Hilton Head Island, SC – September 13, 2020
The Chapel Without Walls
II kings 21:19-26; Romans 13:1-7
A Sermon by John M. Miller
Text – Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God. – Romans 13:1 (KJV)
In all of human history, the United States of America was the first sizeable nation to become a democracy --- of sorts. That happened only two-hundred-thirty-nine years ago. Before that, virtually every nation or ethnic group that ever existed was some version of a monarchy or chiefdom. A kingdom is a nation that theoretically if not actually is ruled by only one person, almost always a male. There are not many true monarchies left in the world. Saudi Arabia is one, and Jordan and Morocco have kings who are politically quite powerful. Some of the states in the Persian Gulf have princes, but none of those rulers has absolute and total power.
I said that the USA was a democracy of sorts when it was founded. Only white males who owned land or other real estate could vote. They were a small percentage of the total population. No other males or females could vote. Now, through the passage of more than two centuries, everyone over eighteen years of age who is a citizen can vote. Voting is the first and foremost feature of democracy. Every citizen has the right to vote for local government officials, for the state governor and members of the state legislatures, and for the president and members of the national Congress. Those elected officials decide the directions of democracy.
But if citizens in a democracy have the right to vote, do they also have the duty to vote? For example, Australia requires all of its citizens to vote. And is voting a necessity in particular for religious citizens? Does God require us to vote?
First I want to go back to something I said in the first paragraph of this sermon. Up until the late eighteenth century, there were no real democracies anywhere on earth. Variations of monarchies were the sole form of government in virtually every nation up to that time. Even now, there are more monarchies or autocracies in the world than there are true democracies. The words “monarchy” and autocracy” both connote “rule by only one person,” but democracy suggests that all of the citizens rule indirectly by means of the representatives they elect to office.
In the Old Testament period of the Israelites, the kingdom of Israel was established about 1000 BCE. For four centuries after that, the Israelites were ruled by kings. Then, after the Babylonian Conquest in 587 BCE, they were mainly under the thumb of various foreign kings up until the time of Jesus, at which time the Roman emperor was their ruler.
If you have a really bad king, how do you get rid of him? Our first reading from II Kings 21 tells how a bad king named Amon was deposed. In a word, he was assassinated by members of the royal household. Similar methods of monarchical transfer are recorded in several other places in the Books of Kings and Chronicles. Normally crowns are passed down from father to son in monarchies, but if the kings are bad enough, a transfer of power was sometimes arranged by “regicide,” the killing of the king. No ballots were cast for the regal removal, because it was not a “democracy” (rule by the people). Instead other, far more lethal measures, were taken.
Whatever form of government any nation follows, everybody discovers that no form of government is perfect. And that’s because no subjects of monarchies or autocracies or citizens of democracies are perfect. However, it is easier to try to change government policies in a democracy than in an autocracy. That is because “the people” can vote government officials in or out, but “the people” cannot peaceably vote a king or dictator out of office.
When King Amon of Judah was assassinated, he was followed by a king whose name was Josiah. When Josiah died, the Bible described him as a good king. But his son Jehoahaz was another bad king, the Book of Kings says, and he ruled only three months. At that point the Egyptian Pharaoh imprisoned him, and put another high-born Jew on the throne of Judah. (Changing governments by ballot can be a very dismal business, as is evident in this electoral campaign of 2020, but changing kings is a much more dicey, and sometimes bloody, business.)
There was a united Israelite monarchy under Kings Saul, David, and Solomon, but it split in two under the next king, Reheboam, with the kingdom of Judah in the south and Israel in the north. All told there were almost forty separate kings in the two separate kingdoms, but only a handful “did what was good in the sight of the Lord,” the historical record says. All the rest “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.”
If you have never been convinced of the perpetual excellence of government, you are not alone. Nevertheless, government is something that large groups of people living together cannot do without. It is an illusion to think otherwise. Ultimately, in a democracy, voters should be most concerned that the people they elect do what is right in the sight of the Lord instead of doing evil in God’s sight. However, it is only religious people who perceive voting in that respect, but they of all people should perceive it exactly in that respect.
The apostle Paul devoted several verses in his letter to the Romans to this issue. In Paul’s time there was no religion of Christianity as such, nor was there a Roman-Empire-wide religious body known as “The Church of Jesus Christ.” There were “churches,” individual small congregations of people here and there through the eastern part of the Roman Empire, but there was no concept yet of a “worldwide” Church.
Paul was never a political babe in the woods, including when he wrote his letter to the Romans. He was, after all, a Roman citizen, as he was wont to inform us on more than one occasion. The vast majority of people in the empire were not official Roman citizens. Paul sensed that Christianity was so new and weak that it could never effectively express any overt or covert opposition to the Roman emperor and survive. So he made a couple of opening statements that have been quoted many thousands of times through the centuries on how “church and state” (to use 21st century terms) are and ought to be related to one another. I can’t imagine he intended his observations should be followed forever, but they were prudent for the present time.
This is how Paul chose to describe the relationship between Christians and the Roman state, according to the translation in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:1). The King James Version is perhaps still more frequently quoted for this verse than the RSV. It says, “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God.” Whenever you hear the expression “the powers that be,” it probably refers to those four words in Romans.
This verse clearly states that “the higher powers,” or “governmental powers that exist,” are part of God’s plan for the world. Does that mean that all governments are instituted by God, that it is He who puts them in power? Surely not. Most autocracies become autocracies because someone seizes power, not because God installs him as the national autocrat. It is inconceivable to me that God would ever prefer autocracy or authoritarianism as His choice for human government. Almost always autocracy happens “by hook or by crook,” and almost always more by crook than by hook. So we trust Paul is not saying that every ruler is in office because that is what God wants.
Then what does God want? Surely He wants integrity and honesty and morality in government. He wants equity and equal treatment of all citizens by the government. God is reviled by injustice, unfairness, and corruption in government. He abhors lies disguised as truth by candidates for office or in office holders. Furthermore, God wants those who perceive Him to be the ultimate ruler of their lives to act according to His laws as they are explained in the scriptures of all the major religions.
I spent my second year of seminary at Trinity College, which was the faculty of divinity of the Church of Scotland at Glasgow University in Scotland. It was the most stimulating year of higher education in my life, and perhaps also the most pivotal of all my years of life on this earth. I learned things about Scotland and the United Kingdom and Europe that I never would fully have thought about or understood without that singular experience.
One of the things I learned in the church history course under Prof. Stewart Mechie was a phrase which has stuck with me from then until now. Back at the time of the Scottish Reformation in the latter sixteenth century, and ever since then, Scottish church people have sternly proclaimed, “There are twa kings and twa kingdoms.” One kingdom is the particular earthly kingdom or government under which all of us live, and then there is the Kingdom of God, about which both the Old and New Testaments have a great deal to say. All of us must do our best to make our earthly realm, our nation and whatever is its system of government, the best that it can be. In addition, however, Christians and all other religious people must do their best to bring the Kingdom of God into existence as fully as possible for all the people on the earth.
The primary way Christian citizens of a democracy do that is by voting for those candidates they believe best represent God’s agenda for their country and for all the other people on earth. Voting is the single most important civic responsibility all of us can ever fulfill. If we have carefully studied the things the candidates say they intend to do, we will likely not be totally in favor of any candidate. No politician can successfully accomplish everything she or he says they hope to accomplish, nor what we want them to accomplish. Nevertheless it is up to us to try to discern those candidates we think will most likely seek the best for the two kings (the earthly and heavenly rulers) and the two kingdoms (the municipality, state, and nation plus the Kingdom of God in the midst of all levels of government everywhere on earth.)
To which kingdom do we owe the higher allegiance? Speaking for myself alone, and realizing not everyone – and maybe even not many – would agree with this, I believe that an allegiance to God’s kingdom should take precedence over one’s allegiance to an earthly state.
Is voting therefore a necessity for a Christian? Again, speaking only for myself, I believe it is, but I also am certain many Christians would disagree with that conclusion. Some people, on principle, never vote. They may feel they thus can never be faulted when things go wrong. That is not a noble political sentiment by any means, but it is a fairly common one.
On the day of John Lewis’s funeral, The New York Times published an essay that Congressman Lewis asked to be printed on that particular day. In the essay, The Rev. Mr. Lewis wrote, “The vote is the most powerful change agent you have in a democratic society.” Truer words were never spoken. On the front of today’s bulletin is a quote from President Grover Cleveland. He is the only US president to serve two terms who did not serve them consecutively. He was in office from 1885-1889, and then again from 1893-1897. He said in his first inauguration address, “Your every voter, as surely as your chief magistrate, exercises a public trust.” What a profound statement! All voters, as much as the president, exercise a public trust by means of their ballots.
Democracy depends on our votes. They are the major factor in the public trust which is represented by democratically-elected government officials. Grover Cleveland’s usage of the word “trust,” as a noun, is the last definition for that word in the dictionary. In my opinion, it should be the first. It says that the kind of trust President Cleveland was talking about is – quote – “(1): a charge or duty imposed in faith or confidence or a condition of some relationship (2) something committed or entrusted to be used or cared for in the interest of another.”
A vote represents our participation in our most important national trust. When we vote, we should first consider which candidates represent what we think are the best for all citizens, and not just for ourselves as individuals. Candidates who appeal mainly to self-interest never represent the greatest good for the greatest number of citizens. In addition, we can become very discouraged when we pay too close attention to everything the candidates say, and especially what television ads say about the opposition candidates.
Every now and then I quote one of my favorite comic strips, the one called Shoe. All the characters in Shoe are birds, and they all live in a fictional comedic community called “Treetops.” The name of the Treetops newspaper editor is “Shoe,” from whom comes the comic-strip title. In the edition from last Sunday, the Treetops restaurant owner Roz went to her doctor because she was having a serious circulatory problem. As he was writing on a small piece of paper, the doctor told her, “This prescription is to help you with your high blood pressure, Roz.” With an alarmed look on her face, Roz reads what the small slip of paper says: “R/X: Stop watching the news!”
Periodically, but especially every four years, our democracy holds an election. The next one is on November 3, as if you needed to be reminded. Because of efforts that have been made which put the whole procedure of voting in doubt, I make the following recommendations: 1) Probably the most certain way for you to make your vote count is to go to your regular polling place on Nov. 3 and cast your ballot, although the virus may have moved it to a different location, which only adds to the unusual irregularity of this election. 2) If you want to vote early, thinking that will guarantee that your vote will be counted, go to the Beaufort County office opposite First Presbyterian Church on William Hilton Parkway. Bring your Voter Identification card, or a photo ID. Any day, Monday through Friday and up until 5 PM, from Oct. 5 through Nov. 2, you can cast an absentee ballot, obviating your need to vote in person on Nov. 3. If you go to the mini-courthouse, do it as soon as possible after Oct. 5. 3) You also can vote by email or by requesting a written absentee ballot. You can call either of the phone numbers in this morning’s bulletin for more information. The uncertainties that have been prompted by actions of the Postmaster General warrant casting your ballot as early as you can to avert your vote not being counted.
In George Orwell’s classic short novel The Animal Farm, it notes that on the animal farm all the animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. All elections in many respects are equal to all others, but the 2020 Election has definitely had no equal in the history of our nation.
Is voting a necessity for a Christian? You’re a Christian. What do you think?