Neighborhood Watch, and many other folks.

Could you image in Job was closed off in his belief and conversations with God? Or how Job would have gone through all the trials and tribulations if he didn?t have an authentic and real faith in God through all times of good and bad? For me, I think one of the reasons Job was able to stay so authentic in his faith was because how open he was in his conversations with God. And that whatever was to come, good or bad, Job talked with God about it. Job didn?t hide from God, not did he hide his thoughts or actions. Job owned everything and walked through his life of pain with grace and dignity?with authentic faith.

As we move forward as a congregation, we must move forward as disciples who truly live by faith. Living by faith continues to unify us in God and moves us forward as disciples who believing being faithful in all we do is important, especially during a time when many are fearful of what is to come. Unifying in God in ways that are real, not judgmental and full of hypocrisy and hate.

As I close our time today, I invite you to listen to these words: Elie Wiesel was a survivor of the Holocaust. He was just 14 years old when he and his family were taken to a concentration camp. His story of the Holocaust is an awful story?a nightmare beyond belief. In a public television interview some years ago, Wiesel recalled a vivid experience at the concentration camp. A group of men in his barracks decided to have a trial?a trial unlike any trial you?ve ever heard of before. These men decided to try God for the horrors of the Holocaust. They had been mean of faith, but their faith had profoundly disappointed them. So they decided to put God on trial for abandoning the Jewish people. Young Wiesel was asked to witness the proceedings. The charges were brought; the prosecutor listed them one by one: God?s people had been torn from their homes, separated from their families, beaten, abused, murdered, and burned in incinerators. A defense was attempted. But in the end God was found guilty of abandoning his people, maybe even guilty of not existing. When the trial was over, a dark and profound silence fell on the room. A few moments later the men realized it was time for the sacred ritual of evening prayer. At his point in the story, Wiesel recounted a remarkable fact. These men who had just found God guilty of abandoning them?these same men began to pray their evening prayer.

May we too be disciples who live our lives by faith regardless of what is happening in our lives, our families, our community, and our country. Let us proclaim that our Redeemer lives by with the psalmist proclaim, ?My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.? I pray you will walk with me in faith as we move to creating a community where love is seen and experienced by all who meet us because we are authentic in our lives and our faith. Amen.