Preaching and Politics

"Politics has no place in the pulpit!" "Your preaching is too political!"

The sentiment voiced in such complaints (and such statements are always a form of complaint) is something I have often heard in my later years of ministry. I have reflected on such statements (complaints) with interest. It seems to me there is more to the statement than a desire to keep politics out of the pulpit.

It seems to me such statements reflect a desire to avoid that which is controversial or divisive. They speak of a reluctance to respectfully consider opposing views. Such statements indicate a resistance to engaging in the hard work of thinking and discussing that leads to deeper insight and understanding. They are a call for feel-good sermons that leave our belief systems unexamined, unchallenged, and intact so that our comfortable life styles are undisturbed.

It seems to me such statements are often really a complaint about a particular political position rather than about politics per se. They are a complaint that what is being proclaimed is not "my" position on an issue or does not reflect "my" political position. I often wonder if such statements would be made if the hearer agreed with what was being proclaimed. (Interestingly, I often hear complaints when worship does not honor such national holidays as Memorial Day or the 4th of July or Veterans Day. Is not the call to build worship around such national holidays not a political statement? But that's a topic for another blog.)

It seems to me such statements about politics reflect a lack of understanding of scripture. The majority of the preaching of the Hebrew prophets was political, addressing issues of social injustice. The prophets consistently called for justice and righteousness. They spoke of a time when their king would rule with justice and righteousness. The prophet's understanding of justice was not a legal understanding based on laws. Justice was a covenant term about how power was used in relation to the powerless, particularly the widow, orphan, and immigrant alien. To practice justice was to use power on behalf of the powerless - to defend, advocate for, and empower them. (See Isaiah 1:17.) To live righteously or rightly in relation to others in the community was to practice justice.

The birth narratives that are the focus of this Advent and Christmas season were originally political statements that challenged the rule of Rome. In the first century, the image of a pregnant woman riding a donkey came out of the birth narrative of Julius Caesar, the so-called Divine Son of God (Jupiter) who was viewed as the Savior who brought peace to the world. The song of the angels about peace on earth challenged Rome's kind of peace, a peace based on power used against the powerless for the advantage and benefit of the powerful (the opposite of the Hebrew understanding of justice). Our Western brand of Christianity has sanitized these stories, stripping them of their counter-cultural message. We have sentimentalized them into feel-good stories we use in our Christmas pageants and Christmas Eve services. In doing so, we miss the radical, anti-empire political message the stories communicated to the original audience.

The birth narratives of Luke were a prelude to the political nature of Jesus' preaching, teachings, and practices. Jesus challenged the cultural, social, economic, religious, and political practices of his day. He led a counter-cultural movement under the slogan of "the Kingdom of God." But, again, our Western brand of Christianity with its what's-in-it-for-me focus on going to heaven has domesticated the gospel so that it no longer disturbs the status quo of our lives or challenges the power centers of our world.

So it seems to me, preaching - if it is faithful to the original meaning of scripture - will be political. Preaching - if it follows the teachings of Jesus - will be disruptive, challenging the beliefs that protect the status quo of our lives. Preaching - if it proclaims the Kingdom of God - will call us beyond the world as it is. It will call us to be God's partner in creating a God-shaped world patterned after the ways of God that Jesus proclaimed, i.e., the Kingdom of God.

And so, politics is an unavoidable dimension of preaching - well, of my preaching. I unapologetically proclaim the politics of Jesus known as the Kingdom of God.