Dear Future President is a message series I am preaching at Faith Community Church this month. It is a three week series posed as a letter to the future president of the United States communicating what we believe is important to God and to His followers. This is a series, like all messages, worked in partnership and under the guidance of our lead pastor Mike Laurence. At the end of each message I read a letter I have written to the future president based on the message.
This is the second letter based on the second message: People Matter. It is a little long, but I think it captures the essence of why people matter.
Dear Future President,
As a follower of Jesus, we believe God created every human with care, intention and effort. Every person, from the least to the greatest, from the poorest to the wealthiest, from the citizen to the foreign is made in the image of God. Every person has worth, dignity and purpose. This means we believe that all of us should treat people with the dignity, worth and respect according to how God created them. In Christian terms, as Jesus commanded us: we need to love all people. Dear future president, as you lead us, lead with a deep love for all people.
God knows, as do we, that it is easier to love and care for those who are like us. It is much harder when they are different to us. God knows this too, so he specifically put laws in place to guide us in how to love those different from us. How we treat people different from us, reveals how we see the image of God in all of us. Dear future president, you lead us in this nation, and you represent us to the nations of the world. Lead through the lens that sees all people with respect, dignity and compassion.
We are a diverse nation, living in a global village. Your job is extremely difficult. We know you face choices with terrible consequences and limited information. We pray for you in those choices. We also ask, graciously, that you accept the challenge to make laws that are just, fair and compassionate. Make laws and policies that restore and nurture the dignity and worth we have, including the laws that provide protection and punishment for those who break them. Follow the teachings of Scripture and the convictions it brings to protect all people, care for those in need, do justice and show mercy. We need to do the same. We, as followers of Jesus, have failed to do this, and we are convicted of our own lack of love. We will work harder to honor the image of God in all we encounter as we ask you to do.
That is why we ask finally, that we work together. Build bridges to communities of faith so that we can serve together. The government cannot meet all the needs it faces. Neither, can communities of faith. But together, oh dear future president, together we might become agents of God that create a great society. We might build a country that brings hope to the desperate, security to the endangered, prosperity to the poor and happiness to the downtrodden. Together we might build that great American dream where all people, regardless of race, creed, gender, wealth, or orientation, might pursue life, liberty and happiness.
And in that work, we, as followers of Jesus, pray that all people might find the hope that comes when they enter into a relationship with Almighty God, their creator who made them with dignity and care in order to love and be loved.
Dear future president, lead with love because people matter, and so do you.
Yours truly,
A follower of Jesus.
What are your thoughts about what you would say to the future president about why people matter?
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