Week 5 June 2026 – REFLECTION ON ELECTION OUTCOMES

“Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.”  2 Peter 1:10

The midterms are mercifully behind us, leaving some feeling elated and some deflated enough to relocate to Groanland. That’s not how the Danes spell it, but proper English is  not a prerequisite in current politics. After the groaning Israelites escaped the tyranny of Egypt, the unruly lot were ruled by Judges. A woman named Hannah, mistaken for a drunk, groaned for a son whom she could dedicate to the Lord’s service. After weaning Samuel at age three, she brought him to live with the aging priest Eli, who failed to  address his sons’ well known corruption. “The word of the Lord was rare in those days,” but when Samuel grew into his divinely appointed prophetic role, he wrote two books.  His name meant “asked of God,” but fickle and fed up Israel clamored for a king to ape the nations around them. They were warned, but got what they asked for, a strikingly handsome young man whose Hebrew name meant ‘’asked for.”

Saul, a head taller than all his subjects, was 30 upon ascending the throne, and sat on it for 40 years according to the Book of Acts. Had the 25^th amendment been an option then, he might have worn out his welcome sooner. God had disowned him early in his reign for flagrant disobedience and the presumptuous usurping of a priest’s sacred function. Quaintly said, the fly in the ointment was the wait for David to become the king “after God’s own heart.”  Making love was more his thing than making war, but mixing it with adultery and murder made for the haunting conflicts he could not foresee.  Fleeing from mad King Saul was one thing; forced to run for his life from his treasonous son Absalom was a tragic consequence of the sin that would call for a humbling public confession. Bathsheba’s son Solomon ushered in Israel’s Golden Age, but due to his apostasy it became a split nation. History buffs are free to brush up on those events in the riveting O.T. Scriptures.  However, one easily triggered Apostle badly wants us to finally wrestle with our own post-election issues.  2 Peter 1:5-9 quickly reveals the nature of “these things” that ensure that we “will never stumble.”

It is the Lord Himself to make this all succinctly plain: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you” (John 15:16). The Second Letter of John opens with an arresting greeting, “The elder to the chosen lady…”  He is a valued leader/presbyter, while she is a “Kyria,” a distinguished woman of authority.  “Kyrios” means Lord in Greek.  Bible scholars speculate whether she was an actual lady or if John meant the Church.  Verse 10, I believe, speaks volumes either way: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him…and do not give him a greeting.”  The still more striking clincher for God’s committed people comes from Paul, “Do you not know that we will judge angels?”  (1 Corinthians 6:3)