"Cheering or Booing?"

Here we sit the day after elections...Certainly some in our church family are cheering and some are booing. (By the way, that is one of the things I love about Living Hope--we make a big deal of Jesus not politics!) And someone will want to ask if I am cheering or booing over the election results? Over the years people have wanted to pin me down...get me to openly show my allegiance to one party or the other...Some assume the reason I don't is because of fear of loosing tax exempt status for the church. The truth of the matter is, I do not reveal my political passion because I have very little.

You see, 29 years ago, my American Citizenship took a far back seat to my citizenship in the Kingdom of God. The longer I follow my King, Jesus Christ, the less I cheer or boo over election results. Its not that I don't care. I do care..I vote at every election...I have my my personal opinions, but I do not believe the hope of America or any nation, for that matter, rests in any political party or candidate. My hope, our hope, the world's hope is in Jesus Christ alone. And, as much as it will disappoint both sides of the aisle, Jesus refuses to give his support to any political party.

Jesus made it very clear in his life, teachings, death and resurrection that he did not come to be made king by any political party, but to be made KING of every person, every where. In John 6 Jesus fed the multitudes and the people loved it. They thought for sure, having that kind of power, Jesus would be the new king of Israel. But John 6:15 says, "Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again into the hills by himself." The people wanted a political Messiah, but Jesus would have nothing to do with it then. Why would we think Jesus would have anything to do with it now? I guess, the reason we want to get Jesus to choose political sides is because it would be easier to have him be king of a nation than to allow him to be KING of our lives. John 6 (I encourage you to read the whole chapter) goes on to reveal a conversation in which Jesus tells the people who wanted him to be king that he had come not to give them what they wanted politically that would merely satisfy for the moment, but to give them BREAD to eat that would make them never hunger again. The response of the people was that many of them stopped following Jesus that day. They wanted a king, not a KING.

I am not saying to not care about or to not be involved in the political process. But what I am saying is that we let Jesus put things in perspective for us whatever our political preference. Jesus came to be the Savior of the world and at the end of the day he will do that regardless of who is or is not in office. And if Jesus was interested in saving the world and not winning an election, it makes me wonder if that ought to tell we the Church, about where our priority ought to be?