Such Is Life In A Fallen World

Today is Election Day in the United States, and given the fact that the Feast of Tabernacles has recently ended as well (a most wonderful Feast, I might add, in many ways), my thoughts are on the tension that exists in the Christian between the world that is and the world to come, between our earthly citizenship and in our citizenship in the Jerusalem that is above. These tensions are not new, but have existed as long as godly believers have dwelt in ungodly realms, from the travails of Daniel the prophet in corrupt Babylon to the difficulties of early Christians in occupied Judea under Roman rule (and even more so for Paul, who was himself a Roman citizen and thus acutely aware of the tensions of citizenship above and below). Since these problems are not new, they are not likely to go away no matter what I or anyone else may say about them, but at least facing these problems may benefit us by forcing our attention on the dilemmas we struggle with.

It is the belief of UCG (and many other pietistic religious organizations as well), its ministry, and the majority of its members, that voting is a sign that one has become a part of the fallen world of corrupt politics, with the wars and division, the lying and deception that are regretfully part of the political process. This disparagement of politics is often accompanied by a lack of self-knowledge about how ubiquitous politics is in our own congregations and organizations, partly because we are human and still struggle (hopefully) with our human lusts for power and security and glory, and partly because power exists wherever two or three (or more) are gathered for any purpose, and that the allotment of power itself reflects a political system (whether one likes it or not), regardless of how that power is gained or used. The disparagement of politics as nasty and unclean business which no Christian can or should engage in masks the fact that we ourselves are also political, even despite our own sincere and heartfelt intentions not to be political in the mean-spirited, malicious, false, and base way we see around us.

The way things are are not the way things ought to be, in politics or in many other ways. Nonetheless, we live in a fallen world where our beliefs are often in tension with each other because of the way in which sin has spread throughout our world. We ourselves struggle (sometimes successfully, and sometimes not) with our own sinful desires, and struggle to counteract the impact of sin in our relationships with other people, as well as the families we are born or marry into, the companies we own or work for, the schools we attend or send our children to, the churches we support and attend, and the nations of which we are citizens. Even though we are also citizens of that Jerusalem above (something we should never forget or minimize), we are also in a nexus of relationships and entanglements here below simply by being here, without our wish or choice in the matter, and these relationships carry with them sometimes burdensome and unpleasant responsibilities that lead to dilemmas in how we can fulfill our obligations here and above at the same time.

There are no doubt some people who find comfort in either extreme--that we should take no responsibility here and solely be pious and wait and hope for the Kingdom of God (a choice that often makes life on earth hell for ourselves and others because politics loses the influence of its righteous citizenry and becomes a playpen for knaves and scoundrels of the worst sort who seek to prey on the basest motives of their citizenry), or that there is no danger of even serious involvement in politics as they are. As can be expected, though, I take no comfort in either extreme but feel fully the tension between both pulls, the pulls of my responsibility to my fellow citizens here and to my responsibilities to my citizenship above. (My studies in engineering have led me to understand and lament that tension, the state of being pulled in two directions at the same time, is the natural state of my existence, for better or for worse).

It is in light of that tension that I long for the Jerusalem that is above, without forgetting that I have not yet reached that blessed city free of divided loyalties and quibbles about the lesser of two evils and the way in which my own life falls so pitifully short of that noble standard which I most sincerely believe, and it is in light of the feast that just ended that I would like to turn as I close this particular line of thought. This past feast I spent ten days in the city of Mendoza, Argentina with some of the most loving and affectionate brethren I have ever met, who showered upon this outgoing stranger more love and concern that I quite knew how to handle. We ate and chatted, hugged and kissed on the cheek, sang and danced without concern for borders, rejoicing in our common citizenship above. Since I am able to speak and understand Spanish, there was no distance of language between us either, as we were able to communicate with each other our common sentiment of ourselves as brothers and sisters, no matter how far apart we may reside. This love and concern, this affectionate regard, I believe will endure into the time when we will dwell in the Jerusalem above as fellow citizens of that heavenly kingdom.

And when those days ended, we had to return (mournfully, in the case of some of us, as loved ones now became far away) to the fallen world we had temporarily left behind us. I would like to hope that I and others were better people for having spent that time together, as short as it is, but it is only a foretaste of what is to come. May we live to see the day when we must no longer struggle with how to live in a fallen world, but can enjoy life in a new heaven and new earth, without the malign influence of sin and corruption, of death and loss. And may that vision of a better life that we can experience only fleetingly give us strength to endure what we must until that bright and glorious day yet to come.