By What Authority?

This is an election year, as well as an Olympic year. I'm glad we have the Olympics to draw our focus toward that amazing human achievement, as I don't feel as proud about the way campaigns leading up to elections take place. I would like to invite those of you who consider yourselves people of faith to be intentional about how much power and authority you give to the divisive national politics arena in your life. You get to elect to focus your attention on God and your spiritual life. What's better is you can cast that vote right now! 

When Jesus is asked by Pontius Pilate by what authority he is acting, Jesus will not make a defense to the worldly authority. Instead he deflects and asks Pilate a question about John the Baptist that Pilate cannot answer. Jesus' focus is on the kingdom of God: that invisible kingdom bound by no geography, earthly government, nor term limit. God's kingdom is present whenever we give the authority of our lives to God, when we pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and when we love one another as Jesus loves us. 

I am not suggesting that elections, civic duty, and the way we organize our governing bodies is not important. I believe it is all important. I recently prayed for our country in the historic Old Church in Boston this month, where the two lanterns of the revolution were lit. The parishioners of that Church were not all of the same mind at the time their bell tower was used to signal the land-approach of the Red Coats. As their current rector told us in the church courtyard: about a third were in favor of the revolution, a third were loyal to the King, and the final third were just living their lives waiting to see what happened. A bit further back in my own church's history, it was Queen Elizabeth I, the governing authority and head of the Church of England who introduced the "Elizabethan Settlement" allowing space for Catholics and Protestants among her people in the land and in the church. She set a pattern we still seek to follow in my tradition known as the via media, or middle way. This way seeks to resist extreme polarities and to live within the tension as we discern the truth that is likely not to be to one side or the other. 

Much energy and money is spent seeking to draw our attention to one extreme or the other these days. Much energy is given over to the illusion that "the other side" is evil and will lead us into ruin. All I'm suggesting here is that if you are a person of faith, and not a worshiper of political demigods, your ultimate trust may be placed in God, remembering that whatever happens in the current election, you don't have to give your time, energy, and authority over to it. 

More important is the way we treat one another, and that we pay attention to the quiet, persistent work of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives and in our neighborhoods. Our primary focus should be to build up the kingdom of God where we are. On election night, my television and phone will be turned off, and I will be in the church preparing for a 7 pm communion service. I will have cast my vote, but I am choosing not to get caught up in the intentional drama of the night. I would encourage you to pray on that night, not for who wins the Whitehouse, but for God to win your heart. Be intentionally loving toward people who differ from your political leanings. The only way to heal the national divisions is to give authority to God so we may be reconciled locally one to another. If anyone asks by what authority you dare to do such things, just open up the Bible and read from Mark 11, even silently. Then maybe host a neighborhood cookout while y'all watch the Olympics together.