It’s difficult to articulate the relationship between church and state. Why, because we find it so hard to think constructively, positively and hopefully about the future. Where are we going? It’s also the most difficult question to answer and that’s not just because the future is always unknown. It’s because our political vocabulary has been eradicated of notions of ultimate meaning and purpose.
For Christians there are always two ways to talk about the future:
1) The first and most important is the will of God. We pray every Sunday “Thy will be done.” Wherever God’s will of love is done, God’s Kingdom comes. It comes and becomes a moment, a place there, a person here, where heaven touches earth. It causes the place you’re standing in to be showered with God’s Glory.
2) The second is the future we have a hand in constructing. Christians seek to build up the church, and have a vision for the world beyond the church, for the transformation of the world, so that more and more it may be on earth as it is in heaven.
In primitive religion everything is worked out in advance in heaven. And your job is to mimic heaven or what’s already decided in heavenly realms.
In contrast notice what Paul says in Ephesians this morning; that the mystery of the universe or God’s Plan, a secret plan, is now revealed, not in heavenly places, but here in the church. And what’s the plan? That all outsiders are now insiders. The Gentiles, those on the outside, would now be fellow heirs on the inside. It’s to show those in heaven, to show the rulers and power in heavenly places, that God’s wisdom is now working its way through you and me and the church.
This flips the view that everything’s worked out ahead in heaven on its head.
The plan is the reconciliation of all through what you and I do here, as the church.
The minimal aspirations we, the church, have for the world are that persons ought to live free of hardship, hunger, oppression – and we United Methodists partner with those that seek to alleviate suffering in all such guises. But the larger aspirations the church has for the world are that the people of the world may know companionship and trust, may express creativity and fulfillment, may experience love and joy, and that the whole creation may flourish sustainably, harmoniously and gloriously.
That’s my most succinct answer to the question, ‘Where are we going?’
We’re going to a place where God meets us with the onrush of heaven; and in the meantime we’re going to a time when the church voices creation’s praise and the world flourishes as much as anything can that doesn’t overtly name God as source and resource.
But I’ve noticed that this isn’t the kind of language that makes its way into party political campaigns. And that fact points to the paradox of political life in our culture that lies at the heart of all elections.
The paradox is the modesty, and the false modesty, of contemporary politics.
Let’s start with the modesty. It’s summed up when a person says we don’t do God. Contemporary politics bypasses the larger claims of purpose and meaning.
It contents itself with the simpler task of ensuring the well being of people. That task, of course, has proved pretty challenging in recent times, with money always available for political pork barrel projects, but...
Of course we want our government to create conditions where individuals can reach their potential and have a legal, economic, educational and safety net system to enable them to do so. But don’t we aspire to more than that? Surely it’s possible to speak of a larger vision without that horizon being grotesque or the method of getting there totalitarian?
I sense it’s this false modesty that’s led to the emergence of the smaller visions.
A former Stanford professor, Jim Collins, wrote that successful companies tend to be led by thoughtful, encouraging, reflective people who brought out the best in their team; and not by the charismatic lone ranger types.
The point is that you don’t establish the vision in advance: you develop knowledge and trust and understanding among people and you decide where to go based on their skills and aptitudes and energies.
There are two ways to recharge the football team:
1) Get a coach with a new vision and force the players, regardless of their talents, to comply, or leave the team.
2) Or you can listen to what your team’s strengths really are and create a vision around those abilities.
If God creates tomorrow out of the discarded elements of the past, then God brings renewal in the church by bringing back into the story the stones that the builders rejected. God does not destroy the sinner, but through reconciliation restores and redeems all, to make something beautiful that would not have been possible if nothing had ever gone wrong.
In other words God does not have an abstract vision established in advance impervious to our human realities. God puts us all together and in the power of the Spirit directs us toward a place that incorporates our flourishing with the gifts God has given us.
God doesn’t do all the work for us, but makes the future out of the flawed, but fertile people that we are and redeems the past by turning our follies and failures into sources of renewal and discovery. This used to be the genius of America, a place where everyone’s gifts were wanted and needed. And so we need politicians to articulate a vision, beyond the immediate concerns of guaranteeing individual freedom and advancing personal well-being.
Any politician that shies away from such a task is looking backwards rather than forward. Christians understand that in a plural society, the vision the politicians articulate won’t be identical to the Christian view. But Christians have a vision for the world, and they may have every hope that politicians will share some of that vision and not restrict their gaze to a narrow section of the population or the interests of a vocal minority.
The Christian vision isn’t made up of airy-fairy abstract ideals. Its vision is inspired by the way God elicits and hones the skills and qualities of all the people. The kingdom of God then, is a fertile garden where those who’ve been suppressed flourish and a refiner’s fire for those who’ve oppressed them, and now have their malevolent impulses turned to good.
Here is my list of aspirations the church should have for the world: Companionship and trust, creativity and fulfillment, love and joy, sustainability, harmony, and glory. So how do we choose the person who might be the best to guide you to things like companionship, trust, creativity and fulfillment? We see who embodies these things right now.
So, when I see persons stomping for President, I think it’s wise to ask, “Where am I seeing companionship and trust, creativity and fulfillment, love and joy, sustainability, harmony, and glory?” You may have a different list, that’s fine. We all have to think this through for ourselves.
Flourishing life means companionship and trust, creativity and fulfillment, love and joy, sustainability, harmony, and glory. A successful government won’t be like the inspiring leader who does it all for us. A successful government will evoke in each of us such companionship and trust, creativity and fulfillment, love and joy, that we each are energized to work for the common good like never before; and when we look around and see a sustainable, harmonious and glorious society, we will feel and say, “This is abundant life.”
I think this has something to do with pursuing happiness. Because happiness, like meaning, is not within our grasp; they never were and never will be. Happiness and meaning grasp your life when you are doing companionship and trust, creativity and beauty, love and joy, when you are living toward the environment in sustainable ways and when we celebrate the differences with that underneath connection we call harmony and find the words to sing Glory, Glory, Halleluiah His Truth is Marching On.