2/2/20 “The Perfect Stump Speech” by Nancy E. Petty

Matthew 5:1-12

FiveThirtyEight is a website that focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging. The website, which takes its name from the number of electors in the United States electoral college, was founded in 2008 as a polling aggregation website with a blog created by analyst Nate Silver. In 2010, the blog became a licensed feature of The New York Times online.

In 2016 FiveThirtyEight asked Barton Swaim, a former Republican speechwriter, and Jeffery Nussbaum, a Democratic speechwriter to write a totally pandering bipartisan stump speech for an imaginary presidential candidate—one who espouses only positions that a majority of voters agree with. Here is the beginning of that stump speech.

Thank you all for being here. Wow, what a turnout. This is just incredibly humbling. Thank you. But I know why you’re here. You’re not here for a lot of political rhetoric. You didn’t show up to hear a lot of talk about how things could be different and better than what they are. You’re here because you’re done with politics. You’re here because the promise of American democracy — the promise of opportunity for all — remains unfulfilled for too many. You’re here because this is the most important election in our lifetime.

So let me start with something Ronald Reagan said in his State of the Union address in 1984. “Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us … that in our time we did everything that could be done.” And here are the words of Franklin Roosevelt, speaking at Oglethorpe University in 1932. “It is common sense,” he said, “to take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” Two icons of America’s rival political parties, one sentiment. Try something. Do something.

If you paid any attention to this election, or the last one, or the one before that, you can be forgiven for thinking that our problems are insurmountable, that there’s just nothing we agree on enough to get it done. But that’s not true. There’s more that unites us than divides us. And while elections focus on the divide, I want to focus on what we share. Because — yes — there’s sacred ground. But for each of us, I believe, there’s also common ground. And that’s the ground we need to cultivate.

This made-up perfect presidential stump speech went on to address six different national topics: the economy, terrorism, foreign policy, health care, guns, and immigration. The speech ended with this:

If you feel the same way on these issues, and I know the vast majority of Americans do, I need you to get out there and do your part. I need you to stay engaged.

We know we can make progress. But for us to do something, I need you to do something. I need you to vote. I need you to get your friends and neighbors to vote.

I ask you to stand with me. Join me. And together we’ll build the country we know we can be. Because remember: This election isn’t about Donald Trump, or Hillary Clinton, or anyone else. It’s about where we’re headed as a nation, and I believe we’re headed toward economic freedom, self-governance, strength abroad and prosperity at home.

I’m not a political analyst, and I don’t know if Swaim and Nussbaum wrote the perfect political stump speech or not. But as one who is a lifetime religious studies student and a red-letter follower, it is my opinion that the rabbi from Nazareth, Jesus, gave the perfect stump speech for God’s vision of humanity when he gave his famous sermon on the mount. It wasn’t nearly as long as most stump speeches today, but it was clear and to the point. Listen again to Jesus’ stump speech:

The spiritually humble, those who aren’t sure of all the answers and don’t depend on their own power, are God’s people, for they are citizens of God’s new order.

Those who are deeply concerned—concerned for the poor, the forgotten and the left behind in this world, they will see their ideas become reality.

Those who are gentle, who show compassion and kindness to the refugee and the immigrant and the depressed and those living with addiction, they will be God’s partners in this world.

Those who have an unsatisfied appetite for what is right and moral and just—those who stand up for better mental health services in our country, who advocate for clean water in poor neighborhoods and environmental protection for sacred grounds, who care about prison reform, and who fight for good schools for all children— they are God’s people, for they will be given plenty to chew on.

Those who are generous with all that they have been entrusted with—those who share their resources with Georgians and Cubans and Nicaraguans—are God’s people, for they will be treated generously.

Those whose heart is open to love and who see the image of God reflected every person—those who are gay and straight and bi and trans and gender fluid; who are brown, black, and white; those who live in houses and those who live in camps in the woods—those whose heart is open to all are God’s people, for they will have spiritual insight.

Those who work for peace and good will—in Iran and Iraq, between Christians, Jews and Muslims, between fundamentalist and liberal Christians, in their family relationships—are God’s people, for they will be known throughout the world as God’s children.

Those who have endured much for what’s right—the Rosa Parks, the Sojourner Truths, the Oscar Romero’s, the Dorothy Day’s, and the Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s— are God’s people; they are citizens of God’s new order.

You all are God’s people when others call you names and bully you and tell all kinds of fake news on you just because you follow me. Be cheerful and good-humored, because your spiritual advantage is great. For that’s the way they treated others of conscience in the past.

Every parable, every teaching, every action that Jesus did in his ministry illustrated his one perfect stump speech. The Good Samaritan, the prodigal son, the woman who touched his robe for healing, his instruction to pray for your enemies, turning the money-changers tables over in the temple, the Syrophoenician woman encounter, the woman at the well, the washing of the disciples feet, the cross. Someday when you have time, but don’t put it off too long, go back and look at each of his teaching, each of his stories and file them under one of the beatitudes. If everything else Jesus said and did was to vanish, and all that was left was his inaugural stump speech we would know how to fulfill his vision for being God’s people in the world. It is not rocket science, and yet living a life that illustrates these teachings may be the hardest thing we endeavor to do.

Here’s the difference between Jesus’ perfect stump speech and Swaim and Nussbaum’s perfect presidential stump speech. Unlike Swaim and Nussbaum, Jesus wasn’t pandering a bipartisan stump speech with vague quotes that could apply to anything and anyone. Yes, he was speaking to anyone who would listen, but his true audience was those with ears to hear, those who were ready to make hard choices, deep sacrifices, and take big risks for God’s love for all people. Contrary to what we have preached about Jesus, his main goal was not to unify the people, at least not around empty promises, false truths, and superficial answers to hard questions. No, he was trying to gather a small remnant together that would have the courage and take the necessary risks to live out these blessings—blessings of humility, solidarity, generosity, compassion, justice, peace, forgiveness, openness, sacrifice, and love. He wasn’t asking for a one-time vote. He was asking for a lifetime of following. He wasn’t asking people to rally around a certain nationalism. He was asking people to commit to way of life that meant being in the world but not of the world. He was asking people to create a kingdom of equality and kindness here on this earth where the power of love defines our relationships more than the love of power.

True to my crazy notions, I have had the idea this week of my own 538 project. I’ve wondered this week if our congregation might pair with a congregation of a different theological leaning to write a religio-bipartisan modern day stump speech for an imaginary gathering of conservative and liberal Christians; a stump speech of substance that would gain affirmation from a diverse group of different-minded Christians. But then in my cynicism I decided that such a speech would probably be so watered-down, vague, empty, and non-committal that it would serve no purpose for the kingdom? And this I know, Jesus didn’t use watered-down, vague, empty and non-committal words.

So here’s the thing: we can do all the imaginary thinking we want with all the imaginary projects we can come up with. But if our prophetic imagination doesn’t have us sitting on that hillside with Jesus wrestling with his inaugural stump speech then we are not following Jesus. And if we never get up from that hillside and take our wrestling into the world then we are not following Jesus. In this season when we are inundated with stump speeches, we need to be reminded of Jesus’ one and only stump speech. And then we need to be remind of all the ways he illustrated that one stump speech through acts of humility, solidarity, generosity, compassion, justice, peace, forgiveness, openness, sacrifice, and love. In so doing, we, in turn, give our most humanly perfect stump speech of our lives; not in words but in deeds. So here’s the headline for today: Will you stump for humility? Will you stump for solidarity? Will you stump for generosity? Will you stump for compassion? Will you stump for justice? Will you stump for peace? Will you stump for forgiveness and openness and sacrifice and a radical love that welcomes all?

Jesus ended his perfect stump speech with these words: “You are the salt of the earth and light on a hill?” And so I say to you today: carry on the good people of Pullen and be salty and be luminous and stump for Jesus. Right now, the world needs to hear the most perfect stump speech ever!

If you feel the same way, and I know most of you sitting here today do, then Jesus needs you to get out in this world and do your part. Jesus needs you to stay engaged: to risk, to sacrifice and to be bold in your loving. When we follow Jesus’ stump speech we can transform this world. We can build a commonwealth where equality and justice and love define who we are as a people and as a nation. Will you stump for Jesus?