God, government and me

On Tuesday we spent the first of 3 gospel groups thinking about our faith, politics an the general election.  The most interesting part was the discussion beforehand and afterwards.  But for what it's worth here are the notes of the 10 min talk that we used as stimulus for our discussion:

Discuss
1. How cynical are you about government, MPs and politics? What has made you like that?

2. What are your feelings about the election? What questions do you have as you think about voting?

3. What issues have you heard talked about in the media?

4. What issues do you think matter most in this election and why?

What is politics? Groucho Marx said; "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." Someone else has said poly means many and a tic is a bloodsucking parasite, so politics is.... I guess those two tongue in cheek definitions sum up the cynicism that is so much part of our culture when it comes to politics and politicians.

That may be the way our society thinks about it but how are we, as christians, to think. Tonight I want to address that issue of cynicism and see how the bible can help us avoid it by not expecting too much or too little from our politicians but having a right view of them.

God is Sovereign

We need to remember that as we come to vote. On May 8th there will be a new government and God is sovereign over who will come to power. Turn to Daniel 6v25-28. These verses are the centrepiece of the book. It’s the lesson every ruler of every kingdom has had to learn in Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar learned it repeatedly; at the fiery furnace, in his dream, humiliation and restoration, and Belshazzar learns it through the writing on the wall. Now Darius has learnt it through God’s rescue of Daniel from the lions. The same lesson holds for the apocalyptic visions that follow in Ch7-12.

God rules, his kingdom will never be destroyed, and his purposes will come to pass even though people oppose them.

As we think about the election God is sovereign. That’s the bedrock.

But also in Daniel we see that those who rule are accountable to God. That’s why Nebuchadnezzar is struck down, because of his arrogant belief in his own power. That’s why Belshazzar is overthrown. That’s what Darius learns here. Those who govern, who have power will be held accountable by God for what they do with that power.

God is sovereign, he rules. And those who rule are accountable to him. As Christians that should mean that we pray for those in authority over us. At times we will pray for courage for them to stand with their convictions, at other times we might pray that they repent and have a change of heart. But we will pray for them.

God’s vision of government

In Genesis 1 and 2 we see God establish the world and within that world give humanity the responsibility to govern the world well. Man is a creature under the creator’s authority but he is to govern the world on God’s behalf. Human leadership is to express God’s own rule.

We’re going to think a lot more about this next week but God created mankind to express his rule on the earth. The Bible is positive about the idea of governance and not just in the Old Testament where the governance of Israel is in theory under God, but also in the New Testament when under Roman rule.  In Mark 12 Jesus tells people to pay taxes, Romans 13 Paul tells christians to be subject to the authorities, and in 1 Peter 2 Peter calls for believers to submit to the authorities. Believers are encouraged to honour those who govern them, respect them and obey them. Even though those who govern are fallen, just as we are, even though they make mistakes, just as we do. Government is necessary and it is a good thing.

It’s vital that we see that God is for good government. That government is not a necessary evil. Our society is cynical about our MPs, and I think most of us have probably breathed in that air of cynicism and now breathe it out without thinking too much about it. For some of us that might mean we find ourselves thinking I can’t be bothered to vote, they’re all the same, it won’t make a difference which party gets in and so on. But as Christians we are called to be different from the world.

We are to respect those in authority over us. And we are given a say in who governs us. I don’t want to get into whether democracy is the Bible’s vision of government. It certainly isn’t the antidote to corruption that some make it out to be, nor is it the answer to the world’s problems it is sometimes painted as, only the gospel is. But we are privileged to have a say in who governs us. God is sovereign over who governs, but we are also responsible to God for how we vote. Our vote is part of how God exercises his rule, it’s also part of our serving God.

That means first and foremost that as Christians we must vote. But how should we vote?

God’s character and the political parties.

We need to recognise that choosing who to vote for is not an easy decision. We can’t simply sit and think ‘which political party would Jesus be in?’ As we explore the character of God in more detail next week and look at the society God sets up which shares his values and passions we will see that God cares more passionately about justice than the political right and more passionately for the poor than the political left.

We’ll see that there are other issues than just the ones that the political parties are making the most noise about. We’ll see that there are issues which God cares about which we might not even know what the parties think about.

But as God’s people, in God’s world, we are to vote trusting in God’s sovereignty and serving him as we place our cross in whichever box we decide to vote for. In our political system we vote for a local politician who represents us. Leaders debates are all very well but they shouldn’t sway us too much because we don’t elect a Prime Minister. We elect a local politician to represent us as one of 650 constituency politicians in Parliament. We need to elect the person who will be represent us and the issues God cares about.

That means we must do a number of things:

a. Pray about how we will vote

b. Be educated about those who we may vote for – remember we vote for a local candidate not a Presidential candidate. That means we need to get hold of information about local candidates and read it. Maybe even attending local hustings to ask questions and seek answers. Practically you can find out about your local candidates at www.yournextmp.com, we need to read what they provide and use things like their Facebook page, twitter feed or personal website to see what they care about.

c. Be voting – We need to actually vote. Whether that is choosing a candidate or registering our lack of faith in any candidate by spoiling the ballot paper.

d. Be realistic – no candidate or party is going to fit precisely what we are looking for. There is also a limit on what politicians can do. We need to be realistic and look for candidates who are realistic. We also need to be realistic and not encourage candidates to over promise in order to win our vote.

e. Be thankful – God is sovereign, even as we serve God as we exercise our vote, God rules. We can go to sleep trusting in his care and sovereignty and his goodness. Knowing that “he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed and his dominion shall be to the end.”

Q&A
What do you know about candidates for your constituency?

How do you intend to find out about them?

What sorts of questions do you think we should be asking in order to find out whether they will represent us well?