Politics or Love...that is the Question!

‘My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love.’ 1 John 4:7 MSG

Jesus said, “Give Caesar what is his, and give God what is his.” [Mark 12:17 MSG] This verse is often seen to mean that church and state shouldn’t mix. Or in other words that politics has no place in the churches of a nation. This idea was challenged by the Rev. Michael Curry in his sermon at the recent Royal Wedding.

While the conversation the last couple of days has focused on that wedding: on what the wedding dress was like, on how cute the children were, even picking apart the bride’s makeup which allowed her freckles to show [Horrors!] the main conversations have revolved around that sermon. The Rev. Curry began with this quote from the late Dr. Martin Luther King, who said ”we must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that we will make of this old world a new world.”

The comments I have heard seem to be concerned that the sermon was too political, that it kept going back to love only as an excuse for the political tone of the sermon, that it didn’t emphasis Megan and Harry’s past enough or their future. Another comment that I hears was that relationships and politics have a lot in common. After all politics thrive on power and money and so do most relationships. So therefore Love is integral to both. Those who have and wield the power and the money, control not only the country but also the relationship. And so, yes, it did talk about Megan and Harry’s past and future as it talked about their relationship being built on Love.

If we live out the Love being talked about in this sermon in relationship with those with whom we see daily, then we can’t help but also live it out in the broader society. Just think what that would mean in the world if Love was the coinage of politics instead of power and money.

As the Gospel of John has Jesus saying in Chapter 13, verses 34-35….“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

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