Election Reflection II

Tomorrow is election day, and the hope is, of course, that all of you who can vote will consider the issues and vote.

Notice that I did not say that I want all of you who can vote to vote. That would be silly. The important thing is that you give the issues some consideration and then based upon your best reasoned judgment, you vote. This is a tremendous privilege, one which we who have always assumed it really fail sufficiently to appreciate.

And then, once you have voted, realize that your hope does not rest on the outcome of the election. It does not rest in the king, the prince, the president, or the senator. We do not trust in military might or a political candidate’s orientation toward Christianity or toward our favored issue(s). Should our candidate win, we should not think that the messiah has come, and should he lose, we should not despair as if the end beckons.

Two perspectives have crossed my desk, from men often at odds in theological matters. And yet they are in this regard barking up the same tree.

It would be worthwhile for you to consider these wise biblical reflections of Scot McKnight. I by no means embrace everything that he says in this post or in his blog. But I stand with him in the overall wisdom of these words. I encourage you to read the whole. Here is an excerpt:

Where is our hope? To be sure, I hope our country solves its international conflicts and I hope we resolve poverty and dissolve our educational problems and racism. But where does my hope turn when I think of war or poverty or education or racism? Does it focus on November 4? Does it gain its energy from thinking that if we get the right candidate elected our problems will be dissolved? If so, I submit that our eschatology has become empire-shaped, Constantinian, and political. And it doesn’t matter to me if it is a right-wing evangelical wringing her fingers in hope that a Republican wins, or a left-wing evangelical wringing her fingers in hope that a Democrat wins. Each has a misguided eschatology.

Now before I take another step, it must be emphasized that I participate in the election; and I think it makes a difference which candidate wins; and I think from my own limited perspective one candidate is better than the other.

But, participation in the federal election dare not be seen as the lever that turns the eschatological designs God has for this world.

As well, I would commend careful pondering of the God-centered perspective of John Piper. Again read the whole, but let this entice, or encourage, you to think:

So it is with voting. There are losses. We mourn. But not as those who have no hope. We vote and we lose, or we vote and we win. In either case, we win or lose as if we were not winning or losing. Our expectations and frustrations are modest. The best this world can offer is short and small….

So it is with voting. There are joys. The very act of voting is a joyful statement that we are not under a tyrant. And there may be happy victories. But the best government we get is a foreshadowing. Peace and justice are approximated now. They will be perfect when Christ comes. So our joy is modest. Our triumphs are short-lived—and shot through with imperfection.