10-14-20 - God and Governments

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Did God ordain governments? Many people 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.

There are passages in scripture that 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, seems to feel 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. If God made us with free will, God does not manipulate us.

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 plan. As he later tells Pilate, under interrogation, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

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, they exist on a spectrum between good and evil, helpful and self-serving, visionary and banal. Government, especially in a 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? It leaves us with a call to be agents of healthier government and a more life-bringing body politic. In the three weeks (yikes!) before our next election, as rhetoric grows ever 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 pipedream? We have at our hands the power that transforms worlds. Surely we can pray for our governments and those who desire to lead us, as many are already doing in our 40 Days of Prayer for our Nation initiative. (You can find all the prayers here and take the pledge here.)

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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