On this weekend before the Presidential election, I want to talk politics, -- but only to the extent about our first president, -- George Washington, who the Men’s Monday morning Bible study were reading about a few weeks ago. George Washington was not as brilliant as Thomas Jefferson, nor as eloquent as Benjamin Franklin, -- but the people worshiped George Washington. When the Revolutionary War effort was sagging, each day another letter arrived on George Washington’s desk from a general saying, “We don’t have shoes. We don’t have food. We don’t have wagons to transport the food. We don’t have any money.” It was George Washington who dug into his own pockets to finance the war effort. This gave depth to his compassion for others who were suffering, and a kind of gravitas to his leadership. George Washington was a military genius who could have parlayed his popularity on the battlefield to become the king of this new nation, -- but George Washington believed in the rule of law. He surrendered all that power and climbed down off the pedestal on which the people had put him, believing as Jesus said, “God opposes the proud, -- but gives grace to the humble.” 

The historian, Joseph Ellis describes his desire to set aside being crowned King George I of America, and instead relinquish power back to the people. He writes, “Unlike Julius Caesar and Oliver Cromwell before him, and Napoleon, Lenin, and Mao after him, [Washington] understood that the greater glory resided in posterity’s judgment. If you aspire to live forever in the memory of future generations, you must demonstrate the ultimate self-confidence to leave the final judgment to them. And he did.” 

Today, this nation is what it is because of the humility of people like George Washington. His willingness to relinquish power may be the most remarkable thing he is to be remembered for. The refusal to seize power for himself was one of the greatest acts of our first President. Indeed, how grateful and blessed we are by what he did. 

Please join us for worship this Sunday at 8:00 am and 10:30 am, as I share with you my pre-Election Day message, “The Bible and the Ballot Box,” that I hope and pray will strike the right cord with all of you, and help us as a church to be more loving, more faithful, more giving, and more humble.  

Pastor John