Thought for Today
Psalm 24:8 Who is the King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.
Ezra 7:20 All who will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed on them
Matthew 22:21 "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's."
Luke 10:27 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
“BIDEN EXITS RACE” Banner frontpage headline this morning in the Boston Globe. If you turned on a radio or television this weekend, if you went online on your computer, you heard and/or read about the President’s decision not to seek reelection. Network news anchors, political pundits of all stripes, politicians and even ordinary citizens like us talked of little else following that much-anticipated decision.
We can all expect from now until the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November to be inundated with endless discussions and expectations of what this all means and of how this will affect the outcome of our elections. I have already read and heard speculation ranging from “nothing much has changed” to “it’s the end of our nation.” I’m not sure anyone truly yet knows how this will all play out.
As a Christian, I think that so far, everybody is focusing on the wrong thing, trying to answer the wrong questions. Christians should be asking, “Does this affect our striving to bring about the Kingdom of God? And, if so, how?” Even here, I’m not sure anyone truly yet knows how this will all play out.
So, what are we as Christians to do? Do we run around in circles, dithering and shouting out “The sky is falling” like Chicken Little? Do we ‘double-down’ on our prognostications of disaster if ‘the other party’ wins in November? Is all truly lost for ‘our side’? I’m not sure anyone truly yet knows how this will all play out.
One of the most well-known tropes about the U.S.A. is our ‘separation of church and state.’ “The separation clause in the U.S. Constitution refers to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which states the ‘Congress shall make no law respecting and establishment of religion.’” (Microsoft Bing) Most Reformed Protestant Christians firmly support that clause, being firmly committed to keeping government out of our worship. One of the main reasons why our earliest forefathers came to the Americas was to escape the ills of state-sponsored and state-supported churches. Dissenters had suffered under the persecution of government-controlled religion.
But, Christians have a responsibility to "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's.” I understand Jesus’ words as telling me that I must participate in our constitutional republic as a well-informed citizen. My Christian duty is to obey our laws, pay my taxes, and exercise my right to vote. I must do so deliberately, thoughtfully and guided by my Christian faith.
That means that despite the pontification of the ‘experts,’ despite the advice of the talking heads on television or the sonorous voices on the radio, I must listen and I must educate myself on all the issues. That separation of church and state does not mean, however, that I am precluded from asking of each issue, “How does this impact the attainment of the Kingdom of God?” As a Christian, that must always be my guiding principle.
The ’hot button’ issues we are being assured as most relevant to our coming election are primarily things not specifically, directly mentioned in scripture. The word ‘abortion’ does not appear in the Bible. The Bible does not address ‘gender identification’ or ‘gender discrimination,’ does not ever use the current acronym under which we attempt to gather such issues. Immigration is mentioned in the Bible, but not in terms of building walls or deporting families.
Christians are called, as part of our faith, to try to understand our modern, urban, technological world through the lens of a much earlier world. Christians were never promised a rose garden, never promised a simple, easy path to allow us to live faithfully in a secular world. We have merely been told to love our neighbors. And, irrespective of my beliefs and opinions, I know that there are good, honest, caring Christians who examine every issue against the same scriptures as do I, and come to different conclusions. Jesus specifically told us, “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Stay safe, love each other, trust God,
Pastor Ray