God's
Politics
Sermon preached by the Reverend Larry Young
August 14, 2005
Scripture:
Isaiah 42:1-7 and Matthew
25:31-40
One
of the surprises regarding the prospective sermon topics that we received
this summer was how many of them had to do with controversial issues.
If it seems to you that the sermon topics have been slanted in that
direction, it’s simply because they reflect what we have received.
“Inquiring minds want to know,” as the saying goes. I
can well imagine that many of you have inquiring minds with regard
to today’s topic—even if it’s a topic you wouldn’t
choose to touch publicly with a ten-foot pole! Here’s how the
request came in: “What are God’s politics? Is the Christian
gospel a foundation for being on the Left or Right? Or does Christianity
offer a way to transcend these divisions?”
To
me this is not only a very timely topic but also one that we as mainstream
Christians ought to be addressing, and not just leaving it to the
religious Left or Right. Politics is not irrelevant to a people who
are called to care about what is going on in their world. There are
compelling reasons for the separation of church and state, but in
no way does that equate with Christians staying away from political
life. We may well be upset by the political activity of the Christian
Right today—but the fact that they choose to get involved politically
because of their beliefs is not in itself a valid reason for objecting
to them. We Christians are part of a faith heritage in which faith
and politics are very much interrelated and we do well to remember
that history.
In
ancient Israel indeed there was no separation of church and state.
From the time of the Exodus the Hebrew people understood themselves
as a people bound together in covenant with God. The king who ruled
over them got his credentials from God and only as his rule was in
sync with God’s will did he have legitimacy. Now in reading
our Old Testament we know many of Israel’s kings did fall away
from the divine plumbline, and were roundly castigated by the prophets
for doing so. When the Davidic kingdom fell to the Babylonians in
the sixth century B.C., its fall was seen by the prophets as divine
judgment on them for not keeping faith with God’s leading. Yet
the Jewish people continued to hope for a restoration of their monarchy
and for the coming of a Messiah who would be both their earthly king
and a spiritual leader sent from God. The Messiah would be one who
would put right again both their political and religious life. Our
reading today from Isaiah 42 speaks of a servant who may well have
been seen as a coming Messianic king. And the servant’s mandate
was to establish justice—first of all in Israel, but then in
turn in lands
(continued...)
"God's
Politics " by Rev. Larry Young, August 14, 2005
beyond as Israel became “a light to the nations.” This justice
would come about because God’s spirit was with the servant; so
justice is understood as a divine reality. But the effects of justice
would be unmistakably political, putting the affairs of nations into
proper order.
This
was the faith heritage into which Jesus was born and the understanding
of Messiah which Jesus had to work with. Now as we know, Jesus did some
significant reinterpreting of Jewish expectations. He made it clear
that being a worldly king was not what Messiah meant to him. Rather
his role was to reveal God to the people as fully as possible. Yet when
his speaking for God had social and political implications, as it often
did, he let the chips fall where they would. Jesus did not concern himself
with being politically correct. He spoke out against the hypocrisy of
religious leaders despite their political clout. He labeled King Herod
a sleazy “fox” who deserved no respect. He spoke up for
the cause of the poor and the sick and the people of no status in a
political order that was content to ignore them. Ultimately it was a
political decision on the part of Pilate with the strong urging of the
Jewish Sanhedrin that resulted in Jesus’ crucifixion. Pilate and
the Jewish leadership simply decided there were too many political implications
to Jesus’ ministry to allow him to continue.
So
what does all this tell us about God’s politics? With Jesus we
have clearly pulled away from the Jewish image of a unified political
and religious civic order, which in any event would be clearly unworkable
in today’s religiously-pluralistic world. But at the same time
Jesus shows us that our caring for our world and what goes on in it
has unmistakable political implications, a reality we need to take seriously.
So it seems to me that God’s politics are lived out by our efforts
to live faithfully on behalf of what we understand God wants for the
human family. What is human well-being as God sees it—and what
political decisions will help that well-being to become more a reality?
That I believe is the politics God blesses.
Now
having said that, I recognize that still leaves a lot of wiggle room.
Defining what God wants for humanity is a very broad topic, and different
ones of us have varying ways of spelling that out for ourselves as well
as differing ways of prioritizing. Some see preserving the sanctity
of human life for the unborn as of ultimate importance, while others
focus on particular needs of the living such as health or economic sufficiency.
For still others stewardship of the environment or the quality of public
education, or coping with crime are the issues that count most. Now
these differences in prioritizing are understandable; but they are also
a major factor behind the divisiveness that marks our political life
today. We get polarized into red or blue or green or whatever other
color camps because we get so invested in pushing our own priorities
as though they matter beyond all others. But surely God has a bigger
picture of human well-being than this. God’s politics are not
single-issue politics. Surely God cares about our finding cures for
debilitating diseases like AIDS; but God cares equally about the health
of those too poor to get access to the medical care they need. How much
we need to try to hold onto the big picture as we make decisions about
how we will exert our own influence. If Christianity has a remedy for
bridging the
(continued...)
"God's
Politics " by Rev. Larry Young, August 14, 2005
political divisions that plague our society now, it may well be this
insistence that God’s view of our common welfare is so much
broader than our own accustomed ways of looking at life. Only by trying
to keep the big picture in mind can we hope to be on target in serving
God’s cause in the world. We may still choose to put much of
our energy behind particular issues, but then hopefully we will see
how they fit into the larger redemptive agenda God has in mind for
us.
In
the final analysis, of course, none of us ever arrives at a definitive
understanding of God’s agenda. We see only with our human limitations,
which is why we need to stay tuned to God as best we can through a
lifetime. But the Scriptures do lift up some recurring themes that
serve as benchmarks for God’s will and two of them were stated
in today’s readings. Isaiah 42 affirms that the work of God’s
servant will be to establish justice in the world. A simple definition
of justice is that which is right and fair in God’s sight. So
working for justice is striving toward the goal of every human being
having access to the blessings that God intends for us. Justice presupposes
that the needs of every one of us merit respect, even as we are all
accountable for what we are given. God does not intend for some of
us to suffer so that others can be that much more blessed. How much
we need to keep the big picture in mind to make sure that doesn’t
happen, especially when we have the power to take advantage.
Then
in Matthew 25 we hear Jesus restating a common biblical theme: when
we act on behalf of the hungry and disadvantaged of this world, we
are acting on God’s side. The Bible shows us that God constantly
cares about the well being of the poor and oppressed, because they
are so often the ones the rest of the world fails to care about. It’s
not that they merit more care than others. But the reality is they
generally have less power than others to get their needs met and they
can be so easily overlooked by the rest of us. So in making our political
decisions, we do well to ask ourselves how the least among us will
be impacted by them. That’s one thing God will be holding us
accountable for.
Now
having said all this, I recognize I haven’t given you much guidance
for navigating the political waters in today’s America. I really
can’t tell you what color, or blend of colors, your political
stripes should be. I can only make those decisions for myself, just
as you must for yourself. So the chances are we will continue representing
diverse political viewpoints. That’s fine, providing our political
choices are an honest effort on our part to act as God’s people
in the world. But you see, that’s what should make our politics
as Christians different. Our starting point is different. Rather than
beginning with some political or economic ideology that attracts us
and then baptizing it with a sprinkle of Christianity, as some have
done, we begin with our convictions about the well-being God wills
for our world, and then decide how that can best be implemented through
our political structures. We make these decisions as best we can,
in the faith that political action is one very significant way in
which God’s purposes for us can be realized.
(continued...)
"God's
Politics " by Rev. Larry Young, August 14, 2005
We
still are not likely to end up all together in the same political
camp as we do this. I may secretly continue to believe that you still
need some political enlightening,
and you may think the same about me. But when we sense that we are
reaching our political decisions with integrity, then we have a basis
for respecting one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. The
church should be one place where this reaching across differences
happens and we see beyond our divergent political points of view.
I
want to close with a word to those of you who may be very cynical
about politics and who may question whether your political involvement
really counts for anything. It’s true you don’t have to
look far to find a plethora of reasons for cynicism—corruption,
the buying of influence, the disproportionate power of special interests,
public ignorance and apathy, to name just a few. Politics is a messy
business. But it is the structure through which decisions about our
public life get made. That means that politics is just too big a slice
of life to be left to the devil! Too much is at stake. So surely God
is calling those of us who care about God’s agenda to take seriously
our political involvements and trust that God will use us in some
way that counts.
The
writer Bonaro Overstreet once wrote some words that speak to me, and
I share them with you:
You say the little efforts that I make
will do no good: they never will prevail
to tip the hovering scale
where justice hangs in balance.
I don’t think I ever thought they would.
But I am prejudiced beyond debate
in favor of my right to choose which side
shall feel the stubborn ounces of my weight.
May
that be so for you as well!
©Larry
Young , 2005. Permission is given for brief quotation with attribution.
All other rights reserved. |
