Exiting the Political Spirit of the Age
I have never been a party-political animal. Not even in South Africa, where the stakes were and remain very high. And since I cannot yet vote in Canada, even less so here. I have at times proudly referred to myself at as ‘apolitical.’ Well, apolitical at least in a party-political sense. I have always been more about the politics of Jesus. Sort of a Jesus revolution, ‘I belong to a different Kingdom attitude.’ Vote? Why bother…
As Church leaders our call is to preach and embody the Gospel of the Kingdom and to let the chips fall where they will. Whether left, right or centre may be offended (or not) in that pursuit has always seemed somehow irrelevant to me.
All my proud posturing as ‘apolitical’ disappeared around April 2020 when COVID isolation took hold. And, of course, during that time of isolation, aside from people differing over vaccines, travel and the required isolation itself, the BLM and other movements grew concurrently with those things. With George Floyd’s death, cultural symbols of left and right were embraced and flourished as tools of division. Politicians of all convictions, or none – take your pick – fuelled those fires of division to their own selfish ends.
With Charlie Kirk’s recent death, we seem to have come full circle. Depending on one’s general ‘politic’ these people might be seen as symbols for outright good or outright evil. That is a rather naïve, simplistic and very misguided approach. The black or white answer – no pun intended – that both conservative and liberal voices seem to insist upon in a world that comes to us in shades of grey.
The line of good and evil runs through us all; each one of us. Simon Peter found that out from Jesus to his dismay. God is not on my side. But in all individual things, as a follower of Jesus I need to discern whether I am on God’s side in whatever the situation at hand. We all know the story of Joshua and the man with the drawn sword in Joshua 5. Effectively the man answers Joshua’s question regarding sides with, “I am not on anyone’s side, I am the commander of the LORD’s army.”
Midjourney Image - In the Style of Francisco Goya
For most of us, after drawing a few short post-COVID breaths of respite in the back end of 2022 and 2023, autumn of 2024 found the divisive Trump presidency upon us once again. And back into the politic of the day we found ourselves pulled. Pulled, in my case, I confess, to the point of some rather unhealthy distraction.
The well-known author, academic and a professor of mine from my Fuller years, David Fitch, has written about these high-profile deaths (Floyd and Kirk) as symbols of culture. The mechanics of such tragedies become what he calls ‘empty signifiers,’ and are weaponised and used against the ‘other’ - the ones I might be tempted to hate. In September Fitch wrote two helpful and insightful blogs on this topic, which got me to thinking.
What Should Our Posture be Toward Party-Political Things?
Should we be unconcerned about party-politics to the point that we are uninformed? I don’t think so. We need to be informed. Should we choose a side (or the centre) and hold to that position and defend it to the hilt, regardless of the specific circumstances or situation? Again, I honestly don’t think choosing sides regardless of the issue on the table is at all wise or helpful.
I think we ought to assess each situation or circumstance on its own merits through the lens of the Gospels and the New Testament. The challenge I currently have in trying to remain apolitical is that some of the rhetoric coming from Christians from every political persuasion is rhetoric of which the New Testament is completely unaware and largely uninformed. Certainly, the NT is unaware of hate speech as any kind of recommendation for the people of the Way.
Much has been written on the politics of Jesus. Yoder, Hendricks and the library of Liberation Theology from Gustavo Guiterrez et al, have given us much to enlighten and to draw from in this regard -whether one is in general agreement with these authors or not. It is not my intention in a short blog to try and compete with seminal works. I would likely fail in that, even at the point of trying to engage those authors in an extended theological discussion. I recognise my limitations.
I would prefer to draw from just one two-part statement ascribed to Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels, and then recommend that anyone wanting to read more on Jesus and politics refer to the above authors for further insight.
Jesus said: Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees (Mt 16:6, Mk 8:15, Lk 12:1). Jesus also said: Beware of the yeast of Herod (Mk 8:15). In Mark’s version he lumps the warning against the Pharisees and Herod together.
A Little Yeast Leavens the Whole Lump
Yeast or leaven, as we know, was a small piece of fermented dough used to make bread rise. With the reclamation of the sourdough bread so many of us now like to bake, we are aware again of how this process works. Jesus uses the illustration of something small that can affect the whole.
The warning in the case of the Pharisees and Sadducees is obvious enough. The spiritual influence Jesus is warning against in their case is hypocrisy. But what about Herod? What was the yeast of Herod?
The Herod Jesus was referring to was Herod Antipas, also called Herod the Tetrarch. He is the Herod under whose reign Jesus ultimately loses his life. The same Herod who had John the Baptist beheaded.
Herod was recognised by Caesar Augustus as Tetrarch or ruler of Judea and Perea. As such, and as an Idumaean (descendent of Esau) by birth rather than a Jew, he was deeply entrenched in the affairs of the occupying Roman State. As a ‘client-state’ of the Empire and as a convert to Judaism now ruling over the Jews, Herod needed to be politically connected. Although in theory ‘King of the Jews,’ he played the system, and played the political games required to curry favour with the Empire. He was entwined in State affairs and used his subjects as pawns in the Game of Thrones required to keep him in power.
The spiritual influence of Herod that Jesus is warning His followers against here would seem to be entwinement in the political system. In Herod’s case his entwinement was for personal gain. In our own times we see plenty of that, or it might just be seen as Jesus’ warning of how entwinement in the political system of the day – whatever that system might be – is a distraction from loyalty to Him. Is there a solution for us?
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Here is the news: But read by whom?
We want to be informed. By every means we should be informed. Far be it from me to advise anyone where to go to get objective news reporting. But we do need to try. Recently I have made a personal decision to get my received news processed through spiritual and theological voices I respect and feel that I can trust. I’m happy to receive the news through an agency such as REUTERS. But when it comes to processing that same news in the wake of whatever the news is, I go to selected Christian voices. It helps me to determine my own posture toward all things political. A posture processed, through the lens of the Way of Jesus.
Beware of the kind of political entwinement that backs any one person, or any one party, or any one single grouping to the extent of Messianic expectation. There are only two things that are certain from that commitment. One, that we will be enmeshed in the system to the point of distraction from Jesus. And two, that whomever it is you are backing will disappoint you, as sure as God made little green apples.
The old 1922 hymn by Helen Howarth Lemmel ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus’ comes to mind.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of the Earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Midjourney Image - In the Style of Francisco Goya