WSend that we think of politics, we tend to start from where our people are, isn’t it? We are looking for around what We people Say, and we start there. It may mean what our favorite media say. It may mean what our friends think. Or maybe this means what our political party represents or what is best for our country.
But what happens if we started to think of politics in church? And if we started to see the body of Christ as Our people Above all the rest? How would that change the way we think of politics? How would that change what we do?
First of all, I think it would make a difference in our way of thinking authority And Lordship. These are old -fashioned words, but we continue to use them in church for a good reason. After the entry rite,, We settle in adoration when we hearing “the word of the Lord”. Not A Lord, but The Lord. God gave us His Word. Certainly, it is not always easy to understand it! But if there are other words from other lords who seek to order our allegiance This Word THE Lord, then so worse for them. Here is the only word of God that we must hear and obey, in life and in death.
This means that the disciples of Jesus must be people of firm principle, willing to undergo a loss and even to die in the hands of the earthly authorities if we owe it. We cannot allow our notions of what is fair to swing with the dominant wind. In the former Soviet Union, the Communist Party was the only referee of what was true. Pravdaor “Truth” was the name of the state controlled by the state; And ProsveschenieOr “Illumination” was the publisher controlled by the study program for each school. But we know that no one or the party is above the Word of the Lord, and we know that one day we must answer God alone-and there will be no party commissioners to judge that day.
We have to remember it every week, of course. There are many lords and authorities who may feel more powerful, and the pressure they can exert is immense. But the simple fact of knowing that their authority is not final has given courage to countless saints and martyrs: Polycarpe, Felicity and Perpetua, Thomas More, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oscar Romero. Although they were martyred in the hands of the state, many other Christians in happier moments spent their lives as loyal civil servants and principles. It is as it should be, because we are called to be a blessing to the civic communities in which we live. But we will only be a blessing insofar as our first allegiance is for the only Lord of Heaven and Earth, obedient to his Word.
Second, if we were starting to think of politics in church, it would transform who we think We people are to start. This is always one of the fundamental questions of politics: who are my people? Who is inside and who has come out?
When we come to the table of the Lord, we note that what we thought of who our people is was turned upside down. Before, we started with our family, our race, our sex, our party, our tribe, our country, but now we see that all this is at best secondary concern. Christ on his cross has broken down the walls of hostility that separated us, and now there is neither Jewish nor Greek, slave nor free, male or woman, because we are all one in Jesus Christ, members of a body (Ephesians 2: 14-18; Gal. 3:28; Rom. 12: 4). When young people discover their identity, they generally ask: where should I belong? Who are my people? And here, below, is the answer: you are a member of the body of Christ, made new in him, and the people gathered around this holy table are your brothers and sisters.
So many questions that we consider as political would be transformed if we started here. These people are our family. And not only those we see here now, but the whole Church of all peoples, tribe and nation (Rev. 7: 9). So how do we treat the family? Surely, with kindness and respect, with hospitality and generosity, with honor and love.
If we start there, it will not answer all political questions. For identities and communities which are no longer of paramount importance, such as nationality and family, are not necessarily unimportant. As a father, God gave it to my wife and me to take care of our three sons. It is our work to put food on the table and a roof above the head, and we cannot feed all the homeless by ourselves.
If this is true for families, this is also true for nations. But we can and must do something – we can and must be generous and hospital – because God has not only given us our little family or our nation. In the family of God, in his house, we have many more brothers and sisters. And we are called to be kind and respectful, generous and hospital for all. Above all, the Word of God reminds us, to those who are foreigners and stays in the country (eg 23: 9; Lev. 19: 33-34; Deut. 10: 18-19; Ruth).
In recent months, there have been many stories about the fear that these foreigners and the dryers in our country live. The living church has led a beautiful story of Emilie Teresa Smith in April on the inhabitants of the Episcopal Church of San Mateo, most of whom are not American citizens. Most of them are afraid of being expelled. Many of their children are only allowed to get out of the house to attend school or church, and some have stopped attending the church.
I know a young episcopal family in which the father is in a detention center, gave only one visitor per week, with his unbeatable wife and his new baby at home. He had continued legal status, and it is difficult to blame him for being brought years ago as a young child.
Do stories like this answer every question today on foreign aid, immigration policy or border security? No. But what happens if, thinking of these difficult questions, we imagine that these same foreigners and stay are there with us in the communion rail, a body with us in Christ? What if we remember that they are our family? And if we just wondered: how should we treat our family?
Reverend Jordan Hylden, Thd is a associate rector for Christian education in St. Martin’s, Houston. Previously, he served churches in Louisiana, South Carolina and Dallas, and as a canon theologian for the diocese of Dallas. He was assistant to the General Convention and on the TEC communion working group through the difference. His doctoral work focused on democracy and authority in Catholic social thinking. He and his wife, Reverend Emily Hylden, make their house in Houston with their three boys Charles, Donnie and Jacob.