Election Day

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]

Election Day.

It has been difficult, during this election season, to resist the vitriol that assaults us daily in the media, at school, at work, and for some of us, even in our own homes. While we cycle every four years through the snide political comments, fallacious arguments, contentious debates, and those cheesy political ads which always show one candidate in black and white with a sinister voice-over and then the other, vibrantly colored, making impossible promises, this year’s presidential campaign season was more burdensome and more wearying than previous seasons in my (relatively short) memory. A friend of mine posted a meme earlier today that simply stated, “It’s election day, and I’m worried that someone will win.” Elsewhere, another friend posted, “One person wins. Everyone else loses.” This echoes the sentiments I’ve heard from many people.

One unfortunate result of this and most presidential election cycles is that issues of policy become issues of ethics, which is then used to justify attacks on other people’s morality and humanity. Even Christians, aware of their own brokenness, have attacked other believers for their “sinful” views. I’ve heard a lot of jokes about people unfriending family members on facebook, but this is actually happening and if it’s a joke, it’s not a very funny one, is it?

We heard an interesting take on the familiar story of David and Goliath this past Sunday at Encounter. It wasn’t the usual, “mighty Goliath felled by a stone from tiny, adolescent boy-David,” but rather it was a story about the years of training and preparation that allowed David to defeat the giant. There were two crucial forms of preparation that David undertook: the practical, physical training that allowed him to sling a rock, accurately, from any reasonable distance, whether standing still or on the run, and the spiritual training that changed David’s perspective on earthly challenges.

The physical training regimen that David undertook has become more widely known since the publication of Malcolm Gladwell’s (2013) NYT bestseller, David and Goliath. Gladwell takes great pains to explain the defensive training that shepherds would undertake, and indeed, in 1 Samuel 17, David tells the army that as a well-trained shepherd, he has already killed bears and lions. But David’s spiritual training is often ignored in such retellings. Certainly, as a devoted Jewish child, David had spent years outside communing with God, learning to trust God’s provision of safety. When David arrived at the battlefield, he was prepared physically to fell any creature, and prepared spiritually to expect God, the God of the angel armies, to make plain the way forward.

There’s been a lot of talk among Christians about the realm of earthly leaders as distinct from God’s sovereignty over all of creation, and certainly there is some truth to that division. But we also know that God works through people. People like us. In the past, when faced with unsavory political realities, when faced with evil and destructive policies, when faced with impoverishment and murder and injustice at the hands of political oppressors, God’s people have risen to subvert evil, to block evil by overwhelming it with good. Christians have done this  by providing safe passage to the oppressed. By digging wells. By funding small businesses in developing countries. By deploying into foreign lands as missionaries or in the military. By doing the work that Jesus called us to do.

Jesus didn’t tell us to use his name to justify adherence to a single political party. He didn’t give us permission to use his name to advance any kingdom other than God’s. He didn’t tell us to serve the strong, the capable, or the found; but rather, our task is to serve the least, the lost, and the weak. The mission of God rises above the best and the worst political rhetoric, above political division, and certainly God’s mission reigns supreme over our commitments to any earthly politician or political platform.

David faced an opponent who came with force, with intimidation, with insults day and night. Goliath spewed hatred, and divided the people of God. David’s victory over Goliath was not established that day in the valley, when the rock sank into the giant’s forehead and God’s people drove the enemy back to the sea. And no moral victory or defeat will be established tonight when the next president’s name is announced. David’s victory was earned long before he faced Goliath, during the many seasons and years on the mountainside and in the pastures where he talked with God, day and night, while protecting his father’s sheep. While the media will discuss the results of today’s election in terms of victory and defeat, in fact it’s neither. The rhetoric and attitudes of the past several months will continue to plague us, and the slow work of political change will not change the sovereignty of Christ.

God’s command is to love others, seek their justice, and walk humbly as demonstrated by Christ himself. In Psalm 23, when David writes about walking through the darkest valley, maybe he was thinking about facing Goliath, but maybe he was also thinking about other times when he faced the insulters, the dividers, and the intimidators. And rather than deepening division, David unified others under the law of God, which commands us to cultivate honesty, integrity, and service in ourselves and others. Responding to every Goliath in this way, with God’s law on our hearts, is the first step towards political and social restoration.

[Kristin vanEyk loves Encounter Church and hopes that you have found a community at Encounter as well. You can find out more about what Kristin is up to here.]