The day after any national election is usually one of powerful and diverse emotions – celebration and relief on one side, disappointment and grief on another – and never more so than after an election as grueling and at times divisive as this one. Yet amid these divergent and conflicting emotions, I find myself filled with a sense of gratitude and grace that has little to do with the election results themselves but rather springs from several elements of the day, elements that while viewed perhaps as peripheral by many seem to me to be at the very core of who and what we are as a people. Here are the ones that immediately come to...

A weekend ago I was in Colorado and during worship we prayed for the folks on the East Coast as they prepared for Hurricane Sandy. This past weekend I was at home in Minnesota and on Sunday we prayed for those same folks, now on the other side of the Hurricane, and for all those who were working to help them cope with the devastation. A little later in the prayers we also offered our hopes and concerns for those members of our congregation who had left the day before for Ethiopia where they would be partnering with local churches to build wells. Tonight and tomorrow I am in Pennsylvania with a group of pastors on retreat, and we will pray...