Susan Sparks: Every Day Is Election Day

The following was taken from my sermon entitled, “Every Day is Election Day” delivered at the historic Madison Avenue Baptist Church on Sunday, November 8, 2020. The full sermon can be watched HERE.

“For the longest time, we’ve been led to believe that the American dream is a zero-sum game. That if one group succeeds, somehow another is diminished.

In fact, it’s the opposite. We’ll all in this together. As Dr. King said, “we may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

That boat, my friends, is called America.

Is the American democratic experience over? I don’t know . . .

What I do know is that the answer is not to be found in Washington, DC.

The answer is not to be found in the halls of Congress or the steps of the Supreme Court.

No, the answer is to be found in the hands of every citizen of this country.

It’s to be found in the rough and worn hands of the farmers, the grain elevator operators, and the cross-country truckers that bring our food.

It’s to be found in the blackened hands of the firefighters in the CA and Oregon forests;

It’s to be found in the busy hands of our students, our Walmart greeters, and our construction workers.

It’s to be found in the hands of those that mourn, like the families of Brionna Taylor and George Floyd.

It’s to be found in the hands of those that rejoice, like Sarah McBride, who became our nation’s first ever trans state senator.

It’s to be found in the industrious hands of our small business owners, our uber drivers, our Metro transit workers;

It’s to be found in the exhausted hands of our frontline essential workers who are trying to keep us safe and alive in this pandemic; and

It is to be found in the gnarled hands of our old ones and the tiny pink hands of our newest citizens;

The answer to the question about the future of America is to be found in the hands of we the people.

As the poet John Roedel wrote:

"Every day of our lives is election day.

Everybody you encounter is a polling station.

You are casting your vote with every single breath you take.

Brothers and sisters, let us work to redeem our own individual souls. For in doing so, we may well redeem the soul of America.”

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Reposted from Susan's newsletter, Shiny Side Up! To connect with Susan, click here.