Jesus is My Candidate

When the program staff and I began thinking of our September sermon series many months ago, we spent a fair amount of time discussing the phrase “Jesus is My Candidate.”  We wanted to lift up the name of Jesus in the midst of an overwhelmingly divisive political season. We also wanted something ‘edgy’ that would attract attention but that also fit the character of the Burke community. We ended up believing that “Jesus is My Candidate:  I Vote for Him Every Day” worked well.

We’re at the half-way point of the Sunday sermon series itself, though we hope the ‘campaign’ will continue in other ways:  social media, road signs, buttons, bumper stickers, and so on.  But the social media response has been surprising.

We purchased the domain name www.jesusismycandidate.com and linked it to our Burke UMC home page.  So far over 30 people have “Googled” the phrase “Jesus Is My Candidate” and arrived at that site; over 500 visitors have come there through other routes.  On that site you’ll find a list of creative and thoughtful ways that people around the world “vote for” Jesus every day of their lives. 

Those who go on to our church’s website visit 3-4 other pages on average, obviously interested in the life of the church in more depth.   This has given our website three times the amount of traffic than usual! People are learning about Burke UMC and its ministries.

Morgan and Katie have also led the visibility of Jesus is My Candidate on Twitter.  As of mid-day today (Thursday), over 500 “tweets” have been posted using the hashtag #jesusismycandidate.  This hashtag #jesusismycandidate has “trended” in areas all over the country – and Great Britain and Japan, among other places – and has even appeared among the Top Ten trending tweets in the US.  Today Morgan was invited to write for the Huffington Post on “Jesus is My Candidate.”

All of this is saying that people find the phrase and the idea compelling.  They want to know more. Sure, it can be misunderstood, criticized and rejected out of hand.  Christians know about that.  Christianity would not exist if Jesus had buckled under that fact.  But it also encourages us to remember.  Remember that politics will not save us. Remember that we are all one in Christ Jesus. Remember that more unites us than divides us. And remember that our deepest allegiance is never to a political party or an economic system, but always to the Kingdom of God.

We’ll conclude our campaign on Election Night, November 6.  We invite you to a Service of Holy Communion that evening at 7:00 pm.   Together we will, as one people, pray for and celebrate His victory.

Pastor Larry