Shade Tree Wisdom 10/3/08

Who gets your vote in this Fall’s election?

Here’s a lesson from History and Scripture. One time Spain was a force to be reckoned with. Her ships roamed the seas, her armies won battles. Every ship that came to port was loaded with gold stolen from the Incas and others in South America and Mexico. She got her wealth in the wrong way – to much, too quickly, and it destroyed her. Ferdinand and Isabella, who financed explorers like Columbus, were deeply in debt, always spending way beyond their means and mortgaged to the hilt. The living was easy. The great fighting men who graduated from the ranks of the army that fought the Moors disappeared. Politicians and courtiers, the gentle ones, the conniving ones, took over and destroyed all that the men of valor had won. Strong people like Cortez and De Soto were replaced by weaker men, grown fat with easy wealth. History shows this always happens so.

From Scripture, turn please to Romans 12, 13 & 14 especially. Here St. Paul is struggling with the fact that the new Church was of diverse background, from different races and places, creeds and customs, yet he speaks of them as “One in Christ”. In chapter 12 St. Paul had been speaking of various gifts people had, and started by saying, “Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold”, “Don’t become to well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God, you’ll be changed from the inside out”.v.2. He ends that by urging them to “overcome evil with good”. Then he speaks of government and its purpose. It’s to keep the peace, that we might live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. So he might say, “vote for the leadership whose aim is just that”.

But while he is on the subject of behavior, he tackles the issue of cultures. They are a diverse group, both Jews and Gentiles, and from different backgrounds. One keeps certain days and eats certain foods, another does not. And that is just where the problem rises. They were chiding one another for doing something other than what they were used to from their background and training.

Sounds much like our congregation, differing in background, in training, in outlook, in experience, in education, in life experienes. St. Paul suggests the one we are responsible to is God. There is the story that one Sunday the Duke of Wellington knelt at the communion railing when a commoner started to kneel next to him. An usher rushed up and chided him saying, ‘That’s the Duke of Wellington”. However, the Duke took the arm of his fellow communicant and said, “Stay, we are all equal here”. That’s the lesson St. Paul is pressing on us.

I know it seems hard to make a choice, but do pray over it, examine the words, and remember, it is God, finally, who places government over us to see that our lives are lived to His glory. May God bless you daily.

GPD 10/3/08