IS GOD A REPUBLICAN, DEMOCRAT, OR WHAT?
(Preached on Sunday, October 24,2004)
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:... -Luke 18:9
It has been said that to avoid conflict in social situations we should never talk about politics or religion. But here we are in church, in the middle of election season, and what else is anybody thinking about these days.
(It certainly wouldn't be safer for me to discuss the relative merits of the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.)
And this is an election in which religion is playing a central role. That is actually not all that unusual in this nation.
For religion has held a central role in the United States since our founding; many, if not most, of the early settlers of this land came here for religious reasons; freedom to worship God as you personally saw fit was a cornerstone freedom of this nation; and every President elected has always had to dust off his faith and share it with the electorate, even if it was more for show than a central part of his life. Elmer Smith, columnist in the Philadelphia Daily News wrote: "Politicians on the make can smell an altar from a mile away. In election years they break out their Bibles and worship with anybody who can draw a crowd."
But this year religion seems to be more than just window dressing.
President Bush seems to talk about his personal faith much more than many recent Presidents and politicians and that faith causes many to be uneasy.
To many, his language sounds like the vocabulary of the Christian Right, filled with evangelicals and fundamentalists and literalists, people often characterized as being zealous and parochial about their faith, with a sense of the rightness of their beliefs and the wrongness of everyone else.
Senator Kerry is much more reticent to discuss his faith, causing some to question the depth and integrity of it, and his political stances on some of the hot button moral issues of the day - abortion and a woman's right to choose, homosexuals and gay marriage, stem cell research - has even caused leaders in his own church, some Roman Catholic bishops, to denounce him and suggest that communion should be withheld from any candidate who does not vote the church's stance on these issues, or any Catholic who supports such politicians. A recent article in The Miami Herald described a recent Sunday sermon in a local Catholic Church by a visiting priest which directed parishioners not to vote for politicians who support abortion rights. The result was dozens of parishioners walking out on the sermon, many suggesting it was "not a sermon, [but] a political speech."
An Election Day sermon was a tradition among our Congregational forebears in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Preachers would address themselves to the ballot issues of the day for the instruction and edification of their congregations.
After all, voting is an important way for people of faith to express our convictions about the issues that concern us.
So, with some fear and trepidation, and hoping I can walk that fine line and this remain a sermon and not a political speech, so that none of you will walk out early, this morning I am embarking on an "Election Day" sermon.”
Before I address the issue of the title, Is God a Republican, Democrat, or What?, (which I must acknowledge I stole from my colleague Dr. David Rees, Senior Pastor at Church by the Sea in Bal Harbour) I want to take a moment and encourage you to be sure and study and prepare yourself before you go to the voting booth. This is a very important election in our area for many more reasons than just the Presidential race. We are also electing a U.S. Senator with two candidates of widely diverging views; a County Mayor; and there are several State Constitutional Amendments on the ballot along with a huge General Obligation Bond proposal for the County which alone has eight questions on the ballot.
Also, some of us in the Cutler Ridge area will be voting on whether to incorporate as a city or not. We certainly don't have time today to address all these issues, but please, find the time yourself to study the issues and know what you are being asked to decide upon before you go vote.
What I did want to examine this morning is the healthy approach and outlook we might take with us into the voting booth and what sort of character we might look for in those we vote for to lead us.
And it seemed to me early this week that this parable Jesus told about the Pharisee and the Tax-collector had something to say to this concern.
But after studying it and reflecting on it and what some other preachers and scholars said about it, I began to wonder, did it address the issue, or not.
So, let me share with you my thoughts this week, and let's see where they lead us and whether they give us any insight that might help us as we participate in democracy.
On a first reading, this parable seems rather obviously to be about cultivating humility in our character.
After all, Luke even frames it with the opening, "He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:... "
And the parable he tells seems very straight-forward.
Jesus chooses the quintessential righteous person and the quintessential sinner. The Pharisees were renowned for their careful obedience to the law and their reputation for righteousness.
They were champions of the Torah, the law of God, over against the inroads of the Greek influence in society.
They upheld tradition, were staunch defenders of the Messianic kingdom, the life beyond the grave, and the existence of demons and angels.
Their teachings and interpretations of the Torah and traditions made religion personal and vital in the lives of the people.
Their focus on teaching the scripture gave rise to the synagogue, a place where scripture was taught and read.
Any pastor would welcome such devoted, devout, good people whose lives and commitment were exemplary.
Conversely, tax collectors were really bad people.
They had to be, no good person wanted the job.
They worked for the occupying Roman government and were backed up by the power of the Roman army.
They made their money by cheating, extorting, threatening, abusing everyone they collected taxes from, especially the poor.
They were despicable characters.
Both these men go up to the temple to pray.
But only one goes home justified, that is, made right with God, forgiven.
And the twist is it isn't the one we expect.
It isn't the good man.
It's the despicable tax collector.
Why? Well, the parable doesn't really say.
The easy answer is that one was more humble than the other.
But look at the prayer of the Pharisee.
It is not all that bad.
He is thankful for the blessings of his life, realizing that much of his place is an accident of birth that he attributes to God's grace.
He recounts the good things he does, and they are truly good things - fasting twice a week in devotion to God and giving a full tithe of his income to God's work.
Why didn't God bless his prayer?
Why didn't he go home justified, that is, made right with God?
I don't know.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized, the message can't be, "All right people, get out there and be humble."
After all, that is just the conventional story about getting our lives all cleaned up on our own, making ourselves righteous before God.
That is just a perversion of the Pharisees prayer: "Thank God I am not like that Pharisee." A demonic little trap lurking close by to draw us in.
That is not true humility.
And the truth is, you can't make yourself be humble. Have you ever tried?
Can't be done.
You either are humble, or you aren't.
The word humility is related to our word humus, earth, earthy. To be humble is to be close to the ground, near the bottom. The tax collector wasn't trying to be humble.
He wasn't acting like he did not know how or what to pray.
He was down. Having defrauded his neighbors on behalf of the Roman overlords, he had much to be humble about.
He wasn't trying to act like he didn't know what to do in church. He didn't know what to do in church.
He knew he had done things he shouldn't have done.
He knew he had no reason for God to love him.
He knew he could not compare himself with anyone else before God without just going further into debt.
He knew his only prayer was to throw himself at the feet of God, on the mercy of God, and hope against hope.
That is the point of the story.
The good news is, that is exactly when God meets us, blesses us.
As in all Jesus' stories, this story is really more about God than it is about us.
It is about us in that if we are too full of ourselves, we do not leave room for God. But most of all it is about the surprising nature of God.
Rather than being a God who likes to praise the good people, God is a God who loves to forgive sinners.
God surprises us by embracing those who, by their own actions, seem far off, outside the lines of God's love.
But that's just the point: no one can be outside of God's love, not even the selfrighteous person.
So, whether your prayer is like this:
"God, I thank you that I am not like other people: liberals, pro-choice, activists, or even like this Democrat. I support the President, the war in Iraq, and stand for family values."
Or, whether your prayer is like this:
"God, I thank you that I am not like other people: conservatives, pro-lifers, fundamentalists, or even like this Republican. I support the ACLU, I am opposed to war, and I stand for equal rights for all people."
The good news is that God is neither a Republican or a Democrat.
God is a lover of all people; God's verdict alone is all that matters in our lives and that verdict is always grace.
Let us strive for honesty about our need for grace, our need for God.
Let us look for leaders who strive for the same honesty in their lives as well.