LIVING UPSIDE DOWN

 

Following Jesus is not for the faint of heart. Contrary to what you may have heard, his greatest goal is not to give you your best life now. He doesn’t call us to comfort. He calls us to come and die: die to our selfishness, die to our self-sufficiency, die to ourselves so that we might find new life in him. 

There’s a reason why the way of Jesus seems like foolishness to those who haven’t yet decided to follow him. The life he calls us to seems so contrary to how the rest of society tells us to live. Jesus calls us to bless those who persecute us, pray for those who curse us, care for those who can do nothing for us in return. What’s more, according to Jesus, the greatest in His kingdom are the servants, and we need to be willing to lose our life if we hope to find it. In other words, if we truly hope to live, we must first be willing to die to the ways we’ve learned to live. 

Welcome to the upside down Kingdom of God. 

Though, on second thought, perhaps we’re looking at it the wrong way. After all, God’s the rightful King, we’re just the stewards that He entrusted with the care of His creation. So maybe His kingdom isn’t the one that’s inverted. Maybe we’re the ones living upside down, we’ve just grown so accustomed to it that we don’t notice it anymore. 

Consider for a moment the crooked ways of thinking we’ve normalized: we are taught to win at all costs, even if in winning we hurt our neighbors and neglect our families. We are taught to idolize the powerful, even if they use their power to benefit themselves rather than to help others. We are taught that in order to rise up, we need to push others down. We are taught to celebrate our freedom to do whatever we want, even if the vices we run to end up enslaving us. The prophet Isaiah had a stern warning for people who lived in this upside down sort of way:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil... Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent. Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah‬ ‭5‬:‭20-‭24‬)

Isaiah’s warning is worth considering. Those who live contrary to the way of God will not prosper, at least not for long. Though they might blaze brightly for a moment, they will be destroyed by the very things they are most proud of, their so-called freedoms will enslave them. As Solomon noted ‬, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” (Proverbs‬ ‭14‬:‭12)

It's ironic that the way of the world which seems so very comfortable and safe ultimately leads to death. Meanwhile, the way of Christ that calls us to take up our cross and die to ourselves leads to life that is truly life. We each have a choice: Which way will I go? To which Kingdom will I pledge my allegiance? Whose values will will shape my values? It's the most important decision you will ever make. 

Choose wisely.

A couple years ago, I went to the optometrist to get my eyes checked. She had me sit in a seat and stare through a big set of goggles at a picture on the far wall. Admittedly, the picture looked pretty fuzzy all that way across the room. Then, she started flipping lenses in front of my eyes. Some of these lenses further obscured the picture, but a few of them really helped bring it into focus. I left her office with a prescription for reading glasses and a newfound appreciation for the difference the right lenses can have on the way we view the world.

If there was ever a time we could use a new perspective, it’s right now as we head into the final days of this presidential election. I thought 2016 was contentious, but 2020 has taken it to a whole new level. I can’t recall an election that has been more polarizing and emotionally charged. It’s led friends to belittle one another on social media for their political perspectives. It’s caused family members to stop speaking to one another. As a pastor, this election has made my heart heavy.

Now, typically we only look at an election through the lenses of political pundits and social media, but I've found that all these sources tend to stir up is more fear and agitation. What we truly need is a new perspective on this election, one that is based on something more solid than the shifting sands of public opinion and partisan politics. My hope is that in the following paragraphs I can do for this election what my optometrist did for the picture on the wall - bring it into perspective through the use of some different lenses.

As a Christ-follower, I can think of no better framework to look at this election through than the Bible. It is the inspired word of God and it has outlasted nations and political movements. So the lenses I will use are biblical perspectives that can help us bring this election into focus. 

Lens 1: As Christ-Followers, we are citizens of God’s Kingdom.

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul told believers that although they lived in a Roman city, their primary allegiance was not to the Empire of Rome or to its Emperor. He explained that as believers “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).

The same is true of us. Sometimes we get so focused on this world around us that we forget that we’re no longer defined by it. If you have accepted Jesus’ invitation to follow him, you are not an American Christian, you are a Christian who happens to live in America. Our identity has fundamentally changed. 

And yet, sometimes it feels as if our patriotism to this country overshadows our devotion to our God. Many of us spend more time worrying about the politics of this world than we do the values of the Kingdom of God. Here are a couple questions to consider:

• Do you look to a candidate or a political party as the solution to the issues we face?

• Have you been spending more time reading articles, watching the news and browsing your social media feed than you do connecting with God and meditating on his word?

• Do you pay taxes, but resist giving to God?

• Are you more outspoken about your political perspective than you are your faith?

• Are you more concerned with the shifting morality of our nation than you are looking into your own heart and recognizing the ways you have resisted submitting to God?

• Are you more patriotic for America than you are for Jesus? 

The first thing we need to remember as we approach this election is that our primary allegiance is not to a presidential candidate or a political party, it’s to the Creator and Sustainer of the world, the one who rescued us out of darkness and gave Himself for us so that we can be called sons and daughters of God. Again, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 3:20)

If we forget that, if we take our eyes off of God and look to a political party or a politician to fix the brokenness around us, not only will we be sorely disappointed, but we will stumble into the same trap that the religious leaders of Jesus’ day fell into. They longed to see God’s Kingdom come and His will be done on earth, but their idea of how God would accomplish this was different from how God actually planned to accomplish it. Like us, they were looking for a savior, but their expectations of what this savior should look like had been deeply influenced by the power structures of the world around them that said things like “might makes right” and “compromise is acceptable so long as the ends justify the means.“

Because of this, when their savior actually did show up, they couldn’t recognize him. Despite the fact that Jesus was doing what God said he would do - driving out demons, healing the sick, binding up the broken and breaking down strongholds - they viewed him as a pretender to the throne. What’s more, they feared that he could actually cost them what little political influence that they had. So what did they do? They sought to shut him up and, when that didn’t work, they clamored for his death. They compromised in order to retain what little control they had by declaring their allegiance to Rome (the political power broker of their day) rather than embracing their King.

May we not forget that we are temporary residents in this world, citizens of the Kingdom of God living in a world that does not share our values. May we never put our faith in a politician or a political party, because at the end of the day they are not our savior – last time I checked, Jesus was. Similarly, America is not the hope of the world - Jesus is.

This brings us to our second perspective shift –

Lens 2: Though only temporary residents, we still have a responsibility to be God’s representatives. 

Despite the fact that we are citizens of another Kingdom and living here as foreigners, that doesn’t mean we have no responsibility for the place in which we live. We were designed by God to be His representatives and called to be ambassadors of hope to a hurting world (2 Corinthians 5:17-20). This led the Apostle Peter to write:

“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among unbelievers that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:11-12)

How we live our lives matter, because we are God’s representatives. We reflect (albeit imperfectly) the heart of our King to the world around us. And our actions speak far more loudly than our words. 

We are surrounded by people who live and think and vote differently than us. We can claim that God is love all day long, but how we treat people like them says more to the world than our words. When someone accuses us of being bigoted or racist or closed-minded just because we call ourselves a Christ follower, how we respond shows them the sort of God we serve. Do we respond with love? Or do we meet anger with anger, hatred with hatred?

Furthermore, we are called to reflect the values of the Kingdom of God, despite how contrary they are to the values of the world in which we reside. While the world says to destroy your enemies, either with words or weapons, Jesus told us to love our enemies and to pray for them. In a world that honors the strong and celebrates the victors who climb to the top over the beaten backs of their competition, Jesus said that the greatest in the Kingdom of God will serve others and put their well-being above their own. 

So, as aliens and strangers here, citizens of a foreign country living in a broken, sin scarred world, we are called to embrace and exhibit the values of the kingdom of God, called to be representatives of our true King. Of course this doesn’t give us permission to simply disregard the laws of the land in which we reside. Peter continues:

“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:13-17).

Notice that we submit ourselves to the leadership of this land “for the Lord’s sake.” We are his representatives, his ambassadors, and as such we don’t flaunt our freedoms, but we do live as representatives of the Kingdom of God.

Now, I want to be very clear about something. Just because we’re citizens of another Kingdom living in exile doesn’t mean that we disregard the upcoming election or refuse to do our civic duty of voting. After all, as Christ followers we are called to be stewards of what God has entrusted to our care, and our vote is one of those things. On Tuesday, we have an opportunity to give voice to our values through voting (not just for the top of the ticket, which is where most of our attention has been focused, but all the way down the ballot on issues that will impact our community as well as our country). To refuse to vote is about as effective as burying the talent our master has entrusted to us in the ground (Matthew 25:14-30).

However, I want us to remember that our vote is not the only tool we have for shaping and influencing our community. We may only go to the polls once every couple years, but we vote every single day for the kind of community we want to live in by the way we treat our neighbors, by the ways we spend our money, by the values that direct our actions and by the places where we volunteer. 

I love the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, written to the Israelites as they found themselves living in exile, in a land that was not their true home. He said, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7). 

This may not be our permanent home, but as ambassadors of our King, we have a responsibility to care for the community in which we reside, and to pray for it. This includes praying for our leaders - even the ones we didn’t vote for - because they have been entrusted with the weight of leadership, and our God can and does use even bad leaders to bring about His good and perfect will.

This brings us to our third lens:

Lens 3: Regardless of who wins this election, God is in control.

“Make your motions and cast your vote, but God has the final say” (Proverbs 16:33, MSG).

The message of scripture is that, while man has free will and we make choices that affect our reality (such as electing who will govern our country), God still works behind the scenes to bring about his perfect will. Now, at times it might seem like God has lost control and the inmates are running the asylum, but scripture is full of reminders that we might plot our course, but the Lord ultimately directs our steps (Proverbs 16:9). 

We may be wringing our hands about what might happen on Tuesday, but the outcome is no surprise to our God. He already knows what will happen. He already sees how our choices will affect our temporary home, how it will shape our society. What’s more, He can and will use the outcome of the election to bring about His purpose and plans, even if what He wants isn’t exactly what we would have expected or asked for.

I think of the Israelites living as slaves in Egypt during the time of Moses. They would sit around the fire, recounting the story of their ancestor Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, then falsely accused of sexual harassment and ultimately thrown into jail. Yet, God used these circumstances to place Joseph into the right place at the right time so that he could rise to power and save the Israelites from the coming famine. They would remember Joseph’s words to his brothers – “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20). God used his brothers’ jealousy, used their decision to sell their brother into slavery, even used a false accusation to place Joseph right where He wanted him.

And then, as these Israelites sat around the fire, with weary muscles and calloused hands from a lifetime of slave labor, they’d consider their current leader - Pharaoh. He was so different from the Egyptian ruler that had entrusted Joseph with power. This Pharaoh didn’t treat them as honored guests – he’d enslaved them. I would imagine that the Israelites of Moses’ day probably didn’t think that God had any control over their circumstances, probably felt that the Pharaoh in power was the wrong candidate. If they had been given a vote, they almost certainly wouldn’t have voted for him – maybe they’d have looked to Moses as their candidate for change. 

Yet, God allowed Pharaoh to sit on the throne of the most powerful nation in the world, not because he was a Godly leader, but because our Creator was going to use Him to bring about His purpose and plan. Listen to what God told Pharaoh: “By now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth” (Exodus 9:15-16).

Don't think that someone is in power because our God has no control - they are in power because our God has allowed it and He plans to use them to advance His purpose and plans. Nations rise and fall, presidents come and go, but our God never changes - He never fails. 

That’s not to say that we won’t suffer or endure persecution. In fact, if we take Jesus at his word, we are guaranteed to be persecuted for our faith (John 15:18-21). After all, we are foreigners living in a land whose values are at odds with the values of our Lord and King. And just as they sought to silence Jesus, they will seek to silence us. However, the fact that we suffer persecution doesn’t mean God has lost and the brokenness of this world has won. 

As I look around, I recognize the ways that God uses even persecution to advance His purposes and plans. It was persecution that prompted Rome to crucify Jesus. It was persecution that motivated the spread of the Gospel (Acts 8:1-4). And as I look around right now, the gospel is making the greatest impact in those areas of our world where Christ-followers are experiencing the greatest levels of persecution, places like China and the Middle East. 

No one likes to be persecuted, but it seems that persecution actually promotes spiritual growth, so perhaps the greatest good that can come from this election is that the American people select politicians and policies that will further the persecution of the church. I’m not saying that’s the way I’m voting. I’m just saying that God’s ways are not always our ways and what we see as a setback might actually be a huge leap forward in His redemptive plan. Regardless of the outcome of this election, we can have confidence that our God is on the throne, not only of our hearts, but of all of creation. Furthermore, although we don’t know what the path ahead looks like, we can rest assured that our Father in Heaven does and He is using even these messy circumstances to advance His kingdom purposes.  

So on Tuesday go to a polling station and vote. Elect a temporary leader for our temporary home. But don’t forget that we are foreigners living in this land, and God is our true King. While we reside here we are called to be His ambassadors, reflecting His loving heart to our hurting world in both word and deed. Just remember, despite the outcome of this or any election, our God is in control and He will bring about His purpose and plans, both in this world and the one to come.

 

The Lord's Prayer - Part 2

Your Kingdom Come…

Yesterday, we began an exploration of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples. He told them:

"This, then, is how you should pray: 

"Our Father in heaven, 

   hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, 

   your will be done, 

   on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

   as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

   but deliver us from the evil one."

                             - Matthew 6:9-13

Our goal is not simply to memorize the words of this prayer, but rather to understand the heart behind it. As we saw yesterday, Jesus began his prayer by grounding it in two crucial aspects of God’s character: He is our Heavenly Father who loves us, but He is also the Holy Creator and Owner of this universe who stands above our momentary trials and is not overwhelmed by them.

After rooting his prayer in a recognition of who we’re talking to, Jesus continues with these words:

Your kingdom come, 

   your will be done, 

   on earth as it is in heaven.

Now, before we can ask ourselves what God’s kingdom is like, we should first define what a kingdom is. In his book The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard explains that “a kingdom is anywhere that the sovereign’s will is done.” In other words, a kingdom is the sphere of influence where the sovereign ruler has his or her way. So if the king were to say, “Blue is my favorite color, so I want everyone to paint their houses blue,” then you’d have a pretty good idea where the boundaries of his kingdom are based off of where the blue houses stopped.

A kingdom is a place where the sovereign ruler’s will is carried out. 

So that means the Kingdom of God is wherever God’s will is done.

When you think about it that way, the statement, “Your kingdom come, your will be done” is a little redundant. If God’s kingdom truly breaks into our reality, then His will really will be done here just as it’s done in heaven.

But how does this happen? How does God’s will get done here on earth? Through the citizens of His kingdom. Of course, this raises another question: who is a citizen of God’s kingdom? According to our definition, a citizen of God’s kingdom would be anyone who willingly chooses to do God’s will.

The first and greatest example of this is Jesus himself. When crowds began to follow him and started talking about making him king of Israel, Jesus declared, “I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38) And He was the first person in history who faithfully did God’s will, even when it cost him. 

This is nowhere better illustrated than on the night before he was crucified for our sins. Keep in mind, he wasn’t looking forward to the cross. He wasn’t a masochist who liked pain. As he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, he cried, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup [of suffering] from me.”  I suspect I would have done the same thing. But he didn’t stop with that plea. He continued, “yet not my will, but yours be done.” Even in the face of unbearable suffering, he was willing to carry out the will of His father.

Similarly, if we choose to submit to God’s rule in our life, if we choose to live in accordance to His heart as revealed in scripture, and submit to the still, small voice of His Holy Spirit, then we truly are citizens of His Kingdom here on earth.

The truth of this perspective is backed up a little later in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus warns his listeners, “Not everyone who calls me Lord will enter the kingdom, but only those who do the will of my father in Heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) In other words, if you claim to trust God and follow Him, then you’ll actually submit your desires to His. You will be willing to model your life off of his and obey the nudging of God’s Spirit within you. Otherwise, it’s just lip-service. And there were plenty of people who paid lip-service to God without backing it up with their actions. That’s why both the Father and Jesus lamented about people who “honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8)

But how does this apply to prayer? Well, even in our prayers, as children of God and citizens of His kingdom living in this world, our greatest desire should be to see His will done and His kingdom advance. And if our desires conflict with what God wants, then it is His will that should take precedence in our hearts. 

Admittedly, our prayers are not often that lofty. More often than not, they have more to do with our own needs and desires. But there’s space in Jesus’ prayer even for that, as we will see tomorrow.

On Earth as it is in Heaven
Newport Back Bay

A Biblical Perspective on the Upcoming Election

A few weeks ago, I went to the optometrist to get my eyes checked (Ah, the joys of aging). She had me sit down in a seat and stare through a big set of goggles at a picture on the far wall. Admittedly, the picture looked pretty fuzzy all that way across the room. Then, she started flipping lenses in front of my eyes. Some of these lenses further obscured the picture, but a few of them really helped bring it into focus. I left her office with a prescription for reading glasses, which she said are optional at this time but will probably be necessary before too long. And while I may not be quite ready to take that leap and pick out frames, I did leave with a newfound appreciation for the difference the right lenses can have on the way we view the world.

If there was ever a time we could use a new perspective, it’s right now as we prepare for the upcoming presidential election. I cannot recall an election that has been more polarizing and emotionally charged. We are used to seeing candidates slug it out, though this round seems far more ugly and personal than normal, but what I’m not used to is the way it’s caused so much division and anger between friends and neighbors. I’ve seen friends belittle one another on social media for hinting that they’d vote for one candidate over another. I’ve watched a protest in my own community that, like so many others, turned ugly and ended in physical violence and property destruction. I’ve even had a few people leave my church because someone in the congregation made a comment or forwarded them an email that supported one candidate over the other. As a pastor, this election has made my heart heavy.

Now, typically we only look at an election through the lenses of political pundits and social media, but I've found that these sources only stir up more fear and agitation. What we truly need is a new perspective on this election, one that is based on something more solid than the shifting sands of public opinion and partisan politics. My hope is that, in the following paragraphs, I can do for this election what my optometrist did for the picture on the wall - bring it into perspective through the use of some different lenses.

As a Christ-follower, I can think of no better framework to look at this election through than the Bible. It is the living, active and inspired word of God and it has outlasted nations and political movements. So the lenses I will use are biblical perspectives that can help us bring this election into focus.


Lens 1: As Christ-Followers, we are all foreigners.

A lot has been said this election about foreigners entering our country and living here. Ironically, if we call Jesus our Lord and Savior, then we ourselves are foreigners living in a land this not truly our home.

In the opening verse of 1 Peter, Peter addresses his letter to “God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.” You might think that Peter is writing to Jews who have been driven from the Promised Land due to persecution. But in fact, he is writing this letter primarily to Gentile Christians who are currently living in the same towns and provinces where they were born. So what makes them exiles? The fact that through their faith in Jesus Christ, their citizenship has shifted. They are no longer identified by the kingdom into which they were born; they are now identified as members of the Kingdom of God.

This same recognition led the Apostle Paul to write “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).

Why does this matter? Because sometimes we get so focused on this world and the things in it that we forget that this isn’t our final destination. We may be American citizens, but being an American is a temporary condition. America is not our primary residence. If you have accepted Jesus’ invitation to follow him, you are not an American Christian, you are a Christian who happens to live in America. Our identity is fundamentally changed.

And yet, sometimes it feels as if our patriotism to this country overshadows our devotion to our God. Many of us spend more time worrying about the politics of this world than we do the values of the Kingdom of God. Here are a couple questions to consider:

• Do you look to a candidate or a political party as the solution to the issues we face?
• Do you spend more time reading articles, watching the news and browsing your social media feed than you do spending time with God and meditating on his word?
  
• Do you pay taxes, but resist giving a tithe?
  
• Are you more outspoken about your political perspective than you are your faith?
  
• Are you more concerned with the shifting morality of our nation than you are looking into your own heart and recognizing the ways you have resisted submitting to God?
  
• Are you more patriotic for America than you are for Jesus? 

The first thing we need to remember as we approach this election is that our primary allegiance is not to a presidential candidate or a political party, it’s to the Creator and Sustainer of the world, the one who rescued us out of darkness and gave Himself for us so that we can be called sons and daughters of God.

If we forget that, if we take our eyes off of God and look to a political party or a politician to fix the brokenness around us, not only will we be sorely disappointed, but we stumble into the same trap that the religious leaders of Jesus’ day fell into. They longed to see God’s Kingdom come and His will be done on earth, but their idea of how God would accomplish this was different from how God actually planned to accomplish it. They were awaiting the Messiah, God’s anointed redeemer, but their expectations of what this Messiah should look like had been irrevocably influenced by the power structures of the world around them, indelibly marked by a culture that said things like “might makes right,” “we advance by crushing our enemies” and “compromise is acceptable so long as the ends justify the means.“

Because of this, when their Messiah actually did show up, they couldn’t recognize him. Despite the fact that Jesus was doing what God said he would do - driving out demons, healing the sick, binding up the broken and breaking down strongholds - they viewed him as a pretender to the throne. What’s more, they viewed him as a danger to the status quo, because if Rome viewed him as a rebel, it could actually cost them their comfortable positions within the political environment of the day. So what did they do? They sought to shut him up and, when that didn’t work, they clamored for his death. They compromised in order to retain what little control they had by declaring their allegiance to Rome (the political power broker of their day) rather than embracing their King.

May we not forget that we are temporary residents in this world, citizens of the Kingdom of God, living in a world that does not share our values. May we never put our faith in a politician or a political party, because at the end of the day they are not our savior – last time I checked, Jesus was. Similarly, America is not the hope of the world - Jesus is.

This brings us to our second perspective shift –


Lens 2: Though only temporary residents, we still have a responsibility to be God’s representatives.

Despite the fact that we are citizens of another Kingdom (the Kingdom of God) and living here as foreigners, that doesn’t mean we have no responsibility for the place in which we live. We were designed by God to be His representatives and called to be ambassadors of hope to a hurting world (2 Corinthians 5:17-20). This leads the Apostle Peter to write:

“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. ” (1 Peter 2:11-12)

How we live our lives matter, because we are God’s representatives. We reflect (albeit imperfectly) the heart of our King to the world around us. And our actions speak far more loudly than our words.

We are surrounded by people who live and think differently than us: the unmarried couple living together next door or the kid who is covered in tattoos and has his stereo turned up so high it makes your windows rattle. How we treat people like them declares to the world the sort of God that we serve, for better or worse. When someone accuses us of being bigoted or racist or sexist or closed-minded just because we call ourselves a Christ follower, how we respond shows them the sort of God we serve. Do we respond with love? Or do we return tit for tat, meet anger with anger, hatred with hatred? We can claim that God is love all day long, but how we respond to people that disagree with our political perspective says more to the world than our words. 

Furthermore, we are called to reflect the values of the Kingdom of God, despite how contrary they are to the values of the world in which we reside. While the world says to destroy your enemies, either with words or weapons, Jesus told us to love our enemies and to pray for them. In a world that honors the strong and celebrates the victors who climb to the top over the broken backs of their competition, Jesus said that the greatest in the Kingdom of God will be a servant and put others well-being above their own.

So, as aliens and strangers here, citizens of a foreign country living in a broken, sin scarred world, we are called to embrace and exhibit the values of the kingdom of God, called to be representatives of our true King. Of course this doesn’t give us permission to simply disregard the laws and leadership of the land in which we reside. Peter continues:

“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:13-17).

Notice that we submit ourselves to the leadership of this land “for the Lord’s sake.” We are his representatives, his ambassadors, and as such we don’t flaunt our freedoms, but we do live as representatives of the Kingdom of God.

Now, I want to be very clear about something. Just because we’re citizens of another Kingdom living in exile doesn’t mean that we disregard the upcoming election or refuse to do our civic duty of voting. After all, as Christ followers we are called to be stewards of what God has entrusted to our care, and our vote is one of those things. On November 8, we have an opportunity to give voice to our values through voting (not just for the top of the ticket, which is where we’ve spent the vast majority of our time focusing, but all the way down the ballot on issues that will impact our community as well as our country). To refuse to vote is about as effective as burying the talent our master has entrusted to us in the ground (Matthew 25:14-30).

However, I want us to remember that our vote is not the only tool we have for shaping and influencing our community. We may only go to the polls once a year, but we vote every single day for the kind of community we want to live in by the choices we make. We vote for the kind of community we want to live in by how we treat our neighbors, by the ways we spend our money, by the values that direct our actions and by the places where we volunteer.

I love the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, written to the Israelites as they found themselves living in exile, in a land that was not their true home. He said, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7).

This may not be our permanent home, but as ambassadors of our King, we have a responsibility to care for the community in which we reside, and to pray for it. This includes praying for our leaders - even the ones we didn’t vote for - because they have been entrusted with the weight of leadership, and our God can and does use even bad leaders to bring about His good and perfect will.

This brings us to our third lens:

Lens 3: Regardless of who wins the election November 8, God is in control.
“Make your motions and cast your vote, but God has the final say” (Proverbs 16:33, MSG).

The message of scripture is that, while man has free will and we make choices that affect our reality (such as electing who will govern our country), God still works behind the scenes to bring about his perfect will. Now, at times it might seem like God has lost control and the inmates are running the asylum, but scripture is full of reminders that we might plot our course, but the Lord ultimately directs our steps (Proverbs 16:9).

We may be wringing our hands about what might happen on November 8, but the outcome is no surprise to our God. He already knows what will happen. He already sees how our choices will affect our temporary home, how it will shape our society. What’s more, He can and will use the outcome of the election to bring about His purpose and plans, even if what He wants isn’t exactly what we would have expected or asked for.

Let me give you an example. Consider the Israelites living as slaves in Egypt during the time of Moses. They would sit around the fire, recounting the story of their ancestor Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, then falsely accused of sexual harassment by a spiteful woman and ultimately thrown into jail. Yet, God used these circumstances to place Joseph into the right place at the right time so that he could rise to power and save the Israelites from the coming famine. They would remember Joseph’s words to his brothers – “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20). God used his brother’s jealousy, their decision to sell their brother into slavery, even a false accusation to place Joseph right where He wanted him.

And then, as these Israelites sat around the fire, with weary muscles and calloused hands from a lifetime of slave labor, they’d consider their current leader - Pharaoh. He was so different from the Egyptian ruler that had entrusted Joseph with power. This Pharaoh didn’t treat them as honored guests – he’d enslaved them. I would imagine that the Israelites of Moses’ day probably didn’t think that God had any control over their circumstances, probably felt that the Pharaoh in power was the wrong candidate. If they had been given a vote, they almost certainly wouldn’t have voted for him – maybe they’d have looked to Moses as their candidate for change.

Yet, God allowed Pharaoh to sit on the throne of the most powerful nation in the world, not because he was a Godly leader, but because our Creator was going to use Him to bring about His purpose and plan. Listen to what God told Pharaoh: “By now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth” (Exodus 9:15-16).

Don't think that someone is in power because our God has no control - they are in power because our God has allowed it and He plans to use them to advance His purpose and plans. Nations rise and fall, presidents come and go, but our God never changes - He never fails.

That’s not to say that we won’t suffer or endure persecution. In fact, if we take Jesus at his word, we are guaranteed to be persecuted for our faith (John 15:18-21). After all, we are foreigners living in a land that is at odds with our Lord and King. And just as they sought to silence Jesus, they will seek to silence us. However, just because we suffer persecution doesn’t mean God has lost and the brokenness of this world has won.

As I look around, I recognize the ways that God uses even persecution to advance His purposes and plans. It was persecution that prompted Rome to crucify Jesus. It was persecution that motivated the spread of the Gospel (Acts 8:1-4). And as I look around right now, the gospel is making the greatest impact in those areas of our world where Christ-followers are experiencing the greatest levels of persecution, places like China and the Middle East.

No one likes to be persecuted, but it seems that persecution actually promotes spiritual growth, so perhaps the greatest good that can come from this election is that the American people select politicians and policies that will further the persecution of the church. I’m not saying that’s the way I’m voting. I’m just saying that God’s ways are not always our ways and what we see as a setback might actually be a huge step forward. Regardless of the outcome of this election, we can have confidence that our God is on the throne, not only of our hearts, but of all of creation. Furthermore, although we don’t know what the path ahead looks like, we can rest assured that our Father in Heaven does and that His Kingdom will come and His will will be done.

So on Tuesday, November 8, go to a polling station and vote. Elect a temporary leader for our temporary home. But don’t forget that we are foreigners living in this land, and God is our true King. While we reside here we are called to be His ambassadors, reflecting His loving heart to our hurting world in both word and deed. Just remember, despite the outcome of this or any election, our God is in control and He will bring about His purpose and plans in this world and the one to come.