Election year 2016 is underway in
the USA. Character assassination is
front and center. Name-calling,
bloviating, and one up-man-ship will inundate the culture until Election Day,
November 8. That's the way it works in
the good old USA. In the end the people
will speak and we'll get whom we get – good, bad, or indifferent. I'm told that Abraham Lincoln once said,
" “Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to
turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to
sit on their blisters.”
As a
follower of Jesus, living in a culture, I feel compelled to take my faith into
the arena of life. I don't, however,
feel a need to hijack the political process and try to Christianize it. My desire is to bring the life of Jesus into
the human situation. God, of course, has
already done this. Yet as an ambassador
of an incarnational God, I am compelled to live and move and have my being in
the kingdom of God, seeking to influence a broken world for the healing life of
Christ.
Processing these thoughts is an
interesting undertaking for me. How
involved do I become? How vocal? How demonstrative? In one of his psalms King David gives me
guidance. He wrote,
Some boast in chariots and some in horses,But we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God. -- Psalm 20:7
There are those among us who trust
in the powers that be, the strength of the military, the wisdom of the
politician, the counsel of the intelligentsia. As it was in the beginning so it
is now. The problem, however, seems to
be that throughout generation after generation of this strength, wisdom and
counsel, we have come to the moment in history in which we now find
ourselves. And, where we now find
ourselves is not a poster child for national or international health.
I contend that we have been
boasting and trusting in systems that don't have the ability to do what they
promise the people. I think I believe
the want to is there but in a world
of people rooted and grounded in their own ideologies, many of which constantly
collide, the want to, many times, gets
sidelined and promises get jettisoned, and sides are taken, and things get very
messy.
Because of the messiness it is a
strange world in which we live. Will
Rogers said a couple of things back in the 1930s that, sadly, still ring
true. He said, "I don't make jokes.
I just watch the government and report the facts." Then he lamented and said, "Everything is changing. People are
taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke."
All this makes me think that
maybe the ancient king was on to something we need to hear in the opening years
of the twenty-first century, "We will boast in the name of the Lord,
our God." Not much chance
of that happening at the politically driven national or state or even local
level. There are just too many
conflicting worldviews, too much money, too many strong personalities, and too
many power mongers at work. There is
only one level the declaration might actually work and that is in the churches
of the planet.
When the
Church does it right, and God is truly honored, there is great opportunity for the
needs facing the planet to actually be addressed. The question, however, is
whether or not the Church, at this late date in history, will get it right. Sadly, just as in culture, running rampant in
the Church these days are conflicting worldviews, too much miss-directed money,
to many strong personalities, and too many powerbrokers. The Church can't seem to agree on much of
anything, and Her message has become blurred, stained, culture driven, and
tribal.
So, what do
we followers of Jesus do? What do we
actually bring to the court of public opinion?
My heart says Jesus has given us our mission statement, "Love
the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind…" and "Love your neighbor as yourself"
(Matthew 22:37, 29).
What does this mean? It means if Hilary Clinton or Bernie Sanders
is our next president we are called to "Love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…" and
"Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37, 29). It means if Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris
Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Marco
Rubio, Rick Santorium, or Donald Trump is our next president, we are called to
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind…" and "Love your neighbor as yourself"
(Matthew 22:37, 29). It means if some as
of yet unknown dark horse candidate emerges to the front and becomes our next
president we are called to, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind…" and "Love your
neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37, 29).
I am pretty sure that who we voted
for in the 2016 election will not come up when the church stands before God
someday. I am quite confident, however,
that the call of Jesus might come up on that day, "For I was hungry, and you gave Me
something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a
stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you
visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me" (Matthew
25:35-36)
Let the Church
be the Church in 2016 and in all the years to come as God continues God's work of
restoring this broken world to Himself.
