“Heart Talk About Politics”

by Rev. Lon Weaver
 

In II Corinthians 5, we are taught that when Christ’s mind guides our perspective, we see the world in a completely different way:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (5:17-21)

When we let the way of Christ control our spirits, our view on life is changed. Things look differently. By sending Christ, God chose not to use the worst things about us against us. Rather, God offered us a reconciliation which is meant to be the energizing power to change us and to lead us to live lives of reconciliation.

As I recently noted in a sermon, our political culture is in deep need of a civilizing, reconciling spirit. In his book, Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker Palmer offers five steps which we could take to begin healing the fractious political atmosphere of our nation. First, go to a public place where there are lots of people and watch them closely: savor the diversity, put yourself in their shoes, and acknowledge that all of us are part of a common community. Second, if there is a place you regularlly go for coffee or for a meal or to simply “hang out”, initiate a conversation with a stranger with the single motive of getting some sense of what makes him or her “tick”. Don’t impose your view. Listen to the story of the stranger. Offer the kind of respect which everyone values. Third, work on your neighborhood: welcome new residents, making yourself available to be helpful in their transition and cultivate caring relationships with the neighbors around you for years. Fourth, interview someone you know with political views that are different from your own. Ask them about the people and the experiences that have led them to think the way that they do. Again, listen: get to know what has brought that person to his or her present perspectives rather than offering your commentary on their thoughts. Fifth, and finally, don’t be passive in the face of unkind and even hateful comments about others based on their different beliefs or ethnicities or any other reason that is commonly used to demean others. To anyone making such comments, tell them that you believe that what he or she has said is hurtful and that you believe that we should respect the fundamental dignity of all people.

In his 1920 poem, “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost suggested the significance of making these kinds of choices:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.
 

As we enter the fractious political season of an election year summer, let’s choose the road “less traveled by”, taking seriously the call to the reconciling spirit, being vehicles of Christ’s deep spirit to work to heal the heart of democracy. Amen.