Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
- Philippians 2:9-11 -
It's 5 degrees outside and snowing hard. I sit in the corner of the church where our co-op meets, typing this newsletter as the presidential inauguration plays out loud on my computer. I listen with one ear to the speech, one ear on my children running with their friends. I hear applause emanate from my computer, but I know fear and anger emanate from hearts in my own city, my own nation, and even the global Church.
If it had gone differently – if the American presidential election had turned a different way – the emotions would be the same, centered in a different party. Our emotions reveal our fears, our priorities, our hopes, our dreams… and our idols. Idols, the physical representations of intangible gods, were in ancient times a visible way for people to interact with deities they believed could save them. Israel felt comfortable building a golden calf not because they wanted to worship the calf, but because they saw the calf as a mediator between them and Yahweh.
In modern America, politics feel like a tangible, grasp-able place to hang our hope. It was hope President Obama ran his campaign upon in the first election I ever had a vote. But hope is intangible. You can't taste, touch, or see it…. or can you?
On Inauguration Day I want to issue an encouragement, and a warning, to the church and our role in the future of the nation in which God has seen fit to plant us.
Four years ago those currently rejoicing over this election were instead in outrage. Four years from now, we will be here again, swearing someone into office that we like, dislike, love or hate; agree with, disagree with, support or don't. There are members of my real-life and online communities who are delighted at today's events; there are members of my community who are devastated. Our delight or devastation are a reflection of assumptions about what is right, true, good, and beautiful. Sadly, in American politics, what is true is often mixed with what is false; what is good, mixed with evil; what is beautiful beaten down by the ugliness of human sin. There is no perfect candidate, no representative of God on earth.
Except one. One Representative of God on earth, one perfect candidate, one source of Hope who, when forgotten, leads us to golden calves rather than the Law and Love. And forget Him we did.
In 2021 CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) unveiled a golden statue of Donald Trump complete with star-capped scepter and American-flag-themed shorts. Constitution in hand, the golden Trump stood next to a red sign advertising “LOOK AHEAD AMERICA”. Not many conservatives talked about the statue. It was as if a Donald Trump made of gold were a run of the mill occurrence, just a prop, harmless in its message. But the message was clear: we are okay with idols if they come in the right shape.
Fast forward to 2024 at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, IL. The Harris campaign made abortion rights a central tenet of the election, and the DNC was no exception. Planned Parenthood set up a mobile clinic providing abortions, vasectomies and birth control onsite in an RV close to the convention:
“It's a great opportunity for us to show how when you have a state like Illinois that prioritizes healthcare access and passes good policy that you can be creative and innovative in how you meet people’s healthcare needs,” Dr. McNicholas said of the clinics presence near the convention.” Source: NPR
In the closing speech of the DNC, given by my governor, Gretchen Whitmer, Whitmer proclaimed Harris was the right person for the presidential job because we needed someone who would “tell the truth, and bring people together”. The child sacrifice on the DNC's doorstep was sanctioned, it seems, if it accomplished other goals in immigration policy, gender and race issues. Once again – we are okay with idols if they accomplish our purposes.
I can already hear some conservatives saying “There is a big difference between abortions and a golden statue” – so let me ask you this: What started the slow descent into accepting abortion as a sacrament of the state? This did not begin with a desire to murder the unborn. It began with an idol of freedom: Self-actualization, self-achievement, self-centeredness. It began by worshiping personal rights. It began with the pursuit of personal wealth, success and individualism. We hear it already in the American church: the view of children as a financial burden; the radical acceptance of hormonal birth control and vasectomies; the questioning of historic Christian sexual ethics. Abortion rights are not an isolated issue, and they are not immaculately conceived. Such policies begin with idolatry of personal freedom, until unborn humans who get in the way of such freedom must be eliminated.
All child sacrifice revolves around an idol. But not all idols begin with child sacrifice.
So how do you live as a Christian in an idolatrous nation?
You remember who is truly on the throne. We tend to think our politicians are mediators; visible, tangible, means to make God's work come to bear on society. Perhaps we feel like prayer and spiritual disciplines aren't enough; too untouchable, too long, too requisite of patience. A faster way to God's justice appeals to all parties. Human beings love spiritual shortcuts.
But our shortcuts disappoint. Their promised hope falls short in policy and in character. One sign you've created a political idol is this: Your emotional reaction to their loss is hopelessness. In Exodus, the Israelites built their golden calf because Moses delayed returning. They gave up on God's goodness, God's care, God's sovereignty and God's affection. In that void of hope, an idol was created. And so it is today: When we place our hope in political movements, when we care more about them than we do about the Church, the gospel, the Spirit, and the Word, we've erected an idol that, once destroyed, leaves us drinking bitter water in the rubble of our dreams.
The truth of the matter is this: God permits the kings who come to power. He grants humans the will to choose, and in this case to vote, but our anger is misplaced when we blame human beings for the entirety of the political landscape. God raises and lowers kings (Daniel 2:21). This is true of Trump and before him, was true of Biden as well. (What I am writing today has the emotional reaction of Christians in both this year's election and the 2020 election in view.)
I find it fascinating this famous verse is in Daniel, a book about living in exile under pagan kingship! Daniel's experience of the “raised-up king” was not a positive one. Nebuchadnezzar was emotionally (and later, mentally) unstable, dictated by his own desires for power and fame. He fully accepted idols of himself and even encouraged this idolatry, demanding people worship his image under threat of death. Yet within this place of exile, God used Nebuchadnezzar to preserve and refine His people. This does not mean Daniel and his friends were free from persecution; the opposite was true (see: the fiery furnace and lion's den). But through their faithfulness to God, the righteousness of God's people worked backward, blessing even Babylon by an allegiance to God that transcended allegiance to pagan kings.
You might be delighted on Inauguration Day. You might be devastated. Either way, you're in danger of idolatry. Remember that Hope has a name, and His name is not Donald Trump or Kamala Harris – His name is Jesus. Only He can “tell the truth, and bring people together”. Only He can provide what is ultimately true, good, and beautiful. And through our allegiance to Him, we have the ability to hold up a standard to all political entities: a standard that checks conservative and liberal, Republican and Democrat and Independent, against an unwavering truth and relentless hope for reconciliation.
God has not stopped working in the history of our world. Not in Babylon, not in Assyria, not in Egypt, not in America. He's not done yet. There is good coming and good being accomplished – and a hope that does not disappoint.
Shop Favorites This Week
It's a chilly week here in northern Michigan with wind chills dropping to 25 below! Even so, we're shipping your orders as promptly as we can. Here are a few favorites from this week:
