Election Reflection

The election is over and now the professional pundits and many of the rest of us are reflecting on its outcome.

It's fascinating how many Christians are lining up on opposite "sides" to rejoice or mourn and to assign praise or blame for the outcome...often framing their reflections in clear or even harsh moral and Biblical terms. It's interesting how easy it is to demonize those who don't see the issues as clearly as I do.

Certainly there were and are important issues about which Christ followers should be passionate concerned. However, I confess that too often I have discovered my own failure to listen, to understand, to re-examine, and my propensity to see people, platforms, and parties as if they were worthy of wholesale embrace, rather than as a mixture of relative good and evil. The kingdoms of this world simply are not the kingdom of our Lord.

This morning while researching for the December sermon series, "The Whole Gospel for the Whole World," I came across this sentence from a missional statement:

"The church is the community of God's people rather than an institution, and must not be identified with any particular culture, social or political system, or human ideology."

We cheapen the Gospel and the church when we think it can be identified with any political system or candidate, as if it or he/she embodies the whole Gospel rather than partial and often flawed pieces of it alongside of huge contradictions and compromises.

I had strong opinions in this election and cast my vote after careful thought. However, I would not (though this is not where I have always been) want to identify myself or certainly the church of Jesus Christ with either a donkey or an elephant. My primary focus should be expressed in the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, "let Your Kingdom come..."

I'm very glad that the eschatos is not in the hands of any politician or party, and want to remember that my primary loyalty is not to any one or anything other than to the Lord Jesus Christ.