ELECTION DAY MESSAGE

Pastor: Ask God’s Guidance

In Time Of National Division

Editor’s Note: The Rev. Paul Messner, pastor of the county’s Lutheran churches, including Oneonta’s Church of the Atonement and Hartwick Seminary’s Evangelical Luther Church, sent out this Election Day message to his flock.

Today is Election Day.  I hope you will be doing your civic duty and going to vote – if you haven’t already.  The news companies are reporting that prior to today nearly 100 million Americans have already cast their ballots.

It is always a solemn and powerful time in our federal republic, that we have the privilege to freely cast our democratic vote and, in so doing, choose our leaders at the federal, state and local levels of government.  This is a right too few people in our world enjoy.

As you well know, our country is severely divided – perhaps more seriously than at any time since the Civil War.

We may or may not know the results of the election for President and Vice President for days or even weeks. Businesses in many cities have boarded up their storefronts in anxious anticipation of violence, depending on the outcome and how fair it is perceived to be by one side or another.

Given all this, I invite all of you to come to our regular mid-week services tomorrow for a time of reflection, prayer and asking for God’s help, especially during the aftermath of this election.  As you know, we have been praying weekly at worship for our country “during this time of deep division.”

Whether we have a result or not, tomorrow would be a good time to pause from other daily realities, and gather together as a Church Family, to thank God for His presence in our lives and invoke His guidance for the days ahead.