Recent international news has made me grateful for the peaceful transitions of governmental power via elections here inthe U.S. But I also have been reflecting for months on the mostly negative talk coming from Christians regarding President Obama. I didn’t vote for him and I disagree on many of his policies, but I am a Christian first and a U.S. citizen second.

This piece reflects my take on many of us in the church who look to influence our world through politics. We are not called to violence OR power. I am not opposed to Christians pursuing a life of service to community through political involvement but so called, decades old “Culture War” is largely being waged through politics and I feel like that is misguided.

I find most disturbing the Antichrist role many in the church and religious right assign to President Obama, not because that is offensive, it is and it bothers me, but worst than that is the lack of any mention of a Christ role in the story.  Jesus Christ isn’t mentioned, even the church isn’t mentioned, the only uneasy references to saviors are political players and that is what I am most concerned with.  My intention is not to engage as much in the dialogue of politics and speculate on 2012 candidates but to simply refocus my own thoughts and heart on the heart of the Gospel, the person and work of Jesus Christ, not elected, not chosen by us, but victor over death and as will be seen one day, ruler of all the earth.

The background to the ballots and bullets are bible passages that relate our spiritual battle and where our allegiance belongs. They have been cut out, as a symbol of the violence we do to the scriptures when we use them to support earthly kingdoms or ignore them to pursue power over preaching the gospel. But the lowest level has the same scripture passages still whole, shining through, because God’s word won’t fail even if we do.

Verses used
Jesus said…”No man can serve two masters” Mt 6:24
Paul told us that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood” Ep6:12
He also said we “walk in the flesh but don’t war after the flesh” 2Cor 10:3

And finally, Romans 13
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.

For the past seven months I have agonized at times at how to accurately share the good news with my friends since returning to faith in God’s incredible grace and reach for us through the cross.  I have struggled in part, because I have been so overwhelmed by the incredible sense of God’s love.  A love that cost Him dearly to express, the price of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for the sin of the world.  A free gift that was costly to the Giver, and from my own experience, largely misunderstood and unappreciated by those it was meant for.

This amazing knowledge, which has started to become my most important treasure, I have been eager to share.  Not out of religious duty, but from an overwhelming sense of how truly amazing grace is.  And not just for those “wretched” sinners out there, but to all the people I know who need to be embraced by grace, myself first among them.

Yet after every encounter  with this grace I find myself feeling more and more inadequate to the task, there is simply no way I can share this faith and have it be understood or appreciated and accepted.  I know this because after 10+ years in religious circles, it took being on the brink of losing everything I had to realize God’s grace was always there and available to me.

And so I kept on in silence, overwhelmed by this amazing burden.

And then Solomon dedicated the Temple.

It was a text in church, recently one Sunday evening.  Solomon, kneeling down, after completing years of work on the Temple in Jerusalem, hands raised and he asks aloud,

But will God indeed dwell with mankind on the earth?

Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You; how much less this house which I have built.

I realized that I thought my problem was new, that somehow, I alone had been the first to be overwhelmed by the knowledge of God’s great love and my inability to express it to others.

King Solomon had pondered the question.  Could God be contained in a temple made with the hands of humans?  The very heavens couldn’t contain Him, would he be able to dwell among men in a building, however grand?

26 letters, thousands of words, yet it was hopeless to expect that my words could ever do this love, this grace, justice, by my frail attempts to contain it in words alone.

In the winter I took apart an old typewriter, for the keys, the letters and gears and springs that have all made their way into pieces of art I have made. But I kept the typewriter shell; my wife suggested it may be useful in some way later on. 

As I was up one night musing on God’s grace and my inability, I realized that useless typewriter was a perfect metaphor for my own inability to communicate through words the greatness of God’s reach for us, and if a message came from it, that would be a miracle.

But recently as I have felt compelled to live this grace out more fully, I have been startled that I am in fact a letter, written by God to all who I come in contact with, and my words are nearly silent in comparison to the deeds seen by all.  And so I am more dependent for grace than before and more inadequate to the task than ever. 

But God has contented Himself to dwell in a temple not made with human hands and so it goes…

words fail, but love never fails.