Did God ordain governments? In our time it is fashionable to demonize governments as purveyors of chaos and corruption, when the very purpose for which they came into being was to prevent those things, to secure a safe and equitable society where all citizens could thrive.
Yesterday I stood in a line for 90 minutes at Dulles Airport, waiting to have my passport reviewed so I could enter the country. There were far too few passport agents to meet the demand This was bureaucracy at its finest, not government at its finest, I thought, wondering why anyone would want to come to the US if this was the reception they received. (It might be better at other airports…)
Some passages in scripture read as though God very much works through political systems and leaders, even ones outside the people of Israel (read up on the Cyrus passages in Isaiah…). St. Paul, writing in Romans 13, claims that no ruler on earth can exercise power without God’s authority – which makes me wonder what he thinks about all the corrupt and oppressive rulers, of which his day saw as many or more than ours. Jesus, in the passage we are exploring this week, seems to take governments as a given, and doesn’t say where they fit in God’s realm. As he tells Pilate under interrogation, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
I believe government is a natural human phenomenon, as is institutional religion. Human beings have to organize around power, supplies and spirituality, and organizations soon take on a life and culture of their own. Like the human beings of which they are comprised, governments - and religious institutions - exist on a spectrum between good and evil, helpful and self-serving, visionary and banal. Government, especially in democracy, is us, and we are it. We don’t get to make it a “them.”
So where does that leave us as people of faith? Perhaps it leaves us with a call to be agents of healthier government and a more life-bringing body politic. In the waning weeks before our next election, as rhetoric grows more and more polarized and shrill, what if Christ followers participated as peacemakers, not trying to convince the irrational, but refraining from demonizing, holding up the values of justice and equity and freedom?
Sound like a pipe dream? We have at our hands the power that transforms world. Surely we can pray for our governments and those who desire to lead us.
I don’t know if God ordains governments. I do believe God will work through anyone who asks. Let’s ask.
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