Politics and Prayer – Twin Challenges from Sunday

Politics and Prayer – Twin Challenges from Sunday

April 28th 2010 at 2:48pm

We had a great time at church on Sunday and I was really challenged by the preaching in both morning and evening services.

In the morning Dan Martin spoke from Romans 13.1-7, a passage that challenges us to submit to authority. You can hear Dan’s sermon here. The big idea in the passage is that all authority, even, or especially, political authority is derived from God, and therefore everyone ought to submit to all those in authority.

It’s challenging stuff in our society at the moment – a society Dan characterised as both cynical and apathetic. And therein lies the challenge for me – because when it comes to politics I have to confess that I’m guilty as charged.

I’m sure I’m not alone in saying I’m seriously cynical about all political claims and parties. The expenses scandal is just the latest in a great line of political disappointments, stretching back to the Vietnam War and beyond.

Still, for what it’s worth here’s my two cents worth. (Should that be two pence worth?) I think the heart of issue, the reason the expenses abuses left us so disillusioned, was that it exposed the selfish attitude of our politicians. Their behaviour made it clear that they’re in the game for what they can get for themselves. The expenses system was set up for abuse because they thought they were worth it. How else could we expect to get good people into poorly paid roles?

The very clear message was that our politicians don’t serve us, but themselves. It’s the same issue behind the ‘cash for influence’ scandals. Where’s the concern for others that Jesus taught?  He said that those who lead should do so as servants, serving not their own needs, but those of the people they lead.  Where’s that concern for the good of others now?  Where is it – not in the halls of Westminster, that’s for sure.

The upshot is that we become ever more suspicious of politicians, and politics itself. We can’t trust ‘em, and worse, we can’t trust the system.

And this leads to apathy – it doesn’t seem to matter what we do, or who we vote for, the whole thing is corrupt and useless.

So I’ve caught myself saying ‘I don’t want to vote for any of them’.

But I have to admit I’ve done very little to get informed and to get involved. The Christian Institute has gathered together a great wealth of information on the various parties and their policies and voting records – and I’ve had their election briefing on my desk since Friday but not even opened it. There’s apathy at work!

All this got me thinking about a Christian approach to politics. A lot of the time we take the attitude that the gospel is the only real solution for the world’s ills, and therefore politics is a non-solution.  But that’s a distorted picture, a half truth at best; because, as Romans 13 says, political authority is given by God for the good of society.  And while we might say ‘politics won’t get anyone to heaven’ the Bible is full of examples of how bad political leadership can lead societies away from God and into God’s judgement.  Take away all authority and society’s descend into anarchy and suffer God’s punishment.  So good political action might not save our souls, but bad political leadership can certainly lead society to disaster.

That being the case, surely Christians ought to work in the political, cultural and social spheres to direct and shape society to protect against that slide into disaster. We need a much more active involvement in politics and in all sorts of other areas where we can do good, even thought we know it is limited, less good than the gospel.

With the challenges of Romans 13 rattling round in my head I went off to evening church to hear from Lewis Green on Acts 12.1-19, a passage that describes brutal persecution of the church and the surprising rescue of Peter from a prison cell. Lewis pointed our attention to the response of the church as they earnestly prayed for Peter. He concluded with a strong challenge for us to pray, and to pray constantly and earnestly like the early church did.

It strikes me that the early church was in a much worse political situation than ours – we’re disillusioned by broken promises and politicians lining their pockets with our hard earned – but they were being rounded up for execution to win favour with the ‘electorate’! They had far more reason to be cynical than we do, although I guess apathy would be unlikely in the face of persecution… but instead of despair or cynicsim they turned to prayer.

Now I’m feeling helpless and frustrated about the society I live in – I can’t see how it can be fixed and I can’t see my part in the bigger picture.  But I can take some small steps – like signing the Westminster 2010 petition to urge politicians to respect Christian values, or reading the Christian Institute Election Briefing and voting in the election, or joining some guys from church to pick up litter in our neighbourhood as we’re doing on Saturday morning – and I can pray.

I don’t know fully what can be done or how to make a change.  But I have remarkable access to the God who does, and who can change it all in a moment if he so chooses. (And just in case we forget God’s power to change things think about the impact of one little volcanic eruption.)

So that’s my challenge coming out of Sunday – to get involved, to get informed and especially, to pray.  If you’re up for the challenge check out the websites below where you can get more information, and join us at our next church prayer meeting (Wednesday 5th May, 8-9pm) where we’ll be praying for those in authority.

The Christian Institute – for all sort of politics, ethics and moral issues

They Work for You.com- for detailed information about electoral candidates

Westminseter2010 – sign the petition to keep Christian Values protected in British Society

The Barnabas Fund – for information on persecution world wide