A crisp, chilly November
wind breezed through the streets of Pennsylvania's state capital:
Lancaster. Among the 4,300 residents there at the time, two of them
– the Barton brothers – had plenty on their minds. Sons of an
Episcopal priest who'd abandoned his family to flee the Revolution,
William and Matthias Barton had both gone on to success. William,
46, the new county prothonotary, was a well-known lawyer who'd
reached his greatest fame in co-designing the Great Seal of the
United States of America – the one you'll see on every dollar bill
in your pocket. His little brother Matthias, 38, also a lawyer, had
been in political office for seven years now – first three one-year
terms in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and now just
re-elected to a second term in the Pennsylvania Senate.
But it was election time,
and the Barton brothers found themselves at odds. Governor McKean
had called the feuding Senate and House to the Lancaster Courthouse
for a special session to take up the monumental task that could shape
the destiny of an infant nation – the task of choosing a method for
picking Pennsylvania's fifteen Electoral College voters, which could
make or break a close presidential race. William was a vocal
supporter and speechwriter for the Democratic-Republican Party;
Matthias was one of the thirteen Federalist senators standing
resolutely in their way. I wonder how it affected the brothers'
relationship.
It had been an ugly year,
ever since the governor's election, in which Federalists in Lancaster
tried to thwart Thomas McKean, the Democratic-Republican candidate,
by spreading rumors among voters that he'd died. The present year
had started with the new register-general Samuel Bryan charging the
old register-general with having embezzled public funds; the whole
thing got Bryan into heated conflict with members of the State House
and his complaint about “gentlemen... asserting malicious
falsehoods on the floor of your honorable house.” For that
comment, he nearly got arrested, and one representative accused him
of “a false, infamous libel.”
But the current
presidential election was hottest of all. Democratic-Republicans
fretted that Federalists, if they stayed in power, would gut the
United States Constitution, turn the country into a monarchy, and
virtually enslave the people to arbitrary government power.
Federalists, on the other hand, said that if the
Democratic-Republicans took over, a tidal wave of atheism would
result in destroyed churches, the neglect of public morals, and lead
even to widespread plunder and assassination. Both parties told
their followers, “Your dearest rights are at stake!” It was a
heated election, and the partisan political strife tore friend from
friend, brother from brother. The candidates at the heart of the
conflict? For the Federalist party: President John Adams. And for
the Democratic-Republican party: Vice-President Thomas Jefferson.
Earlier, in May,
Jefferson financed a scandalmongering journalist, James Thomson
Callender (who infamously slurred George Washington as “twice a
traitor”), to publish a pamphlet savagely attacking John Adams as
war-mongering beast from hell. Abigail Adams denounced “all the
host of Callender's lies”; John Adams likewise called Callender a
“liar.” And Jefferson was Callender's sponsor. Throughout the
year, newspapers filled with charges of deception and prevarication –
here in Pennsylvania, Democratic-Republicans accused Federalists of
maintaining “corrupt presses,” while Federalists denounced
Democratic-Republican writings as “poisonous publications..., false
and malicious..., misrepresentation so gross.” Lies and
accusations of lies were both rampant. One letter-writer pleaded
with both parties, “You sacrifice even truth to support your
opinion.”
It's been over two
centuries since the fierce election of 1800. But it still rings a
familiar bell, for the ugliness of American public life has outlasted
the march of time. Some of the great howling lies of
twentieth-century politics, we remember. Johnson pledging not to
send American boys to Vietnam while the Pentagon was planning out
exactly that. Nixon vowing his personnel had nothing to do with the
Watergate Hotel break-in. I won't bog us down with more recent
examples, but suffice it to say that, while I've certainly preferred
some presidential administrations to others in my lifetime, I
wouldn't dare characterize any of them as renowned truth-tellers.
And today, things aren't any rosier than they were in the days of
Adams and Jefferson. It seems to be the rule in American public life
that truth has to be checked at the door. In fact, one political
philosopher in the 1960s wrote, “No one has ever doubted that truth
and politics are on rather bad terms with each other.”
I'm sure the matter
didn't look much better nineteen centuries ago, from the standpoint
of Roman Asia Minor. An infamous handbook
on electioneering, attributed to Cicero's brother, advised that good
political candidates always tell people whatever they want to hear,
since “broken promises are often lost in a cloud of changing
circumstances.” The handbook warned, “Politics is full of
deceit, treachery, and betrayal.” How seldom truth and politics
mix – now, or in early America, or in the Roman world!
But embedded in that
world of political corruption and untruth, an alternative order
existed, buried in the fringes of many cities, large and small. An
alternative order existed in the form of small, sometimes struggling,
maybe even compromised groups who nonetheless gathered each week to
talk and sing and eat together. And what they called themselves is
interesting. 'Ekklesia' –
the Greek word for what we today might call the borough council. We
tend to cover that up by translating it, when we find that word in
our Bibles, as 'church.' But that's what churches called themselves:
'ekklesia,' the town
council.
And
these alternative town councils had come into existence because of a
story that's taken up residence in their midst, not merely in words
but in power. And that story centered on a Pierced Man who stepped
in to take the brunt of all humanity's hatred and violence and
wrongdoing, allowing it to literally penetrate his body, so that he
could carry it down where it belonged. And in doing that, he had
given them an immense gift. They called him “the One who
loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood”
(Revelation 1:5d). Their Lover and their Liberator. But he did not
stay down. No, he achieved great fame among them by returning as
“the Firstborn from the Dead”
(Revelation 1:5c). Having lovingly freed his adherents by allowing
himself to be pierced, he had been the first to defeat death. And
now, “behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye
will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the
earth will wail on account of him”
(Revelation 1:7). His name? Jesus Christ. He was the reason
alternative town councils, ekklesiai,
had started popping up in town after town after town, even in Roman
Asia Minor.
And
to them, living where they do, a prophet writes a message encouraging
them to keep living as an authentic parallel society: “John,
to the seven ekklesiai that are in Asia: Grace to you, and peace...”
(Revelation 1:4). He wants to remind them, and lead them deeper,
into some of the truths that give them reason for being. And one of
those truths is this: that, amidst all the propaganda of Roman
politics then, and amidst all the propaganda of American politics
now, the highest political authority is this very same Jesus, whom
John calls “the Ruler of the Kings of the Earth”
(Revelation 1:5c). He sits above every Asiarch. He sits above every
governor. He sits above every senator. He sits above every consul.
He sits high above the emperor in Rome or the president in the
District of Columbia. The United Nations meets only as a crabbed
batch of hasty stick figures beneath his sweeping banner overhead.
All those who jet from nation to nation, who enter rooms to the tune
of “Hail to the Chief” or “God Save the Queen” or what-have
you – they may be “the kings of the earth,”
but Jesus Christ is “the Ruler of
the Kings of the Earth.”
There is no higher political authority in all the world than this
Jesus. Even those who oppose Jesus operate only within the
boundaries that Jesus sets. Everything they do, he has the authority
to review. Everything they say, they're accountable to him.
Ultimately, he governs, he presides, over every action “the
kings of the earth” take. For
John, Jesus is at the heart of politics.
And
in light of that, it should maybe surprise us how else John describes
him. For John, the highest political authority is also “the
Faithful Witness” (Revelation
1:5a) – “the Faithful and True Witness”
(Revelation 3:14), in fact. John's drawing on the imagery from Psalm
89:37, where God vows that David's throne will “endure …
as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established
forever, a faithful witness in the skies.”
As constant and reliable as the sun and moon in announcing God's
providence, so the Messiah's rule would last forever, and so Jesus
would tell the truth forever, live as a witness for truth forever.
This
is exactly the opposite of everything we've come to expect from
politics, isn't it? This is the contradiction of how we ordinarily
conduct public life. Jesus didn't become Ruler by tricking people.
Jesus didn't become Ruler by flattering the masses and currying
favor. Jesus didn't become Ruler by playing other contenders off of
one another. Jesus didn't become Ruler by being loudest and most
obnoxious in denouncing his foes. Jesus did not become Ruler by
reciting a litany of one-sided factoids. Jesus spoke and lived
relentless truth. He proved himself trustworthy in the name of a
trustworthy Father God. And in love, Jesus persisted in his truthful
and faithful witness all the way to the tomb and beyond. That was
his campaign. And for it, God voted him into office as “the
Ruler of the Kings of the Earth.”
Faithful witness unto death was Jesus' election strategy – none of
the bickering nonsense of the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans
was found in him – and now in office, he keeps his every campaign
promise flawlessly. Because Jesus, even now as Ruler, is still
Faithful Witness.
It
makes you wonder: what would a world look like where even one
candidate for high political office looked like that? What would it
look like if even one contender for the American presidency, or some
other position, honestly pursued the path of Jesus? What would it
look like if they took him as their political example? But John has
a message for the churches, for the ekklesiai,
for these alternative borough councils, these alternate boards of
township supervisors. He sees them, first and foremost, as those
who have gathered around this Truth-in-Politics Jesus. And because
of that, Jesus has chosen them
to be raised up as a new political mode of being. Jesus has selected
them,
these ekklesiai,
to be the new political order of the world. John says to them, Jesus
has “made us a
kingdom, priests”
(Revelation 1:6). The Kingdom of Priests is what authentic politics
must forevermore mean – that is the government which Jesus, Ruler
of the Kings of Earth, prefers.
As
such, these alternative political bodies and their members are bound
to new ways of living. They – we – have to be relentlessly
scrupulous in truth-telling. We cannot afford to traffic in rumors,
accepting every story because it confirms their biases, passing along
every speck of partisan gossip and gobbledegook. We must not twist
facts to their advantage or play games with reality. We must not
hide behind semantics and diversions. We must be relentless in
valuing and telling truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth. We must also be committed to love, never contempt, as our
political motive: love for each other, love for others, love for God,
love for their neighbors and neighborhoods. We must be driven by
seeking the benefit of all those we encounter, even if it's a benefit
that a hateful world doesn't recognize. This love cannot drive us to
deny the truth and to become unfaithful witnesses, but it must drive
us to display the truth as also the good and the beautiful. And
since Jesus' grand political act was to liberate us from the powers
that chained us down, so our political work must focus on freeing our
neighbors and neighborhoods – freeing them from oppression, freeing
them from injustice, freeing them from addiction, freeing them from
pollution, from violence, from idolatry and greedy lusts and all
false things. Truth, love, liberation – the political manifesto of
the ekklesiai.
These
ekklesiai
and their members – our
ekklesia
and we
as members – must exalt Jesus as the highest political authority
and the greatest political example. Because he is the highest
authority we recognize, we must be prepared to encourage and to
rebuke lesser political forces in his name. Because he is the
greatest example we recognize, we must be prepared for faithful
witness to mean political life by way of the cross. The real
political heart of earth is not what you'll see on C-SPAN or MSNBC or
FOX; you'll seldom hear about it from Rachael Maddow or Rush
Limbaugh. The real political heart of earth is where you are right
now. The political decisions that bear ultimate importance are the
ones we make here together, as we declare truth, as we baptize into
heavenly citizenship, as we commune across divisions, as we turn to
the Ruler of the Kings of Earth to rule and lead and guide us, as we
welcome the Faithful Witness to teach us, as we implore the Firstborn
from the Dead to revive and heal and liberate us anew. That
– what we do here – is the public life of humanity. The politics
section of The
New York Times
is small potatoes next to political coverage in our church newsletter!
And
as we bear faithful witness to the rule of Jesus the Pierced One,
Jesus the Firstborn from the Dead, Jesus our Faithful Witness who
Rules the Kings of the Earth – that is how the highest political
authority on earth is wielded – right here, right now. As we bear
faithful witness to 'the
kings of the earth,'
to all lesser political authorities around us, we aim to retrain
them, disciple them, integrate them into a higher order – or, if
they resist, we overcome them by remaining faithful to our witness,
and the exposure of their deeds against us seal their overthrow. But
faithful to our witness we must remain. Whenever you're discouraged
by the division and deceit of the political and social order that
today is unraveling beneath our feet (much as it seemed in jeopardy
to the Barton brothers in 1800), remember this: Above all, Jesus the
Faithful Witness rules, and his footsteps mark where we must tread.
“To him be the
glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen”
(Revelation 1:6b)!