Preparing the Way
The Prophetic Voice in Politics
“Strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.” Is 35.3
This has been the prayer of many a curate at Sunday evening Benediction, which comes so soon after the last bottles of lunch have been drained. But it also reflects a ‘double theme’ which runs through Isaiah, and indeed all the prophets.
On the one hand, the prophets tell us, if we would but realise it, we are weak and depend on God for strength and encouragement more than we know.
On the other hand, having experienced that strengthening and support from God, we must in turn protect the weak and vulnerable in our society.
In most of the OT there was not yet developed an international dimension to this calling - that is to protect the weak and vulnerable in all the nations - indeed, a cursory reading of the OT prophets might leave you thinking that wholesale slaughter was the way of dealing with differences with neighbouring countries.
But there were hints in the prophets and law of a broader responsibility for universal care. So the refugees, sojourners, migrant workers - these are all singled out for particular care by the people of God.
And the prophets point forward all the time to an age when all the nations will be drawn into the loving purposes of God - a theme that is common to much of the Advent emphasis on the Second Coming of Christ.
This ‘looking forward’ has come to be so identified with prophecy, that in common language, prophecy is often synonymous with foretelling the future.
But it is not primarily that. It is speaking for God; bringing the message of God; reminding God’s people of the promises God has made to them and of the responsibilities he places on them.
In the 1960s and 70s, the charismatic movement produced a whole spate of modern-day prophets, exercising what they saw as the gift of prophecy referred to by St Paul in his list of gifts of the Spirit. There were many prayer cells where futures were foretold for various participants.
I remember my scepticism being fed by one particularly zealous young ‘prophet’ who started with the memorable words apparently spoken on behalf of the omniscient God: “Thus says the Lord: “I have nothing against you… as far as I know.””
Most biblical prophecy is in fact a forceful restatement of God’s principles for life and worship; and a forceful restatement of God’s love and mercy. The looking forward was in order to strengthen people in the eschatological hope of God’s coming. The idea that there would be a resolution when justice would be seen to be done.
On this 3rd Sunday in Advent, when we think of the role of John the Baptist, imprisoned and beheaded not for his religious beliefs, but because he meddled in politics; I want us to think about the church’s prophetic voice in politics.
We have only to look at the present war footing of the Britain and America to be reminded that politics is too important to be left to politicians.
The OT prophets, who play so prominent a part in our Advent preparations, knew no distinction between politics and prophecy.
What is our working definitions of politics? It is to do with authority, social structures, the exercise of power within society. The politics of different groups at different times in history have varied enormously. At present in the West, the two great shaping democratic ideologies have become capitalism and socialism.
Of course popularly, these are both regarded with great suspicion. As one cynic has put it: capitalism is man’s exploitation of man, whereas socialism is the exact opposite.
Now the OT prophets knew no distinction between politics and prophecy, because they operated within a theocracy. God was Head of State. His priests and prophets spoke on behalf of God and received revelations from him in the Divine Privy Council. There was no need of a king, but Israel demanded one, and reluctantly God gave them Saul and that was the beginning of the end of theocracy.
Over the two thousand years following the anointing of Israel’s first king, eventually the church became the new Israel and arguably, Christendom became the new theocracy. But now it was no longer prophets who spoke the voice of God, it was the rulers of church and state - which were often synonymous.
One of the struggles of the last three centuries in the West has been to try and separate religion from politics.
In America, they have constitutionally done it in theory, although not in practice. Whereas in Europe, we have generally done it in practice, while not in theory.
So where does that leave the prophetic voice in politics?
Some of you might raise a mild St Mary’s cheer if I were to answer that question - where does that leave the prophetic voice in politics? - with ‘nowhere!’.
But that has not been the response of the historic churches over the last century. It has been the response of some sects - the JWs, the Mormons, strict Calvinists; but it has not been the response of either mainline Protestants or Catholics.
Sometimes political intervention and a so-called prophetic voice has been disastrous. It has added to the bigotry and misunderstanding that divide nations and encourages mental and sometimes physical violence.
So although theocracy is all but dead, thank God - it is still advocated by some fundamentalists. There are those in Britain and America - restitutionists - who want to bring back a state that enforces OT law. I’ve read their leaflets, for instance, advocating that after a two week warning to ‘change your lifestyle’, gays should be executed. It would certainly ease congestion in central London, but most of us would not recognise this as the prophetic voice in politics.
But sometimes the prophetic voice has been heroic and Christlike in it’s attempts to bring peace and justice: Bonhoeffer, Romero, Mandella, and hopefully, Rowan Williams.
If the church is to speak into our society, including the political structures, in any sense as ‘for God’, then we are left with what the prophets majored on anyway - the broad sweep of Biblical ethics, reinforced by our Lord’s own teaching: summed up in Isaiah
“Cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.” (1.16)or in Micah
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (6.8)Our Lord echoes these prophetic signposts with his command to love God with the totality of our being, and to love neighbour as self.
And this has little to do with party politics. When we say ‘we don’t like politics in the pulpit’ we usually mean we don’t like politics which are different from ours in the pulpit…
A Christian who is involved in politics - and thank God for the many who are - must in the end decide on certain policies; and these result from political ideologies.
But these political ideologies must never be presented as the prophetic voice of God. The church is on catastrophically shaky ground when it starts making policy statements. This is to try and return to a theocracy, where we presume to know the mind of God on specific issues.
The prophetic voice of the church in politics must always be to call our leaders to pay heed to those underlying truths of human authenticity: goodness, justice, mercy.
And to remember, lest we get above ourselves, that we need God’s help and Christ’s example in ordering our society.
Doesn’t it strike you sometimes, as you look at our world and some of the chaotic forces at work within it; the proliferation of nuclear arms; the development of biological weapons - just how fragile our world order is? That anarchy lurks just below the surface?
We need the humility to look at ourselves and others and to cry with the prophets:
“Strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.” Is 35.3
