‘Every day is Election Day’ for people of faith, pastor says

Northridge Presbyterian Church in Dallas church offers an innovative way to start conversations

by Beth Waltemath | Presbyterian News Service

“Presbyterians love elections,” the Rev. Betsy Lyles Swetenburg said in a sermon at Northridge Presbyterian Church in Dallas on Sunday before clarifying that she wasn’t talking about presidential elections. “Our life together as a community of faith is marked by elections,” added Swetenburg, who described how elections, committees and leadership bodies that vote on items of business guide Presbyterian polity and rule “our day-to-day business.”

During the All Saints’ Sunday worship service, Swetenburg found comfort that her members and other Christians were gathered “honoring all saints in worship before we head to the polls on Tuesday, just as lawmakers intended all those years ago.” Then she gave a brief summary about how Election Day was chosen. In 1845, a law was passed that said that presidential elections in the United States would happen on a single day. A Tuesday was chosen because it wouldn’t conflict with the Sabbath or market days and allowed for rural citizens to travel in between these days to vote. November was chosen because it followed the harvest, but the weather was still mild. Since All Saints’ Day always fell on Nov. 1, and sometimes that fell on a Tuesday, a single date in early November could not be determined for fear of conflicting with those who worship on All Saints’ Day. Therefore, the nation’s Election Day was set as the “Tuesday following the first Sunday of November.”

The Rev. Betsy Lyles Swetenburg

“For Presbyterians, though election means more than going to the polls in November, ‘election’ is a very distinct word of the Presbyterian faith,” said Swetenburg, who defined elections as “moments of choice woven into all we do.” She described how they don’t just define the communal life of Presbyterians but reveal something about how we understand God. “Election is a doctrine which teaches us something of God,” she said after reading the Scripture of the day from Ephesians 1:1–14 and before preaching on John Calvin’s oft-misunderstood and misused doctrine of election. The term “election,” when applied to who is and isn’t within the ranks of God’s chosen and how to discern this election outwardly or inwardly, has “been manipulated and contorted in an effort to explain things that it was never, ever meant to explain,” said Swetenburg. She sought to redefine the word by explaining what election does not mean before positing what she believes it does.

“If it’s not as simple as declaring who’s in and who’s out, then what are we saying when we talk about election? We’re saying that each of our names are on God’s ballots,” said Swetenburg.

“When God decided to show up in human form, God wrecked all that we know to be true about elections that have a single winner and loser in Jesus. God broke all the rules and decided to check every name on the list, declaring that we all belong to God,” preached Swetenburg.

Northridge Presbyterian Church in Dallas launched a 52-week sermon series with companion conversation cards on Sept. 8. Each member was given a box in which to collect their cards. (Photo by Rebecca Sicks)

The sermon, simply titled “Election,” was part of a yearlong series that the church launched on Sept. 8. This “Speaking of Faith” series looks at one term important to the Presbyterian tradition each week. On the first Sunday of the month, conversation cards with the month’s words are sent home to be used around the family table or in devotional time. “Over the course of the year, we’re claiming and reclaiming important words of our faith and hopefully generating conversations in and beyond our community about faith,” said Swetenburg.

Words like “election,” “gospel,” “creed,” “tithe,” “saint” and “charge” appear on one side of the card. On the other, there is a brief definition of the word, a quote and a few questions for people to consider. At least one of the questions is accessible to children. According to members, these cards have been used by parents when driving to soccer practice or chatting over a meal, or by church small groups to start conversation.

The “Speaking of Faith” cards have a definition, quote and questions on the back. (Photo by Rebecca Sicks)

“As a personal testimony, my husband of 52 years and I talk about the cards at our Monday evening dinner table. We have been prompted to share stories and reflections we have never talked about before!” said Mary Marcotte, a retired Christian educator and member of the church’s education committee who helps with the project.

Marcotte works on the project with the Rev. Rebecca Sicks, the church’s associate pastor for community. During a planning retreat in June, the terms were chosen by Sicks and Swetenburg, then mapped to the worship year. The pastors planned 58 cards, which are produced quarterly to allow time for Sicks and Marcotte to thoughtfully choose the Scriptures and quotes and write questions. They work with a contract communications firm and local printer to produce the cards but Sicks believes the project could also be done on a design app and printed in-house for churches on a budget. Every quarter when the cards are printed, the church sends a pack to homebound members, and out-of-town attendees of their online worship can contact the church office to request the same.

“We actually encourage people when they came up for communion to grab their box or set of cards,” Sicks said, describing how the cards are distributed during worship, “then on the rest of the weeks in the month, the ushers have a basket and are trying to make sure that people have them.”

Every month members are given four to five cards featuring terms relevant to Presbyterians. (Photo by Rebecca Sicks)

The staff of Northridge Presbyterian Church are excited by the response to the “Speaking of Faith” series and its companion cards. This table talk approach to faith formation is a popular method gaining momentum and bearing fruit in other churches around the country, as evidenced by a Lilly Endowment Inc.-funded initiative in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that engages faith communities and parents and caregivers in innovative practices of sharing stories that grow intergenerational communities to support household faith formation. The initiative, run by the PC(USA)’s Office of Christian Formation, utilizes cohorts to train leaders in creative approaches like this one as new generations find their spiritual formation to happen in informal, formal and fluid spaces between these.

“There is no right or wrong way to use the cards. They are intended to get people speaking of faith. It seems to be working!” said Swetenburg.

The “Speaking of Faith” series is intended to equip the faithful to choose how to live knowing God has chosen them. For people of faith, “every day is election day,” Swetenburg said as she wrapped up her sermon on Sunday. Her sermon ended with a charge of its own.

“Every day we get the chance to elect into what God is creating here and now; every day we get the chance to embody those gospel values of justice, peace and truth, and those values should always inform how we live as citizens,” said Swetenburg. “They should always inform how we participate in our communities, and yes, who we choose to lead our communities. But that work is never confined to a single political election day.”

She asked the congregation to consider the “harder work for us knowing that every day is election day” and to consider the ordinary saints who have led lives of grace before them and to ask themselves, “How will I choose to live knowing that God has already chosen me?”

Northridge Presbyterian Church announced its sermon series here. Learn more about the PC(USA)’s Around the Table podcast series here.