American Christians have lost their sense of where God belongs in human politics. I'm not sure we ever had that sense in the first place. We casually minimize Him so that He might fit into our narrow, selfish notions of what it means to make order out of chaos. I've seen it from every side. A prideful insistence that God's way is my way. God is often reduced to ammunition that we can use to fire upon those who disagree with us. "The way I think the problems should be solved is the way God commands that they be solved". This nonsense is idolatry defined. God is not a pawn. He cannot be contained into political ideology. His solution to the world's problems between nations, people, and systems is not what we expect. Palm Sunday and the cross prove that. To think that God is pleased to see individuals or political parties win human battles against one another's sin soaked reasoning is immature faith. God is way too big, far too powerful. Every Christian sense of politics must begin with the idea that God is sovereign above every human power. There was a time when God anointed kings and rulers to speak for Him. Jesus fulfilled that line and still sits on the throne to this very day at the right hand of the Father. Jesus is ruler, teacher, king, and ultimate authority. All of that has been given to him by the supreme God. God has a solution and an answer to every chaos the world faces. It is His son. This Christian's politics must first be Christ himself. God's politics is not about morality, policy, parties, or individuals. It is about the crucified Lamb. Only then can we have any faithful sense of what it might mean to answer the call to respond to the chaos of the world and be agents of God's order.
"Supreme God, I have been guilty of putting my faith in the way of sinners. I agree with certain people's views and I hope to see them use power to make things the way I think they should be. Forgive me. Help me to see that you are above every power. Show me what it means to allow Jesus to be more than my religious savior, but my social, economic, and political one as well. May your voice speak to these broken nations, that we might melt in humility and follow the way of your Son Jesus Christ."
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