Have a Minute? Thoughts from Pastor Matt…

Categories: Carillon Newsletter,News,Reflections

This month, even though many of us find ourselves craving all things warm, fuzzy, and/or pumpkin-spice-infused, a number of “civic” occasions mark our calendars and call out for our attention.  In just a few days—on Tuesday, November 6th—our local, statewide, and federal elections will call us to the polls.  Five days later, on Sunday, November 11th, we will remember the 100th anniversary of the end of fighting of World War I, the “Great War” that forever changed the face of the earth, the life of the nations, and even the nature of war itself.  And then, less than two weeks later, multitudes around our country will gather around feast tables of various kinds to celebrate the American Thanksgiving holiday.

All of these observances in some way or another straddle that line that (according to some) separates the civic and the religious.  Perhaps that seems obvious when it comes to Thanksgiving and the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I:  most of us easily see the connections in both secular and sacred realms when we’re talking about themes like gratitude and peace.  But what about Election Day?  Ahh!  That age old question about what the relationship is between faith and politics!

In the face of all of the mythology that we in our country have about the “separation of church and state,” we must remind ourselves that, yes, there is a relationship between faith and politics.  Politics, at its most basic, is the work of ordering our common life as communities and nations.  And all of the major religious traditions, at their fullest—Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and beyond—are also deeply concerned with how we as humans live together one with another and in larger communities.  For us as Christians, engaging in advocacy in our society around issues of justice, peace, human dignity, and mercy-making are very much within the realm of Christian faith and of “being” church… in fact, they are arguably at the heart of the life of discipleship.  The biblical scriptures are infused throughout with the mandate of God to seek justice for the oppressed and to tend to the welfare of the dispossessed.  Likewise, the life and ministry of Jesus centers throughout on the mission he declares right in the beginning, that he has been anointed to “bring good news to the poor … to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19).

In a democratic society as we have in this country, voting is actually one of the vehicles by which we express our love of neighbor.  Engaging the electoral process is a way that we live out our discipleship, because it is one of the tools we have available to us for trying to shape the world in ways that tend to the well-being of our neighbor.  Is government and the political process that controls it the only tool?  Of course not.  But it is one of the tools, and arguably the most important and powerful one.

High God, holy God:  you rule the ways of peoples, and govern every earthly government.  Work with those who work for peace.  Make every person in authority an agent of your reconciliation and an ambassador of hope.  Bring peace and goodwill among all people, fulfilling among us the promise made in Jesus Christ, who was born to save the world.  Amen.

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