A POST-ELECTION CONFESSION
So it’s the morning after the election. Some people, no doubt, woke today up celebrating, others with a sense of doom and still others just relieved the whole thing is over. Many have been bloodied and have bloodied others in the fight for their party and candidate. This morning, however, the decision has been made and there is no going back.
All of this causes me to wonder how we will remember this election season. Will there be any regret over how we have acted? Will we wish we could take back our toxic words and nasty insults we said to someone who voted differently? Will we care about the fractured relationships that came about as a result of political differences?
My guess is few will live with any regret. As the thinking goes, all is fair is love and war – and now, it seems, politics too. My prediction is we will carry on as usual neglecting all the things said and done in the name of politics, whether they were right or wrong.
For too many, this hostility is worth it. In their minds, there is too much at stake to play nice or fair. Over the last several months many have claimed this election will determine the march of history and that it is pivotal with regard to our children’s future. With all of this on the line we need to take the gloves off, and make no apologies for the results.
But what if we are mistaken? Is it possible we have made far too much of this election and the role it will play in our world? What if the results of this election mean comparatively little when we consider the scope of human history?
For some it is hard to think this way, because they truly believe the hope of the world rests on the future of America. They speak as though America itself is the vehicle through which God will bring his renewal, restoration and redemption to this world of ours. It is as though they have placed the United States of America on the mantles of their hearts in the same way ancients placed idols on the mantles in their homes.
But what will happen in this world of ours when the United States is no longer a country? Will the world then be without hope? We cannot forget America is a country that, like all countries, will one day disappear.
Our great hope is that the Kingdom of Heaven will continue on with, in spite of and (at some point) without America. This reality ought to teach us that the United States is not the best hope for this world of ours, nor is it the greatest force for peace and good. America is a global, military superpower that, like many superpowers before it, often invokes the name of God and uses religion for its special interests and benefit.
No earthly government, including America, can legislate the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. That can only happen through people like you and me as we are empowered by the Spirit of God.
This embrace of America as the greatest hope for our world points to the trust we have put in an earthly empire – often to the exclusion of the hope filled gospel of Jesus. The call placed on the people of God is to place their trust in him alone, and nothing else. We must never forget kingdom citizens are called to pledge allegiance to the Kingdom of Heaven and not the United States of America. And quite frankly, we are not to hold dual allegiance.
This is the sentiment stated in Psalm 20, when the Psalmist wrote, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7 NIV). Perhaps a good 21st Century American paraphrase would be, “Some trust in Democrats and some in Republicans, but we trust in the good news of the Kingdom that Jesus preached.”
It’s the morning after the election. Perhaps the best thing the people of God can do is not revel in celebration, live with a sense of doom or even express relief that the election process is over.
Maybe the best thing we can do is to kneel alongside one another – as brothers and sisters of the same family – and confess the hope and allegiance we have given to this country of ours to the exclusion of Jesus and his Kingdom. Perhaps we need to confess to one another that we have allowed the politics of earthly empire to drive a wedge between us as the people of God. Maybe we need to seek forgiveness for the toxic words we have spoken about others and to one another, rather than express the love of Jesus for all people.
It is time to take back our heart, mind, soul and strength that has been held captive by America, and place them in the hands of God. From this place, we can then live out the next four years in America rooted in the Kingdom of God. From that place we can express the truest and best hope for our world - one that will outlast any earthly kingdom.
This is an excerpt from a longer article in Relevant Magazine. You can read it here.