Be careful
what you pray for, because you just might get it. I’ll bet that you’ve heard
that before; and you might even have lived it! You yearned for something that
you didn’t have, and you asked God for it over and over and over again. Then
you got what you were praying for; only to find out that the reality was very different
than you imagined it would be. Maybe the scenario went something like this:
When the realtor phoned one night and announced that the house that you have
been negotiating to buy was finally yours, you thanked God for answering your
prayers. But when you moved in, you discovered raccoons in the attic, a faulty
sump pump in the cellar, and wiring that was installed during the
administration of Calvin Coolidge – none of which the seller told you about.
Yes, what we get often comes with complications that we never expected when we
asked for it.
The
Israelites had that experience when they got a king. If we peer into the book
of Judges and investigate their history, we can understand why they wanted one.
When the Israelites lived in tribal communities, there was no common bond among
them except their religion; and there was very little coordination between the
tribal leaders. There were no universal laws, for example, and no standing
army. When the Philistines threatened the tribes in the central region of
Israel, they had to go begging the other tribes for help. When they looked around at
the surrounding nations, they noticed that a king seemed to be the solution to
all those problems; so they went to Samuel and told him that they wanted a
king, too. “We want to be like all the other nations!” they
said. Having a king looked so good! And even though Samuel tried to tell them
that a king would bring a whole slew of complications for their lives, they
wouldn’t listen. So God told Samuel to give them what they wanted; and Samuel did just that. (I Samuel 8:4-22)
Now, here’s
what the Israelites didn’t anticipate when they asked Samuel for a king. Sure,
a king would lead them. Sure, having a king would take care of some of their
problems. But once they had a king, they had to deal with politics! When the Israelites lived in tribes,
they only had to worry about their faith. But after they crowned a king, they
became a nation. That opened the door to all kinds of sticky political questions.
Would they stick to tribal laws, or enact new ones that applied to everybody?
With which countries should they make political alliances? When should they go
to war? And the most difficult of all: how could they continue to worship God
faithfully when politics was constantly urging them to make compromises with
that faith?
One of the
biggest problems for the Israelites was that political alliances with other
nations meant allowing the gods of those nations into Israel, something that
God has always forbidden. Prophets like Amos and Hosea and Jeremiah hollered
about that all the time. They stood on street corners and condemned it. They
stood outside the Temple and preached about it to folks who were on their way
to worship. Some of them even confronted the king about it! But the Israelites
were always ready to compromise their faith if it meant that they got richer,
safer, and more powerful as a nation. After all, that’s the goal of politics:
more wealth, more security, and more power.
The
Israelites bought into politics hook, line, and sinker; and they never
understood that faith has very different goals than politics does. We who
follow Jesus Christ need to understand that, too! We should care less about wealth, safety, and power than about
compassion, love, and peace. We should care about not only our own security,
but about the security of others, too. We should share our wealth when we see
other people in need. And that power thing… Jesus rejected it! He showed us
that the way to real power is in
humility; even in death. “God’s power is made complete in weakness” is the way
that Paul explained it. That’s why the overlap of faith and politics is always so
uncomfortable. Our Christian goals are different from the goals of politicians, and the
methods that we use to achieve those goals are very different. And yet, we have to
live with both faith and politics all the time. One of the biggest problems for
those of us who live in this country is how to be both a good
citizen and a faithful Christian.
Now, we can try
to separate faith and politics; and we frequently refuse to take part in
politics because of it. But while it’s true that the separation of church and
state is written into our Constitution, that only means that our government is
forbidden to set up a national church. We can’t be forced to be Baptist or
Episcopal or Catholic. We can’t be forced to be Christian or Buddhist or Muslim.
All faiths are equal under the law of our country; but it doesn’t mean that
faith and politics are completely separate, because they aren’t. That
uncomfortable overlap is always present in our national life. We have to deal
with both politics and faith.
As we
struggle to respond to do that with integrity, we need to remember that, even
though politics and faith overlap, they ask very different questions. Politics
asks “why” questions; questions such as “Why should we secure our national
borders?” Those questions really don’t have anything to do with our faith. But
the question of how we secure those
borders extends into the realm of faith. When non-citizens enter our country
without authorization, we can treat them with respect (and dare I suggest
compassion); or we can tear their children away from them and force those
children to live in isolated camps. Politics may deal with the “why” of
government actions; but our faith responds to the “how.” I could give you a million
more examples, but you already know what they are. How to use tax dollars, how
to protect the dignity of every person, how to maintain civil order, how to
engage with our international neighbors, even how to run an ethical political
campaign – those are all conversations in which our Christian faith needs to
have a part!
Now, let me
reassure you that I’m never going to tell you how you should vote. I’m never even
going to tell you how you should feel on political issues. That’s not my job
(and it’s why I saved this sermon until after last Tuesday’s election). But it is my job to show you how our Christian
faith informs our response to the political questions that face us. The
prophets did it long ago; and it’s my job to do it now. Most of all, it’s my
job to remind you that, as important as political issues are, the foundation on
which we stand isn’t Republican or Democratic or Libertarian or Socialist. Our only
foundation as Christians is Jesus Christ; and he shows us the “how” to every
single “why.” Compassion, generosity, inclusion, and peace are the ways that we
are called to live as Christians, regardless of our political persuasions. My
prayer today is that we are never afraid to stand by those ideals as we
struggle to follow Jesus in this political world.
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