Election Week Thoughts for Christians
Warning: Theological stuff if you're of a mind.
If you think I’m going to go off on some screed about political players, policy, culture wars or anything of that sort, I apologize for failing to meet your expectations. I am not going to link to any Fox News articles about the administration. I’m not going to post the latest CNN driven anxieties about the fall of democracy. I am going to speak directly to Christians.
When I was a child I recall my grandmother relating the old bit of Christian wisdom that goes like this: “When you get to heaven, there will be people you’re surprised to see. Do not worry. They will be equally surprised to see you.”
Somehow we Christians become so embroiled in earthly politics and culture that we forget one salient point. Jesus didn’t come here to set up a kingdom on earth, but an eternal one. A kingdom beginning in our hearts and culminating in a new Heaven and new Earth. Now you can dismiss that as mystical claptrap if you like; I understand. But it’s what the Bible says about what Jesus said.
Now, you may not find this rational, but I do believe in a bodily resurrection. I also believe that when we die and are resurrected, when we stand in the Kingdom of God we will be very, very surprised at some things. And not just surprised by who is, or isn’t there.
Because what we’ll find will be no division. There will be no political parties. There will be no political arguments. There will be no elections. There will be (praise God) no news media from either political angle.
We won’t worry about ballots or election regularities. We won’t have elections! Unless perhaps we play at them in some vague memory of how silly we once were in our obsessions. ‘Hey, let’s play campaign! Remember that? It was weird!’
Furthermore:
We won’t have war or our dark love of war.
We won’t have sexual abuse or trafficking or the weaponization or commodification of the human ache for intimacy.
We won’t have the dominion of the powerful over the powerless.
Homelessness? We will all be home.
Immigration? We will all be in the country we were meant for from the beginning.
Addiction? What need, with our wounds bound up and our tears dry?
Loneliness? Orphans? With Father and family all around? Not even a faint memory.
Sickness? Long forgotten as the blind see, the paralyzed walk, the breathless run, the cancer-ridden are cancer free and the only cells that live forever are perfectly healthy.
Starvation or thirst? They can’t exist in the place of feasting and living water.
Death? That, the Bible says, will be cast into the lake of fire forever.
It’s so easy for us to spend all of our time worried about this brief life we have here. We spend too much of our time on the latest articles and links which we believe will make our position iron-clad. We frantically share vignettes about our political detractors, rejoicing over our side’s latest ‘gotcha.’ We create strategies to triumph, only to find our victories Pyrrhic, and that their cost is the loss of public favor next time around. Because like clockwork, those we elected and trusted fail us yet again. Little wonder the body politic is fickle. It is endlessly subject to infidelity, and responds like a wounded lover, year after year.
It’s so easy to ignore the scriptures and the example of the saints and spend our precious, precious time posting memes or clever come-backs, creating division rather than healing.
Look, I vote! I believe in engagement. I believe in democracy. I believe we should participate and speak for what is true and just. I believe there is wickedness and suffering and that the ballot box is a great place to start. I believe that politics is far superior to violence in bringing justice and peace to the world. I believe we have to start somewhere and that the vote is a powerful tool to bring hope to the hopeless. I believe God calls some people into the political fray and equips them for it. And yet…
And yet.
I long for a kingdom where the madness of democracy ceases. I long for a place where the things we argue about become small things of humor as we look back from a timeless place we can’t even imagine.
I can’t wait for there to be no more talk radio or talk television or anything which anchors me in things I can scarcely control and which make me anxious rather than joyous and trick me into seeing enemies where I should find friends. (And almost all for the sake of revenue.)
What I long for is this.
Revelations 21: 3-4 (HCS version)
Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look!
God’s dwelling is with humanity,
and He will live with them.
They will be His people
And God Himself will be with them
and be their God.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Death will no longer exist;
grief, crying, and pain will no longer exist
because the previous things have passed away.
This is the goal. This is the vision. This is what we who call ourselves Christian should hope for. And as much as we’d like, the ballot will never ultimately get us there
So take a breather, brother and sister. And realize that you can stop worrying. You aren’t in charge, you never were and you never will be.
Someday you’ll see why and you’ll be so glad you weren’t.
Edwin
“Whenever we are lost in hate, we are in hell, no matter how Christian we think we are.”
Madeleine L’Engle
“My brother, another person rules the universe, not the great people in this world.”
St. Luke the Surgeon.
Remember "The 4 last things". Death, Judgement, Heaven or Hell
Amen!