Remember This, Above All Else, in the Coming Days, Months, and Years

It is our solemn obligation.

Beloved,

There are many actions that we who turn our faces toward Christ may be called upon to undertake as we seek to be faithful to Jesus Christ as Lord in the age of Trump, just as Christians in the Early Church sought to be faithful when turning their faces toward Christ during the age of the Caesars.

One twofold action is central to all that we do.

It is reflected in the question put to adults during the sacrament of their baptism and to parents on behalf of their children when being baptized.

In the Presbyterian and Reformed churches, it is expressed in words similar to these:

Do you renounce all evil,

and powers in the world

which defy God’s righteousness and love?

Will you be Christ’s faithful disciple,

obeying his Word and showing his love?

Donald Trump and his MAGA disciples have repeatedly uttered a great many evil words that defy God’s righteousness and love. Their evil rhetoric may rise to even greater heights of wickedness in the form of reprehensible deeds should Trump’s habitual personal insults and vile threats be carried out as executive and administrative policies and orders.

We, on the other hand, must do the opposite. We must exhibit our obedience to Christ and his Word by demonstrating Christ’s love in the face of evil.

Love cannot embrace evil and do evil and remain love.

Therefore, even if it is at great cost to ourselves, we must renounce Donald Trump’s cruel and evil intentions, plans, and deeds. We must renounce them privately and publicly.

We remember our baptismal vows. We trust and show forth God’s gracious mercy even when the unmerciful remain unmerciful. Therefore we stand in the breach with deliberate and defiant acts of love on behalf of the most vulnerable.

Jesus put it this way:

“You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42–45, NRSV).

Let us be and do likewise.

Let us remember that our baptism is in Christ, not in Trump.