11/15/23

Monday morning I opened our local newspaper (yes, Athens still has a physical newspaper) and read this blood-curdling headline:  “2024 Elections around the Corner.”

I know people who suffer major anxiety in response to anything political. Their nerves are in knots and their voices become louder and more shrill as November 5th approaches and all the while  ______ News (you fill in the blank — there are several possibilities) is playing them like a piano. 

In my Sunday sermon, I said, “I worry we get swept up in right or left politics, when we’re actually part of a THIRD way (I’d say the only REAL way).” I truly believe that. I refuse to identify myself with any political party because their label says little about who I am. There may be one party’s policies I support more than the other, but I am in no way unconditionally tied to a political party. 

Before I am anything else, I am a Christian, and that Christian identity determines the way I vote. 

Some insist that Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics, but that would be disastrous. Remember, it was the Christians in British politics who, in the 19th century, were the driving force to abolish slavery. If people had said, “Christians need to stay out of that,” abolition never would have happened. In France, the Revolution may have been all “liberty, equality, and fraternity,” but that didn’t include freeing the slaves. It was up to Christians to do it. 

But then, especially in the South, we see candidates every election cycle whose political advertisements lead with their church affiliation. You’d think they were running for pastor and not dog catcher or whatever. I understand wanting to identify with the values of your community, but the only emotion I feel when I see those sorts of political ads is suspicion . . .  

How do we strike a balance between being involved citizens and being believers? As one writer I read asked, “Are we citizen-disciples or disciple-citizens?” Which comes first? What is the role of Christians in politics?

Well, the same as their role in everything else! Again, on Sunday I said that “this new identity in Christ affects what I do and what I don’t do, where I go or where I don’t go, my work ethic, the way I parent, the way I am (or am not) a spouse, the way I respond to people, the way I use my resources, the way I spend my free time, etc. My Christian identity molds and shapes every aspect of life.” That certainly applies to my involvement in politics, whatever the level. 

The simplest definition of politics I’ve ever read is: “Politics is about making agreements between people so that they can live together.” If my identity is rooted in Christ, one of the major ways I express that identity is in the way I live with others (it’s the “loving others” part of our mission).  And if that’s the case, then I will take politics seriously, BUT I will balance it with my trust in God and my citizenship in God’s kingdom. 

Which means no matter who is sitting in the Oval Office, my response will be the same: pray, teach, love God, love others. And my ultimate allegiance is not to whoever sits in the Oval Office, but to God.

In Romans 13, Paul writes,  “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted [or appointed, ordained or established, depending on your translation] by God.”

When Paul says that the governing authorities are instituted or ordained by God he means that they are not God (though some act like they think they are).   One of the most important principles about this — and it’s appropriate we’ll be looking closely at these chapters this election year as we spend a lot of time in the gospel of John — come from John 18 and 19, when Jesus is on trial before Pilate. In John 19, Pilate says, “Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” Jesus replies, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

Even Jesus says to Caesar’s representative, “God has placed you over me.” Which is incredible when you stop and think about that. 

But that also means for Caesar and for his representative that with authority comes great responsibility. Whether or not Caesar or whoever acknowledges it or not, they will be held accountable for what they do as leaders.

God’s design from the beginning was for a wisely ordered world, run by humans, and he will hold us responsible for the way we do or don’t do it. This is true whether the leader is a Caesar who came to power by killing his predecessor, or one of our duly [we hope] elected leaders, as believers we have the responsibility to say to that leader, “You are responsible to God for what you’re doing.” 

In a sense we rule over rulers as we live under the authority of the King of kings and the Lord of lords! 

Christ is King. The gospels make this clear and in a couple of weeks our service will celebrate that very point. Christ is King, which means that Caesar or any other earthly leader is not. And we are first and foremost citizens of Christ’s kingdom, with all its privileges and responsibilities.