Monday, December
19, 2016
Before
you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even
exist. So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows
you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak
and useless spiritual principles of this world? Galatians 4:8-9(NLT)
A fellow UMC pastor, author and seminary professor, Alan
Bevere recently posted a piece on the topic of faith and politics – here is an excerpt:
A favorite quote of mine from Stanley Hauerwas is It is God and not the nations who rules the world….I
believe that while most Christians believe the truth of that claim, they do so
only in the abstract. Functionally, by
the church's political engagements and by aligning themselves with the left and
the right, Democrats and Republicans, Christians in actuality betray the
unacknowledged belief that it is the nations that are indeed running the show.[ii]
There are so many ways to get off track, to lose your
perspective and forget where you’re going.
The church, founded on freedom from the world of selfishness and evil,
most easily (and most often) finds itself derailed at the intersection where the
faith once delivered to the saints meets the power of political clout.
Indeed, whenever politics and religion meet up, it is
invariably the ineffectiveness of weak faith that caves to the political structure. I believe that is what Dr. Bevere was getting
at; it’s not that faith cannot
overcome the world; after all, Jesus overcame death and the grave! For the church, conquering political evil should be a slam dunk.
The problem, as highlighted by Stanley Hauerwas, is that
God indeed rules the world, but Christians only nod in that direction on Sunday
morning and then go back to nursing at the breast of this world’s system for
their daily bread. The church has no
further to look than its’ own pews for a mission field!
What to do, what
to do?
Well, if Paul the apostle was right, that our very
existence as Christians, as a church, is a fight against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty
powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places(Ephesians
6:12), we must once-again learn what it means to engage the enemy.
And the first principle is remembering that we are to
grow up into Christ, not grow strong in political clout. If the church is ever going to cooperate with
God, in God’s ways and timing to combat the evil forces of this world’s system,
the church is going to have to be healthy!
When is the last time you watched a boxing match, or
wrestlers, or (heaven help me) an MMA slug-fest? None of those contestants are anemic
weaklings. When they enter the ring they
are strong and focused; they’ve been trained and tuned into a fighting
machine.
The church needs that; we need to stop guzzling smoothie
theological red dye and sugar, and find our way again. We need to begin to chew on some meat. We need to become equipped disciples who will
engage the political monster of this world’s evils and its systemic betrayal of
ourj human heritage as images of the Creator.
And we won’t do it without giving-up our comfortable avoidance of politics…or
worse…our comfortable place in bed
with politics.
For You Today
Somewhere
between the political fringes of left and right is the center of God’s will –
the place of doing right. Are you going
on to THAT perfection?
NOTES
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