+ Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. This was our "alleluia verse" just recited! It makes two interesting points: 1) God has favorites; 2) Jesus is King of all nations sent from God to teach us how governance works. It is at this voting time of the year that it would do us well to remember these two emphases.
God, though basically loving and sustaining all of creation, including human persons, clearly favors most those who use their freedom as he intended it to be used: to choose Him and his ways above all others, and to creatively play work out this will and way in the details of their lives. The saints did this well – and he certainly favored them, and even had favorites among them: the ones who were the most humble and childlike and trusting! When we vote on Tuesday, therefore, if God is to be glorified and his peace is to be furthered on this earth, then, our choices will reflect God's will in the matters at hand: we will vote not with our hearts alone, or our minds alone: but with both of these combined with a "deep soul sense" that our decisions take into consideration God's plan of bringing all things together in Christ. For Jesus is king and ruler and ultimate goal of all, and how he would rule and administer justice and compassion and mercy and service needs to be taken into consideration always!
In the gospel passage Jesus rightly bemoans the fact that so many of his own people missed their chance at being gathered into his loving embrace, through their own stubbornness and spiritual and intellectual blindness. But he assures the few who are with him that the house would not be abandoned because he would literally save everyone by his life-giving, sin-forgiving death and resurrection!
And so, if we revel and celebrate the fact that because of our baptism we are irrevocably bound into membership of Christ's Body, the Church, which is a personal relationship with him, nothing ought to be able to separate us from him: not anguish, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or the sword: or emotionally charged political contests or intrigue: for the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord can saturate us and give us a true sense of inclusion, security and favor.
As we contemplate our votes on all the local and state issues may our guiding principle be: if Jesus, the true King of all nations, were to show up the day after the election to render an accounting of the votes cast, knowing as he would who cast each vote and why, would we find favor with him on each account? What matters most of all is our participation in building the kingdom of God: beginning with this earthly one: according to God's will. In these political issues, is this so?
Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests – may those be us, because we have done something to deserve it!
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