How Do We Speak to Power?

            Tuesday is Election Day.  I hope that all of you will vote.  I have my own preferences about who will get my vote, but I wouldn’t presume to tell you who to vote for.  You have to make that decision based on your own preferences and your own prejudices.  The problem is that too many people don’t vote at all.  That leaves the running of the government to the people who are able to get enough people to vote for them.

             Since the Citizen’s United decision by the Supreme Court, vast sums of money have been poured into campaigns to influence the outcome of elections.  This has caused enormous argument in this country and a great amount of turmoil among people who are running for office.  Most of the money is spent on negative campaign ads; saying sometimes made up things about opponents.  The people who pretend to know, say that this has produced outcomes that have disrupted our system.  It may be the source of so much discontent and brokenness in our government.  Nothing seems to get done and the people in office don’t seem to do much more than complain about the other people in power.  It is hard to watch, and even harder to figure out what to do about it.  Election Day ought to be a time to make our voices known and to help the government get back to governing and out of the business of complaining and doing nothing at all.

            The Old Testament prophet Micah has something to say about this.  In his own time, the rulers were much like ours.  Paying little attention to the poor and the outcast and spending their time on their own welfare.  Micah says:

      Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray,

who cry "Peace" when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths.  Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without revelation. The sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them. Micah 3: 5-7

            God isn’t pleased when we ignore the problems that are all around us.  I know that is why God has done all that could be done to clean up the messes that we have made.  Moses got the law, which didn’t work because we broke every commandment.  Then the Prophets were sent to us to remind us of who we are and whose we are.  But we ignored them and went our own way.  Finally, God sent his only Son, Jesus to show us by his very human life the way that God intended us to live.  It only took us three years to get around to putting him on a cross and killing him.  But God wasn’t done yet.  Jesus had called disciples; people who followed and believed him.  Some deserted, but many stayed, and to this group of faithful, God sent the Holy Spirit to touch and fill them with God’s message of love to the world. 

            Even though the church has had its own problems with following God instead of its own inclinations, the Church is still the best agency to provide ways to touch the agony that this world constantly gives to those who have little power.  The church, when it stands up to power makes a remarkable difference in this world.  Certainly Martin Luther King is an example of this, as is Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama and many others who have put themselves at risk in order to provide for the needs of the sick and the oppressed.  Consider the work done in Africa to deal with the misery of Ebola by Samaritan’s Purse and Doctors without Borders.  These are faithful people who put themselves on the line to bring healing to people who have no other place to go.  This is the work of the church in this world; people who are humbly going about the business of righting wrong and bringing hope where there is only despair.  This is what God intends for this world.  May we find faithful ways to communicate this to those in power.