ILLUST> I was reading an article in Relevant Magazine a few years back that suggested that political conversation in Christian circles seems to be the Las Vegas of Christianity, in other words the environment where anything goes, hate is winked at, fear is welcomed, and conflict is applauded. Go wild Christian, your words have no consequences here. Jesus doesn’t live in Vegas. So slander gets explained away as righteous anger, winning arguments have higher value than truthful ones, and those who stir up dissension are given a platform. In one way or another I think we have all experienced that. So, the question that comes to mind in all of that is this. Where is God in all of that? That’s a great question. Should we have political opinions? Yes. Should we care about our country? You better believe it. Should we vote? Absolutely. Should we run of for office? Why not? The answer is not for us to disengage, but we really do need some clarity on where God is on all the political stuff that swirls around in the world that we live in today and even in this thing we do called church. That’s what I want us to talk about in the time that we have left together today.
But before we jump back in and do that we want to say hey there and welcome to this place that we call DCC. It is so good to have you with us today, that’s always true but especially true if you are brand new. If that is you, first off, we know that walking into any church for the first time can be a scary thing so thanks for giving us a shot and taking a chance on us. We really do hope that you have already felt and experienced this but we want you to know that all of your story is safe here regardless of how it reads, you belong with us regardless of what you believe, and you really are in a room today full of people just like you. So special shout out and welcome to you if you are brand new. We really do hope that you feel safe in this place.
If you haven’t been here before we are in the second week of a series that we are calling Distortion talking about this distorted image that we all tend to have of God and trying our best to clear up a lot of the confusion. Last week we kicked off the journey with two verses from Isaiah chapter 55 that tell us that there are some things about God that our human minds are never really going to be completely clear about or understand. That’s good for us to know, but it is not a reason for us to settle for what we already know. So, last week we talked about how God is not the angry punisher ready to zap us whenever we screw up and this week I want to shift gears and talk about and talk through this, God is not a republican, he’s not a democrat, he’s not political.
A part of our problem and challenge is this. Most of us don’t see any real conflict between our faith and our politics, they are one and the same. Some of us are like God is always right, Jesus was always right, that’s why I am a republican, clearly what is right is to be on the right. Besides that Matthew was a tax collector another Bible word for that is publican and that’s close to republican. That’s some of us. The democrats in the room are like are you freaking kidding me. Jesus was a heath care dispensing machine. Everywhere he went he dispensed health care and every single time that he did it, it was free. He got on rich people and said something about them not going to heaven because they stuck a needle in their eye or something like that. He gave away food all the time. That’s why I am a democrat. Libertarians and independents and everyone else can make an argument too. There are lots of arguments to be made, but where is God in all of this political stuff? Let’s jump into this and talk about that.
If you brought a Bible we are going to be in Romans chapter 13 today. If you would like a Bible to follow along in but don’t have one, they are on the back tables. Or you can just hit our app, the YouVersion app, or you can just read along with me off of the screens. Okay, so here we go, Romans chapter 13 starting with verse 1…
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.
God makes it clear that he has established or put our government, our political system in place and that we should make ourselves subject to it. Am I suggesting that there is no place for our thoughts, opinions, disagreement, and constructive conversation on political issues, of course not, what I am suggesting is this…
WE MUST KEEP POLITICS IN ITS PROPER PLACE. I don’t know that anything undermines our influence more than our inability to do that. Politics is a distinct part of one kingdom, the kingdom of this world. It is so important that we understand that.
ILLUST> I am going to rapid fire some passages at you as I explain this, so write them down and look them up. We don’t have time to do that together today. In John 18:36 Jesus is being questioned by Pilate and the question that Pilate puts on the table for him is are you the king of the Jews. Jesus response is this, my kingdom is not of this world, my kingdom is from another place. That kingdom looks different than any other kingdom in the world then or the world today. In Philippians chapter 3 Paul tells us that if we are followers of Jesus are citizenship is in heaven. We are citizens of two kingdoms. In 1st Peter 2 Peter writes that we are aliens and strangers in this world if we are followers of Jesus. It doesn’t really matter if some of us are are registered democrats and some republicans we are all registered aliens and strangers and that trumps. In Matthew chapter 26 when Jesus is arrested, Peter whips out a sword and cuts off the ear of one of the guards. Jesus tells him to put his sword away. My Kingdom is not about cutting off the ear of my enemy. Let me show you. My Kingdom is about healing the ear of my enemy. In Matthew chapter 20 the disciples are arguing about who among them is going to be the greatest. Jesus uses it as an opportunity to distinguish the kingdom of this world from his kingdom. Listen to what he says Matthew 20:25…
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus’ kingdom is upside down. The kingdoms of this world are power over, the Kingdom of Jesus is power under. The symbol for the kingdoms of this world is the sword, with the Kingdom of Jesus it’s the cross. The kingdom of this world is always tribal and territorial. Our race becomes the best race, our ideology the best ideology, and we demonize those who oppose us. In the Kingdom of God every human being on the planet has infinite worth to God and our job above everything else is to do everything that we can to help them know that. The Kingdom of God brings people together while the kingdom of this world continues to pull them apart. These are 2 different and distinct kingdoms and politics is a kingdom of this world, not a kingdom of God thing.
ILLUST> I want to be really clear about something as I say all of that. We will see this in the next few verses but I want to say this before we go any further. I believe that we are one Nation under God, a God who has obviously delegated to the government the defense and protection of liberty, dignity, and justice for all. I am not suggesting that there is not a time and place for the sword. There is and everyone single one of us should be glad that it is there and give honor to every person willing to protect and defend that in any capacity. So, whether they serve in the armed forces, law enforcement, firefighters, first responders of any kind you name it, we should give the honor and respect. I want to be clear about what I am not saying. If you still disagree please send your emails to Jesus@metooplace.com. He will get back with you.
I’m not saying your zeal for politics is a waste of time. I am not saying that your opinion and vote don’t matter. I am not saying that you shouldn’t run for office. We need good people in office. I am saying, at the end of the day politics is a kingdom of this world thing. Are we living in a way that ascribes worth to others and coming under and/or serving others at a cost to ourselves? That’s a Kingdom of God thing. We have to understand that politics is a kingdom of this world thing and keep it in it’s proper place. Let’s keep reading…
4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. 6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
How are we supposed to respond to authorities over us? God uses words like submit, pay taxes, respect, and honor. In 1 Timothy chapter 2 Paul adds that we should pray for them too. But what if they are from a different political party? What if they don’t believe the things that we believe? What if their values are far different than ours? What if we disagree on some fairly significant issues? Just bash them on Facebook. Nope. God doesn’t really carve out an exception for us. This pushes against what we naturally do. So, maybe we need to reconsider what we naturally do. Here’s what I am getting to…
WE MUST FIGHT DIVIDING OVER DIFFERENCES. I don’t know that there has been anything that has been more damaging to the message of Jesus and this intended revolutionary force that he established called church than the tendency that people who claim to follow Jesus have to focus on and divide over differences. We see it in the church today in our discomfort with people who struggle with things we don’t struggle with or really don’t understand. We see it in church history in tragic and bloody things like the Crusades. This church that we are sitting in today came out of thing called the Restoration Movement in the early 1800’s. A movement with a purpose to restore this thing we do called church to what it was in the book of Acts. At least two different groups that were originally a part of the movement have splintered off in the last 100 years. Why, because of a difference of opinion on certain issues like musical instruments in the church. We have a bad habit of focusing on and dividing over differences.
ILLUST> I lost Dave, my best buddy back in Louisville, to cancer this past August. He and his wife Mary had one of the sweetest and closest relationships that I had ever experienced. Having said that they had one glaring difference. He was a huge Louisville Cardinal fan and she pulled for the Kentucky Wildcats. Whenever either team played they would watch the games on separate floors of the house. When they played each other all bets were off. Things got really tense. We don’t live in a real college basketball state so let me show you how bad this is. You see these license plates all over the place in Kentucky. There is obviously one smart person in that house…normal people bleed red not blue…Go Cards! It was a difference that was never reconciled in their house and yet they had an amazing marriage. They refused to focus on and divide over their differences.
Jesus said a house divided against itself cannot stand. This is why our staff and elders pray so diligently against this stuff, not politics but divisiveness and division. Why, because we understand that divide and conquer is the primary strategy of our enemy. If he can divide us over things like politics, issues, likes, dislikes, opinions, levels of sin, baptism, and instruments in the church then ultimately he wins. We have to understand what we are up against. We should not allow our differences to divide us. It is tough but I promise you it can be done.
ILLUST> All we have to do is look closely at Jesus and the people that he called to follow him. He called Matthew the tax collector and Simon the Zealot. You want to talk about radical differences? Zealots wanted to violently revolt and overthrow the Roman government, tax collectors worked for the Roman government and were about as close as you could get to falling in line with it. Zealots liked to kill tax collectors and yet here they are both of them sitting in the exact same small circle around Jesus. We don’t even have categories for how different these two followers of Jesus would have been. It would have been like Rush Limbaugh and a Communist. I’m not sure that that even captures the extreme difference of opinion that these two followers of Jesus would have had. Two things about that, not only did it not divide them, not one time in 3 years did you ever see Jesus taking sides or weighing in on either side of the debate.
The Bible makes in clear that our fight is not against flesh and blood. If it is flesh and blood it is not our enemy. The enemy is not the democrat, the republican, gay rights activist, liberal, conservative, ACLU extremist, abortionist, evolutionist, or activist. Satan is our enemy. It is so important that we see this. When we have Jesus in common, it should always dwarf our differences. This past week our staff team was together doing some leadership development stuff with 33 other churches here in Colorado Springs as a part of the COSIloveyou movement that we are a part of leading. We have differences. We refuse to allow them to divide us. Politics seems to be about doing the exact opposite of that. Well, let’s finish this. As we read this it may seem like Paul is switching subjects or topics and moving on to something else. I don’t think it is coincidence that Paul moves directly into this verse 8. Listen to this…
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Paul starts out like he has shifted gears from government to how to handle our debts. He is actually only talking about one debt here, our debt to love one another. All these commandments that we are chasing after and doing our best to keep are summed up in this…love your neighbor as yourself. That is not the essence of the kingdom of this world. That is the very essence of the Kingdom of God. So yes, we can have our opinions, positions, discussions and debates but in the end…
WE MUST ALWAYS PUT PEOPLE BEFORE POLITICS. As followers of Jesus we should have no tolerance for anything that undermines individual worth and dignity. Jesus unleashed a revolution that can touch down in every culture, family, and relationship. We are all created in the image of God and deserve love and respect.
ILLUST> Phillip Yancy says it this way in his book Vanishing Grace. “Human rights, civil rights, women’s rights, minority rights, gay rights, disability rights, animal rights the success of these modern
movements reflect a widespread empathy for the oppressed that has no place in the ancient world. Classical philosophers considered mercy, compassion and character to be defects contrary to justice. Not until Jesus did that attitude change.”
Everything changed when the Kingdom of God invaded the kingdom of this world. So what do we do with all of this stuff? We need to rise above the chaos and the distortion and love our neighbors the way that God commanded us to do it. We need to love our atheist neighbor who wants to keep creation out of schools, our democrat neighbor who wants to keep gay marriage and abortion legal, our republican neighbor who celebrates death penalty statistics and gun ownership, and yes even Presidential candidates on the other side too. It is who we are called to be and what we are called to do.
ILLUST> In 1992, a grand dragon in the Ku Klux Klan made front-page news. For years, Larry Trapp terrorized a Jewish leader in his community named Michael Weisser, making death threats against him and his synagogue. Then one day Larry tore his Nazi flags, destroyed his hate literature, and renounced the KKK. Why? Because when Larry Trapp was dying of a diabetes-related kidney disease and unable to care for himself, Michael Weisser took him into his home and cared for him. “He showed me so much love,” said Larry Trapp, “that I could not help but love him back.”
That is more important than any political position we will ever take, or political argument that we will ever make. I am not saying don’t have an opinion. I am not saying don’t get involved. I am not saying don’t run for office or support anyone that does. You can still yell at the television when you see the campaign ads or watch the debates. I am suggesting that we have to agree on everything. I am not suggesting that as a follower of Jesus you should lean toward any particular party or candidate. I am suggesting that you understand that you are first and foremost a citizen of a different Kingdom. I am suggesting that you are a follower of Jesus first, and a democrat, republican, libertarian, independent, or whatever else you are second.
How we love, how we sacrifice for others, how we imitate Jesus for others, it what it is all about. We can have laws prosecuting and punishing rapists and racists but only God can change the heart of a rapist and racist. Only Jesus using the power of his love can really change anyone, only he can change a person from the inside out. The hope of this world has never been and will never be in politics. It is only through Jesus working in and through the hearts of people that real change is ever going to take place.
If every one of us simply focused on that our nation would feel different. Most of the laws that exist today would never be tested and it wouldn’t really matter who the President was. The right King would be on the throne. We must keep politics in it’s proper place, we must fight against dividing over differences, and we must always put people before politics. Everything hinges on this, my love for God on the inside and how I treat my neighbor on the outside. At the end of the day, Jesus didn’t come to take sides he came to take over. We don’t have to take sides. Everything really changes in our lives and in the world around us if and when we allow Jesus to truly take over. Let me pray for us.
