Gentle Reader,
Sometimes you read Scripture and it’s so comforting. So soothing. And you think, “Thanks, God. This is exactly what I needed today!” God is good like that. Good enough to continue to breathe life and holiness into ancient words.
Then sometimes you read Scripture and it’s like a punch in the face. Just right in the mouth. And you’re left wondering, “Where did that come from?!” God is good like that, too. Good enough to insist that we confront our biases, our idolatries, and rip them out, leaving behind no roots.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.– Psalm 146:3-4 (NRSV)
Not the Divine endorsement of particular agendas, candidates, or parties that one might expect, given the way some choose to twist and turn the texts that make up the Bible.
Humans die. Hopefully that’s no surprise to you. So even if today upon the earth walked the most wonderful person ever, who truly wanted to do the best things for their community, they’re still going to die. They’re not likely to see their plans come to fruition. But more importantly, humans are human. Fallible. Mistake-prone. Occasionally even so bad as to try and drape themselves in a cloak of (seeming) righteousness in order to rally others to what turns out to be their ultimately self-centered cause.
It is pointless in the most extreme sense of the word to pin your hopes on them.
George Costanza reminds us that we live in a society. We have to organize ourselves. Figure out how we’re going to get things done. Leadership is part of that. These lines aren’t telling us that anarchy is the way. (Just check out the book of Judges to see what anarchy does to a people). We can and probably even should disagree about how exactly to approach this, because disagreements indicate that we’ve allowed space to share ideas, which is a good thing.
I am not here to tell you that Jesus doesn’t want you to vote. Some Christians don’t, and that’s okay. I go back and forth on this. I was raised to understand that voting is a privilege and a responsibility. I am also so aware of how much women who came before me fought and sacrificed to secure that privilege and responsibility for other women. Yet I know that I belong to a different kingdom and that I am bound to a different set of ethics that really make no room for choosing a “lesser” evil, or any evil at all. I’ve also had decide, as all of us have to decide, that what happens in this society of ours doesn’t determine what kind of Christian I am. We could go off the rails one way or the other, and I still have to follow Jesus.
This psalm opens with these words:
Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God all my life long.– vs. 1-2 (NRSV)
That’s what we do. That’s where we start. We have to decide each morning to orient ourselves around God. To submit fully to God, who is most clearly revealed to us in Jesus Christ (see John 1:1-18; Colossians 2:8-10). God is who we put our trust in. Jesus is who seek to emulate, by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit within and all around us. This is what it is to be a Christian.
In his book The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that “when all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh.” There will always be princes. We will always be tempted to put our trust in them. Some may even try to draw us in by (usually mis-) using the language of Scripture. We must clear: there is no other Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ is it. God has not, is not, and will not call up a secondary savior. Never.
GRACE AND PEACE ALONG THE WAY,
MARIE
Image Courtesy of Edward Cisneros