the susie solution

One common themes in science fiction is the idea of aliens among us.  You know, the “others” who look just like us, but who are not, in fact, of this Earth.  Sometimes they have taken over living bodies, sometimes they’ve cloned bodies, sometimes they simply morph.  Us, but not us.  The trick is to identify them.

In less than 6 hours from the time I post this, West coast time, this election season is f-i-n-a-l-l-y going to be officially over.  There will likely be plenty of further accusation and mud-slinging and blame-gaming, but at least we won’t have to be endure the constant barrage of campaign advertising and robocalls.

Many Christians are bemoaning the choice of the two front-runners.  Both candidates have serious, even shocking, flaws for someone being considered for the highest office in the land.  Yet why should we be surprised that these two have reached this stage?  Each of them is simply filling a role that the trajectory of our country has created.  if we didn’t have Trump and Clinton, we would still have some kind of “Trump” and some kind of “Clinton” rising to power because the deep wells of anxiety, anger and fear that each has tapped into demands an outlet.

It is distressing how many Christians have participated in that anxiety, anger, and fear, how many have polarized themselves to one side or the other.    We fret and carry on as if the fate of the country, if not the world, if not even the church itself, depends on whoever occupies the White House, or which party has the majority in Congress, or who sits on the bench of the SCOTUS.  We are preparing ourselves for DOOM if the Wrong Candidate wins.  We are caught up in the political whirlwind and are blinded by the dust.

Many Christians have worried that if we don’t elect a “Christian” candidate (or at least someone claiming that status), all Hell will break loose.  We have to elect someone who will “protect the church.”  Yet in the first verses of Isaiah 45, go read what God says of the PAGAN Persian king, “Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, …  For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.”  (emphasis added)  There are also other passages that make clear God’s use of pagan kings in accomplishing His purposes for the nation of Israel.  God’s ability to use a non-believer just as easily as He can a believer has not changed.

The kingdom of the earth and the Kingdom of God are not one and the same, and we cannot create the second by means of the first.  Indeed, the latter holds complete sovereignty over the other.  The Apostle John reports that Jesus told Herod, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above.” (John 19:11, emphasis added)  Paul likewise states in the 13^th chapter of his letter to the believers in Rome that “…there is not authority except by God’s will, and those which exist are appointed by God.”  Peter echoes the same thought in the passage in the 2^nd chapter of his first letter explaining why followers of Christ should obey human authority – “…because they are sent by Him…”  No one sneaks into power because they caught God looking the other way.

In Jesus’ day, many attempted to get Him to involve Himself in the political landscape.  Always, He refused.  Politics get almost no mention at all by the New Testament writers, although for most of the period during which they were writing, the church faced persecution, including imprisonment and horrific death at the hands of Roman authorities.  Yet the only mentions of the persecution are in reference to encouraging the believers to endure faithfully through it.  There isn’t a single word condemning the Roman government.  No call to protest or work for the overthrow of it, even by peaceable means.

Our citizenship is in Heaven, not on earth.  Time and time again we are reminded that we are strangers and foreigners.  Aliens.  In Hebrews 11, the Faith Hall of Fame, Abraham is commended for living “in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, as a stranger, living in tents … for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, of which the architect and designer is God.”  There were plenty of cities in Canaan.  Cities with sturdy houses.  Cities with strong walls behind which to find a sense of safety.  Yet Abraham lived there in tents – moveable, not permanent, that could blow away in the wind, that provided no defense against attack.  He did not take his identity from his surroundings, but from his future home.

Paul tells Timothy (II Tim 2:4), “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.”  Are we not soldiers of the Cross, engaged in a mighty spiritual battle?  Why then do we allow ourselves to become so engrossed in the affairs of politics that we allow them to distract us from following the directions of our Lord and Commander?  When Christians engage in slander, rage, and hatred; when they ignore or excuse evil for the supposed sake of a greater good; when doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God is the opposite of what the world sees us doing, then we are living in the world’s cities, not in our tents.  We have forgotten the City to which we truly belong.

Our political system allows for citizen participation.  There is nothing wrong with Christians taking advantage of that right if they so choose, but we should never get too attached to our politics.  Though there are real temporal consequences, Jesus’ directives for living out the Gospel have far more serious eternal ones.  No matter who wins today, our marching orders remain the same.

We are just visiting this planet.  We are the aliens among us.  Let’s make it easier to identify us!