Conference Minister's Corner 11.11.26

Conference Minister’s Corner, November 11, 2026

Rev. Gordon Rankin, Conference Minister

One of the big election surprises for me last week was the election of the Reverend Adam Hamilton of the state of Kansas. Perhaps it was my time living in the Midwest, but I was not quite prepared to believe that Kansas would elect its first Democratic senator in more than 90 years. History has yet to write how he’d be as a senator, but we already know he is an inspired preacher.

Preaching at the National Prayer Breakfast back in 2013, Rev. Hamilton recalled the story of Robert [Louis] Stevenson as a small child. He was looking out [the] window of his nursery at the lamplighters lighting the gas lamps outside. When his parents inquired what he was looking at, he said, “The man poking holes in the darkness”. Reverend Hamilton then went on to explain that it is the job of our civic leaders, and our job as people of faith, to be those who poke holes in the darkness.

God is here. In our ordinary times. In our wilderness times. In our in-between times. God is here. Bringing new life. Let us release any foolishness to which we cling, so that we may unreservedly grab hold to the promise of resurrection. Amen.