The Tuesday after next Sunday is Election Day, Because I won't be here next week I wanted to take this opportunity to put a biblical perspective on the whole election and voting issue. Some of you can't vote yet and some, like myself, have already voted, and I'm not going to try to persuade you to vote for or against anything or anybody.
There is a quote I read recently by John Wesley (John Wesley is considered to be the founder of the Methodist church), that I think gives good advice: "I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them, 1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy: 2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against: And, 3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those who voted for the other side." I am going to advise those of you who can vote, to vote your conscience.
I think it is appropriate to talk about the whole issue of the upcoming election for a very important of reason. There is an misguided and unfortunate tendency in politics to try to associate the church with one or the other side. This is completely without basis in the Bible. Jesus is not a member of the Republican or the Democratic Party. If we look at the life of Jesus we will see that he did not involve himself in the affairs of politics. We will recall that some of Jesus' followers hoped that he would use his messianic gifts to rid Palestine of the Romans and reestablish the Kingdom of Israel. But Jesus made it plain that his mission went far beyond rearranging earthly political systems.
Jesus came to establish a new kingdom that will supersede every other kingdom that has ever existed. And he did this not by seeking political change but by seeking change in peoples' hearts.
When we become Christians we become citizens of this kingdom. The apostle Paul tells us this plainly in his letter to the Philippians "our citizenship is in heaven." (Phil. 3:20 NIV). And, in fact, as citizens of this new kingdom we are called to help God to build, we are ambassadors of God's kingdom.
The Text
We might wonder what that looks like in practical terms. So today I have chosen a text from another of Paul's letters to help us to consider the issue. We will be reading from Paul's second letter to the Corinthian church, Chapter 5 verse 16 to Chapter 6 verse 2:
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
6 As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says,
“In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. (2 Cor. 5:16-6:2 NIV).
The Corinthian Letters
We need to get some background on these verses. Paul had founded the church at Corinth during his second missionary journey. It was one of the first churches that was made up of mostly Gentile believers. Paul stayed in Corinth for a long time but he had a rocky relationship with the church there.
Corinth was a seaport town and pretty free-wheeling in terms of morality. Some who were members of the Corinthian church had trouble letting go of their worldly ways and embracing their new life in Christ. They continued to live as if they had not been born into a new family by baptism into Christ, and they engaged in some really sinful behavior.
Part of the reason for that was because there were other Christian preachers, Paul calls them "false apostles", who denied that Paul was a real apostle, and presented themselves as evangelists of a different gospel that can be summed up in the words, "If it feels good, do it." Naturally, many of the Corinthians thought that kind of a gospel sounded pretty good, better than the one Paul was preaching.
Eventually Paul had a falling out with the Corinthian church Paul's first letter to the Corinthians was essentially a scolding for missing the truth of the gospel and denying his authority. Paul's second letter to the Corinthians was written sometime later, after the Corinthians had reconciled with Paul. The second letter is an extended defense of his ministry along with advice on how to live the authentic gospel.
In the section of the letter we are looking at today we think that Paul is responding to some of the criticisms of his personality. Paul had been accused of not being a strong speaker and leader. This accusation, coupled with the fact that Paul had not been a follower of Jesus before he was crucified, led some people to suggest that he was not a true apostle, but an imposter.
In the bigger picture, Paul responds by saying the truth of his being an apostle is the Corinthian church itself. It was Paul who had first brought the gospel to Corinth. There would be no church were it not for his efforts. Therefore, even though he didn't fit the model of an itinerant preacher in the first century, with a bold stature and a powerful speaking voice, he was nevertheless a true apostle of God. The word apostle comes from the Greek ἀπόστολος which means, "one who is sent." In this case Paul argues that he was sent by God to preach the gospel in Corinth, and that his mission had obviously been successful because God had made converts there.
So this part of the letter is a call to the Corinthians to raise their consciousness above worldly things and try to look at things from a more divine point of view. Paul says, "I once thought about Jesus in a worldly way. I thought only a scoundrel and criminal would end up crucified by the Romans. Anyone who believes in him as the Messiah must be seriously deluded." But then Jesus confronted Paul on the road to Damascus.
Paul, who was called Saul then, was on his way to Damascus to arrest and kill the followers of Jesus there. The scene where Jesus meets Paul is recorded in the Book of Acts:
3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. (Acts 9:3-7 NIV).
Can you imagine this? Paul actually meets the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus. And from that time on he is changed from Christianity's greatest enemy to become Christianity's greatest missionary. Paul is telling the Corinthians in today's scripture that they too have had an encounter with the risen Lord, and that they too should be changed at the core.
New Creations
Paul goes on to say that after his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus he became a new creation because he left the realm of the world (the "flesh") and entered the realm of the Spirit. We have spent a lot of time in Romans thinking about what it means to go from the realm of the flesh to the realm of the Spirit. To be in the realm of the flesh is to be driven by the attitudes and desires of the world. These things would include wealth, power, property, physical strength and beauty, and prestige. To be in the realm of the Spirit is to be driven by the things the Spirit desires. These things would include justice, righteousness, and love.
If we have been baptized into Christ, we too have become new creations. Paul writes, "if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Cor. 5:17 NIV). Our change should be as dramatic as the change Paul experienced. Part of that change includes being adopted into God's family. Paul tells us in Romans, "15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.'” (Romans 8:15 NIV). We are no longer orphans, children of the world. We are children of the living God.
And, we inherit everything that comes with being members of that family. So we inherit all things that God has to give (which is everything, in case you were wondering). And we also inherit our stake in the family business. What is the business of God's family? Paul tells us in the next verse in 2 Corinthians, it is "the ministry of reconciliation." If we are "in Christ," meaning that we have had an encounter with the risen Lord, we are new creations, adopted into the family of God, and entrusted with the "ministry of reconciliation."
The ministry of reconciliation is God's reconciling the world to himself. It is reversing the curse of Adam and Eve. It is restoring the love relationship between humans and God. God has made all of this possible through Christ. Jesus has accomplished all that was necessary to reconcile humans to God, by dying on the cross to pay the penalty for our rebellion. But that work, though already accomplished, is not yet fully apparent. This is the "already and the not yet." The work is already accomplished, but it is not yet completely evident. Jesus has already reconciled all things, but the kingdom is yet to be fully realized.
The work of realizing that kingdom is Christ's work. And if we are in Christ, it is our work. Paul writes in verse 19, "he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." (2 Cor. 5:19 NIV).
Christ's Ambassadors
And so what does Paul write next? "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us." (2 Cor. 5:20 NIV). This is unbelievable. God has lifted us up out of the mud, at great cost to himself, and raised us to the level of ambassadors!
Do you know what an ambassador is? The dictionary definition is, "a diplomatic official of the highest rank, sent by one sovereign or state to another as its resident representative." An ambassador actually represents the country he or she was sent by in a foreign country. So, for example, the US ambassador to Japan actually represents the United States in Japan. Whatever our ambassador there says or does, it is as if it were being done by the United States, by us.
Today, ambassadors are in close communication with their home governments. But in Paul's time, it might take weeks for communication to occur between the home government and the ambassador, and so the ambassador had great powers to represent the sovereign, the King, or maybe even, the Emperor, and to act in his name. And here Paul is saying that because he is "in Christ" he is an ambassador of God. And if we are "in Christ," we are also Christ's ambassadors.
George Shultz was the American Secretary of State during presidential administration of Ronald Reagan. As Secretary of State he was responsible for all of the US embassies around the world. Whenever a new ambassador was appointed by the President, Schultz would bring the appointed ambassador into his office for a consultation. In his office he had a globe that showed all of the countries in the world, and Schultz would always ask the new Ambassador to go to the globe and find and point to his country. Invariably the new ambassador would go to the globe and point out the country he or she was being sent to.
When Mike Mansfield was appointed Ambassador to Japan Schultz did the same test with him. But when Mansfield went to the globe, he found and pointed to the United States and said, "That's my country." From then on Schultz told that story to all new Ambassadors. He would tell them, "Never forget you're over there in that country, but your country is the United States. You're there to represent us. Take care of our interests and never forget it, that you're representing the greatest country in the world."
I really think that is a great story. And I think it a story that we ought to take to heart when we consider that we have been made Christ's ambassadors. It means that we represent the Kingdom of God and its King to this foreign land in which we find ourselves. It is true that we live in the United States and most of us have citizenship here and it really is our responsibility to participate in the affairs of the country. But as I already mentioned, and we should never forget, we may live here in this country, but, as Paul wrote to the Philippians, "our citizenship is in heaven." (Phil. 3:20 NIV).
Citizens of Heaven
There are a number of different ways that Christians feel they should respond to this dual citizenship. Some Christians choose not to participate in worldly affairs. I can sympathize with this attitude but I don't believe it is biblically grounded. On the other hand some Christians see it as their duty to identify their Christian faith with their nation and even with their particular political preferences within that nation.
For example, Christians identifying themselves as "Evangelical" have identified themselves mostly with the Republican Party in the United States, so much so that now the members of any congregation that wants to call itself Evangelical are branded in the public eye as right wing Republicans. So Jesus becomes identified with a particular political position in the mind of the public. And we see Christians at the same time pretending to proclaim Jesus and denouncing their neighbors who are of a different political persuasion. Let me quote here the Apostle James, "From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so." (James 3:10 ESV).
And this is done not just by misguided Christians but by equally misguided Christian leaders. People who ought to be using the pulpit to proclaim the Good News are instead using it to seek advantage in worldly power struggles. Christian leaders willingly and openly identify themselves and their congregations with particular countries and particular political positions, making the gospel of Jesus Christ a tool for division, exclusion, and condemnation. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
I really believe if Paul were on the scene today he would be writing letters of rebuke like 1 Corinthians to those churches that are trying to link Jesus to their own brand of politics. To try to harness the awesomeness of God for gain in worldly partisan politics, left or right, or to hijack the name of the Great I AM to endorse any man-made creation, structure, or institution, is nothing less than blasphemy. It is idolatry. It stands in irreconcilable opposition to the absolute sovereignty of God.
I'm not saying Christians shouldn't participate in the affairs of the world. Of course we have an obligation to do so. But our participation must be to advance the interest of God's Kingdom, which is our family business. When God's Kingdom comes, it will not be characterized by political positions and borders. It will be characterized by the triumph of justice, righteousness, and love, for all people.
The prophet Isaiah speaks of Christ and those who are in Christ, "I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth." (Is. 49:6 ESV). We are that light. Not a light to one nation, not a light only to Republicans or Democrats, but a light to bring God's salvation to the ends of the earth.
Christians in the World
So as we approach the upcoming election we will be called upon to consider how we might best represent Christ to the world. I am not going to suggest that you vote one way or the other, that you vote for one thing or against another, but that you remember that you are citizens of heaven, representing the greatest kingdom and the greatest king.
Baptist minister Martin Luther King, Jr. provided us with a great example of how to represent the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. King saw how institutionalized evil could be overcome using the power of love and the ballot. King employed a strategy of openly challenging the social structure that perpetuated segregation and race hatred At the core of that strategy was the proposition that he and his followers were not enemies of those who advocated leaving things as they were, but that they must approach them with nonviolence and agape love.
Rev. King was jailed in 1963 while conducting a campaign for black voter registration in Birmingham, Alabama. King was not from Birmingham but was Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Because of this a group of white ministers from Birmingham published an open letter criticizing King as an "outside agitator." King responded by writing another open letter that has come to be known as the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." It is an incredible piece of writing that connects human politics to the heart of the Christian gospel, and I urge everyone to read it. It is freely available on the Internet.
But one passage from that letter stands out as particularly appropriate for the ideas we are considering today. Those preachers who had criticized King had openly identified themselves with the social system that allowed segregation and race violence. In that I really believe they were little different from those preachers who today identify the gospel with politics of any persuasion. But King called them, and us, to a higher vision of the church, and one that I believe is more biblical. He wrote:
"The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority."
We are called to be prophets. We are called to be ambassadors. We are called to be light. As prophets, as ambassadors of God's kingdom, as light, we must use all of our strength individually and as a church to represent God's love to the world.
Being a prophet has never been easy. Prophets are not popular. In the Bible we see story after story of prophets who were shunned, ignored, abused, and sometimes brutally killed. Thankfully, in our country and our day we have freedom to openly live the life of Christ with no more persecution than that which comes with being out of step with society. That may not feel good, but that is what we are called to as Ambassadors of Light.
As we go into this last week before the election, let us pray that we might faithfully represent our true country, the Kingdom of Heaven to everyone we meet, and let us pray that through our faithfulness we might bring closer the day when God's kingdom will triumph on the earth. Amen.
Let us pray.
Dear Heavenly Father, the God of all justice, righteousness, and love: Give us all grace and strength to conceive and execute whatever might be for your honor and the welfare of our nation; that we may become, at last, through the merits and intercession of our common Redeemer, a great and happy people, because a wise and understanding, a just, righteous, and loving people, to your honor and glory. Amen
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