It’s election season. In the UK, in less than a week, we will hold a General Election. In the USA, the campaign is underway for a presidential election this November, which of course affects us globally, American or not. You are probably, like me, surrounded by debate and discussion, and you may not find the decision of who to vote for an easy one to make. I met someone the other day who believes, as many do, that faith and politics should be kept separate; I would direct any Christians among that group to today’s reading (among others). It is incumbent upon us as followers of Christ to put our money where our mouth is, and to show our faith through our actions. Politics is the stuff of our daily lives, and there is no better field for practical witness than the political arena. So, today, I want to think about decision-making and praxis – how we enact our theology.
In our constituency, we have seven different parties represented at this election. Some of my friends feel overwhelmed by choice, and some feel there are no good choices among them. When the way forward in life is unclear, we can use the ethical principles given to us by our faith to help with decision-making and to hold ourselves to account.
Having rules, counter-intuitively, creates a certain freedom of behaviour. We know that children playing alongside a road can play more freely if their playing-field is fenced; they don’t have to worry about a ball rolling into the road, or minding where they’re running in a game of chase. In creative writing, while the limitless blank page can be paralysing, the introduction of a limitation gives us a direction of travel.
But when it comes to Scripture and a rule for life, you may immediately think – as I did – about Jesus as the fulfilment of the Law, and our release from what St Paul called the Law of sin and death through Christ’s death and resurrection. Our gospel is one of freedom. So we need to understand the difference between a law and a principle. The word ‘rule’ can be used interchangeably for both, but they aren’t the same. A law derives from a principle. For example, if you have the principle that killing people is wrong, you may have a law against murder and another against manslaughter – and you may decide against capital punishment. (Something for the state of Louisiana to consider, perhaps, as they put up the Ten Commandments in their courthouses.) If you live somewhere that doesn’t have these laws, you can still operate the principle that killing people is wrong in your daily choices! So, a principle can guide you and your behaviour, as well as being the source of a law.
Of course, we may need laws where we cannot trust people to apply a principle for themselves. If the law does not require water companies to avoid polluting our waterways with raw sewage, will they do that for themselves? If the law allows non-domiciled status for tax, will a billionaire still contribute tax proportionally to their means? If the law allows wage slavery, will employers pay more than the minimum?
Under the Law of Leviticus, Jews had complex rules around ritual purity and blood sacrifice, requiring expert Teachers of the Law and inspiring the assiduousness of groups such as the Pharisees and Sadducees. Following and applying these laws could be a source of considerable anxiety and resource drain. This is the law from which Christ grants us freedom. I remember once, when Mum was a minister in the Bromley circuit, we had cause to get a taxi to church so she could lead the service. One of the ladies at that church, a self-appointed Angel of Wrath, disapproved of our causing the taxi driver to work on the Sabbath, but concluded that it was acceptable, as it constituted “digging our donkey out of a ditch”, which the Scriptures allow. In responding to this, I noted my mother exercised the love, and not judgement, which fulfils the need for any such law to be applied under the New Covenant of the gospel!
Christ has set us free by showing us a new, living way of connection with God through grace, and giving us a new covenant in this. Through relationship with God by the Spirit, we can learn to understand the principle of love, and apply that as our guide in every situation. We have no need of a complex law, because the one law from which all the others stem will do the same job, and better. Instead of being bound by ritual purity, we are bound by our relationship with God as new creations in Her grace, and our knowledge of Her mercy. The ability to follow the principle instead of the law that stems from it assumes a connection with the heart of God.
Jesus makes it clear, in the passage we heard today from his sermon, that if our actions do not reflect our principles, then our lip service to those principles is meaningless. By their fruits shall ye know them. If we do not enact the word, it is as though we have never heard it. Jesus, as the Word of God, is defined within the Trinity by physically existing in time and space – he is God clothed in flesh. The Word is also the Action of God: it comes to be with us; it teaches, commands and heals; it confronts the powerful, liberates the oppressed and saves the sinner; it creates life; it dies and harrows Hell and is re-spoken in the resurrection and again and again in the life of every believer. Christ is the Word in Action.
Faith without works is dead (James 2:14). If I speak without love, I am like a sounding brass (1 Corinthians 13:1). Saying, “Lord, Lord!” won’t get you into the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 7:21). But this isn’t a threat; it’s simple truth. When we rely on God’s Word – Christ – to guide us, he becomes the cornerstone of the building we make of our life. Following the law of love will guide us to safety, justice and peace.
At times how to do this may be obvious, and at others may require discernment. Before the Gospel passage we heard, Jesus gave his teaching about judgement, and paying mind to the plank in our own eye before the speck in our brother’s. Because we use the word judgement in more than one way, that can feel confusing. We do exercise our judgement in choosing how to act, but we don’t sit as judge over others, deciding whether or not they’re OK with God. Prudence, yes, but condemnation, no; and remember that the only person you truly have governance over is yourself.
I think following the law of love can also be difficult to do, and even scary sometimes. That’s why the way into the Kingdom is a strait and narrow one. (By the way, it’s strait without a gh – as in a closely bound and compressing passage, perhaps without any possibility of changing path once you’ve committed to it.) Good News to the poor is great if you are poor, but probably scary if you’re rich; because you are being asked to give up the stability of money and rely on the invisible foundation of God, who seems to be OK with us suffering in the ways that a nice cushion of money prevents. Of course, money can run away like sand.
The actor Michael Sheen, among the many things he does, is heavily involved in an endeavour called the Homeless World Cup. It’s a football tournament for homeless people, that restores self-belief and purpose, creates human connection and acts as a relief to the hard lives of homeless people and, for some, perhaps an eventual route out of homelessness. One year, funding suddenly fell through, and the event faced cancellation; so Michael Sheen sold his properties and put all his £2 million into the charity so that the event could continue. He has since declared himself a not-for-profit actor, and continues to feed his earnings into his local community and the charities he supports. That is a powerful level of commitment to what he believes in.
I don’t have £2 million, and I don’t imagine you do either. More and more of us are finding ourselves moved steadily further into the category of the financially poor. But we are rich in other ways. The love of God cannot be taken from us; and its power to transform, heal and save cannot be removed. We are called to enact the Good News of the Kingdom of Heaven, and one of the ways we can do that is to cast our vote according to its principles.
There is no law telling us that God wants us to vote for a certain party. So we must look at their manifestos, how their members have voted, what they have done when in power, what sort of environment they have created in government and in the country. Have they helped the poor, improved the lives of disabled people, supported women and children, created ways for prisoners to become functional members of society, educated the ignorant, housed the homeless? When I vote, rather than considering what will get me the most money, or who sounds clever and who the establishment approves of, let me look at who is speaking for the minorities, the disabled, the oppressed, the children, the earth and its creatures. And let me see who pays more than lip service: who has policies that outline how they will act to reflect these Gospel concerns, not just statements that they will look into it?
We are called to a pathway of witness. The light that we have received should shine from us, so that other people can also see. We are called to commit to the law of love, to act accordingly and so bring good with us wherever there is suffering. In following Jesus, we strive to do like Jesus, and to prioritise his concerns. Then, we can rest free and easy, however hard life might be: because Christ is our cornerstone, the Gospel our handbook to right living, and the Kingdom of Heaven our home.
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