Sunday after All Saints: Rev. 21:1-4, 22-22:5
What issue is
most important for you? The card that I was handed included a litany of
election-year concerns: the economy, immigration, defense spending and the
like. It was Friday night, it was cold, and it was dinner time, so I replied:
do you want to know who I’m voting for? A sigh of relief came over the underdressed
political volunteer. Well, I said, I’m not a citizen so I don’t have a vote,
but if I did it would be for the President. The relief turned to a smile. I must
have said the right thing. In hearing my response, the partner of my interlocutor
typed something into her iPad, and soon after, they moved on to my unsuspecting
neighbors. I closed the door with the sense of having done something political.
In truth, I
had actually only submitted an opinion, an opinion of political flavor no doubt,
but not an action that would constitute the doing
of politics. The idea that politics has grown to include the answering a
few questions, voicing a preference for one candidate over another, or placing
signs in the front yard; the idea that such actions contribute to the good order
of a society is, I’m afraid, a symptom of a deeper problem. I have in mind the idea
that the height of citizenship is the power of choice, the power, that is, to
decide amongst a host of competing candidates, issues and even, pundits. Don’t
get me wrong, the freedom to vote is itself a bastion of a society that
recognizes the proper place of human life within a social order that practices
justice and equity for its citizens. It’s not the fact of voting that is troubling; it is that we are invited to
believe that our choice on Tuesday is all
that matters.
In making
such a claim, I want to avoid advocating a kind of political irresponsibility. Politicians
can serve well, and politicians can serve poorly; sometimes the vision of a
President can be disastrous, and on occasion a President can generally
contribute to helping to shape society towards being more just, more generous,
and more caring. But how much of this results from what takes place on one day
in November, well, that is where we are let down by the so-called, ‘political
process’. Why? Simply this: the idea pumped into our lives from all angles is
that Election Day is about our exercise of sovereignty, about a kind of freedom
in the form of personal liberty and about the accountability of the government
to our private interests. In other words, it’s about being a consumer more than anything else.
Politics, if it is reduced to the power of choice, closely resembles what we do
when we shop Amazon or the cereal aisle. Yes, some products are better than
others, and we can have a discussion about them, but built into the idea that
we are exercising some God-giving right when we make the purchase is the
related notion that in making this decision, we have practiced the most human
of actions: to choose. In a world without certainty, where truth is relative
and humans are always in a state of re-invention, choice is all we have. And if
this is so, then our political engagement is in danger of becoming just one
more choice is a world where our desires are endless and so are our options.
Too harsh,
you say? Too cynical? Okay, maybe I am being a bit cynical; however, let me now
make matters potentially worse by saying something religious. If political
activity is not principally about decisions, what might it be about? Here I
might be accused of being old fashioned, but I stand within the long tradition
of folks who see the purpose of politics as a kind of vision-in-action, that
is, an intricate pattern of social ordering and support that promotes human
flourishing. Politics, in this sense, is about setting the conditions so that
together we can live the life becoming of us, which is simply to live fully in
the social world that we find ourselves. Whatever governmental policies or
programs that make this possible, is, in my books, good politics. Anything else
that contributes to the promotion of some groups over others, that assist the
wellbeing of the ruling class while negating the most vulnerable, well, this is
a sign of a corrupt political activity. You know good politics when you see
people thriving in generosity and friendship; you know bad politics when the only
thing that matters is the private interests of a few and their continued hold
on power.
The kinds of
things I have just said may not on the surface sound particularly religious, at
least, until we grasp the vision-in-action that constitutes the reign of God. The
church asserts on this feast of All Saints’ that we have a specific and
constructive vocation: to be a people gathered, that is, to be a political
community, constituted by God though the concrete life and death of Jesus of
Nazareth, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Such a politics recognizes that it is proper and
necessary for human beings that we grow in justice, peace and fortitude. And it
is proper and necessary for human beings that we receive the gifts of faith,
hope and love in order that we share in the friendship of God and the community
of friends that the church calls, ‘all the saints’. Consequently, it matters in
terms of our politics that we recognize our place within the vision of St. John
in our reading from the book of Revelation: a vision of a city where God is Sovereign,
a city that has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is
its light; a city where all the nations will walk by its light, and the kings
of the earth will bring their glory into it; a city where the gates are never
shut to anyone. This vision is not one we choose or that is sold to us by
pundits or political action groups. Yet it is no less a political vision for our own city, this nation and the world. The
politics of this city of God is ordered towards our wellbeing, it is found whenever
we walk the path of justice animated by love. In other words, the city of our God
is not a vision of the future, but is what is made present when our lives take
on the pattern of Jesus’s life. Such a life is defined by living in loving
obedience to God and openness to the world even though to do so is to challenge
the authority and violence of those who trade in fear, greed and ultimately,
death.
To live this
way will make your politics peculiar. It might mean that we practice our citizenry
through means other than choosing one candidate or other; it might mean living politically,
that is, being the kind of person whose life is ordered in a way that you contribute
to the growth and wellbeing of others. It might even mean that we forsake the pageantry
and plasticity of the established political system, and actually get out and
start being with other people for the sake of friendship and in order that we
learn how to be just. To do so reflects the vision of God’s gracious rule over
the city where all the nations come together as citizens of heaven destined for
a life of flourishing as friends of God. For the Christian, this is a life that
has already begun, and a life that we will take into the voting booths this
Tuesday. For Election Day is indeed about our politics; the question is, will
we have the courage to be political after we make our choice?
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