Beloved in Christ,

To belong to Christ is to discover we also belong to one another. 

As I shared in my last letter, on the way to Election Day we will walk together through Connexion, Politix, Reflexion, and Praxis. Each word carries an X, an echo of the Chi (Χ) that begins Χριστός (Christos), the Anointed One. It is a reminder that whatever else we are called in this season, we belong first to Christ.

This series emerges from a simple conviction: in every season, election seasons included, we are called to bear witness to Jesus Christ. How we speak, how we listen, how we engage the public square, and how we treat those with whom we disagree all testify to the One we follow. As your bishop, part of my calling is to offer formation that helps us live faithfully as disciples, especially when the forces that divide us are strong.

My hope is not that we will agree on every issue. My hope is that we will be formed more deeply into beloved community: a people who belong to Christ and therefore belong to one another across every line that might divide us.

This week: Connexion.

A teacher of the law once asked Jesus which commandment mattered most. Jesus answered: “...you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, you will love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 CEB

Must. And will. 

Since antiquity, this teaching has been called The Great Commandment. Notice what Jesus does. He will not allow love of God to be separated from love of neighbor. The two belong together. Our hearts turn toward God, and in doing so, are turned toward one another.

This is deeply Wesleyan. John Wesley spoke of holiness of heart and life. He gathered people into societies, classes, and bands because he did not believe we could follow Jesus faithfully by ourselves. Early Methodists prayed, searched the Scriptures, served, confessed their struggles, and learned to "watch over one another in love."

That is what we mean by connexion. It is more than the organizational structure of The United Methodist Church. It is a theological claim about who we are: we belong to God, and therefore we belong to one another. Wesley insisted that the gospel knows "no holiness but social holiness." Our Social Principles continue that conviction, affirming that human beings are made "for God and for one another." 

That kind of belonging matters in this season.

We live in a culture very good at sorting us: red and blue, rural and urban, conservative and progressive, young and old, citizen and immigrant, us and them.

But the waters of baptism do not sort us that way. At the font, we are joined to Christ and to one another. At the Communion table, we receive the same bread and share the same cup. You know the prayer: "By your Spirit make us one with Christ; one with each other; and one in ministry to all the world." And in the Body of Christ, we discover that some of the people to whom we belong are people we did not choose, do not always understand, and will not always agree with.

This is not new to our generation. Wesley called early Methodists into connexion not despite their differences but in the midst of them. In his sermon “Catholic Spirit” he asked: "Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion?" Connexion does not require agreement on all matters. It does require that we not forsake our covenant with one another.

And covenant asks something of the heart.

When Jesus commands us to love our neighbor, he is not commanding us simply to feel warmly toward everyone. To love my neighbor is to seek my neighbor's good: to recognize the image of God in them and to care about their dignity, safety, voice, opportunity, and flourishing.

That means the Great Commandment follows us into the public square.

In an election season, one expression of loving our neighbor is caring about our neighbor's ability to participate. I care whether my vote can be cast and counted. Love asks me to care whether yours can be, too.

I care whether an older adult has transportation. Whether a first-time voter knows how to register. Whether a person with a disability can access the polling place. Whether someone working multiple jobs knows the options available to them. Whether the homebound has a way to vote. Whether those whose voices have historically been pushed to the margins can participate fully in our common life.

And here is an important Christian discipline: I do not need to know how my neighbor will vote in order to care that my neighbor can vote.

That is connexion. It is the Great Commandment taking flesh in our common life.

As we discern the values, record, and character of those who seek our vote, we must hold two questions in tandem: "How will I vote?" and, before it, "How will I love?"

Wesley pressed the same question on his own people. In October of 1774, in the middle of a heated election, he met with the Methodists who had a vote and gave them three pieces of advice: vote, without fee or reward, for the person you judge most worthy; speak no evil of the person you vote against; and take care that your spirit is not sharpened against those who vote on the other side.

Notice what Wesley did not tell them: how to vote. Two of his three counsels have nothing to do with the ballot. They concern the tongue and the spirit. He gave those voters a rule of life.

Wesley knew that an election season will form us one way or another. It can teach us to listen or train us in contempt. It can deepen our love for neighbor or quietly shrink the circle of those we are willing to call neighbor.

So receive this election season as a spiritual discipline. In our Wesleyan tradition, a spiritual discipline is a practice through which God's grace shapes us into people who love as Christ loves.

A decision is made once. On Election Day we will mark a ballot, and that choice matters. But a discipline is practiced daily, and it is in the daily practice that we are formed. How we speak, how we listen, and how we treat one another between now and Election Day will shape who we are long after the votes are counted.

That is why the question of this season is not only "How will I vote?" It is "How will I love?" And when we ask it together, it becomes the question of this whole series: How then shall we live?

This week, I invite you to practice connexion.

Begin each morning with the Great Commandment. Read Mark 12:30-31 slowly, aloud if you can, and let it be the first word you hear each day.

Then go deeper by choosing one of these practices:

Connect. Have one conversation this week with someone outside your usual circle. Ask a question you do not know the answer to, such as "What has this year been like for you?", and then simply listen.

Notice. We all carry biases and assumptions, and we sort people into categories whether we intend to or not. This week, pay attention. When you catch yourself assuming you already know someone's story, or placing someone in a category, pause and pray, "Made in your image, Lord." At day's end, ask: Where did I love today? Whose humanity was difficultfor me to see? What did I assume that I did not actually know?

Make room. Help someone participate in our common civic life. Offer a ride. Help someone find accurate voting information. Check on accessibility. Encourage a first-time voter. Do it without asking how that person intends to vote.

Watch over someone in love. Reach toward someone from whom you have become distant. You do not have to resolve the disagreement. Simply refuse to allow disagreement to have the final word about the relationship.

These are small practices, but God often uses small practices to accomplish great work in us.

Beloved, before we are voters, we are disciples. Before we carry political identities, we bear the image of God. And before we decide how we will participate in the public square, Jesus has already given us our first command: Love God. Love your neighbor.

How then shall we live? As people who belong to Christ, and therefore to one another. 

That belonging is a high calling. It takes practice, and it has a name: connexion.

Grace and peace,

Bishop Lanette L. Plambeck
Resident Bishop, Dakotas-Minnesota Episcopal Area 
The United Methodist Church