Mission Impossible: Keeping Politics Out of the Pulpit

There was a famous theologian, whose name I can’t remember, who gave this advice to preachers. He said; preach with the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other. I’m not sure how often I do that. By that, I mean, both take advice from ivory tower theologians about how to preach, as well as use the newspaper as a resource for preaching. Today might be a good day to give that a whirl.

It seems strange to be preaching in a time and place where there’s so much talk about keeping politics out of the pulpit. Now there are many political and theological reasons why I believe that’s an impossible mission. I’ll spare you most of those. For now, let’s just hang with this one. At the very least, preaching is a way to share that God wants us to experience what we call life, and what we call faith as an integrated whole. To the ears of believers, preaching says there is no life apart from faith, and there is no faith that is not part of our everyday, lived reality.

The word, politics, is a combination of two Greek words. The first, politikos, means citizen; the second, polis, means city. So, preaching to people who trust that they live in, with, and under the God of Jesus, inevitably, speaks of, by and for the real, here and now world. Preaching that’s faithful to Jesus must be political.

Some of what has me going down this road is the sheer volume of theological issues that newspapers connect to political experiences of late. I’m thinking about:

California’s delaying an execution because doctors won’t participate
South Dakota’s new law banning all abortions
a New York attorney suing FEMA to get rent checks issued
and, the Supreme Court’s decision to hear a case on late term abortions.
It’s also a local trend. Here in our own polis, according to the newspaper, the House Speaker is appealing a federal judge’s ruling against prayer in the legislature. The newspaper also reports that two Indiana congressional representatives, motivated - they say - by their regard for prayer, are introducing a bill to strip federal courts’ oversight of speech in state legislatures.

Let me offer, then, to put a little theology into politics. There’s a level where what appears to be a court battle and legislative fight over the nature of prayer is on target. There’s no such thing as private prayer – at least not the kind of prayer we find in the Bible.

Now I know there are many folks who pray in quiet, secret, alone, or in solitary ways and places, but I’ve never met anyone who has taken anything to prayer that they don’t want to become public. Let me explain. You might pray to:

get married, word’s gonna get out
have a baby, folks are gonna notice
find a new job, your old boss will figure that out
stop drinking, the liquor store’s sales will fall
acquire a healing, the insurance company’s gonna hear that
win the lottery, the IRS will call you.
There’s simply no way you can come into dialogue - speaking and listening to the Lord of the universe who governs all things and whose Kingdom-will organizes the universe, and have the results of that prayer - the outcome of that speaking and listening - all to yourself. Didn’t work that way for Jesus, isn’t gonna work that way for you.

Mark says Jesus took his three closest disciples up a mountain. When Luke tells the story, he adds, “(they) went up to pray” (9:28). None of the evangelists tells us what Jesus says in prayer. Neither do we hear the disciples’ prayers. However, we do hear the response to that prayer, and, I suggest, we see the effects of that prayerful speaking and listening - both in Jesus and in the disciples.

Let’s not get there too quick. Let’s look, first, at how Jesus went to prayer. One thing that’s clear, Jesus doesn’t seem to wait to pray until all else has failed. Even in the garden, when Jesus looks to be feeling desperate, his is not the prayer of a desperate man. Even on the cross, when Jesus looks to be a desperate man, he prays a prayer, Psalm 22, which includes the phrase, “he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.”

The Jesus who prayed often alone, sometimes aloud, and frequently participated in public, communal prayer took seriously the words God spoke to Jeremiah,

I know the plans I have in mind for you - it is Yahweh who speaks - plans for peace, not disaster, reserving a future full of hope for you. Then when you call me, and come to plead with me, I will listen to you. When you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me. (29:11-14)

Jesus believed that prayer is a posture of relationship, not a ploy to manipulate God.

What Mark tells us about what’s happening on this mountain is one of those biblical encounters that’s much easier to describe than it is to explain. In many ways, it’s like the story of Moses and the burning bush. Even though we don’t really get much clarity about how it’s all goin’ down, we really do get a pretty good idea about what it all means.

Thankfully, Mark lets us in on both God’s response to Jesus prayer, and the effects of that prayer. In other words, this true prayer encounter all becomes public

In his prayer, Jesus was open to letting God show Jesus who God

knew Jesus to be, and how God saw Jesus. He did that, I’d suggest, in two simple ways. First, Jesus, in a posture of prayer, was no stranger to God. Second, because Jesus’ posture in prayer reflected an ongoing relationship with God, Jesus, let God get a word in edge-wise!

We can learn to do that. The same Spirit who anointed Jesus at his baptism filled us at ours. The Abba who announced Jesus’ son-ship to him has declared the same identity to us. This same God is as eager to find us, hold us, shape us, and love us, in a posture of prayer – a regular, ongoing, speaking / listening relationship.

Have you got 15 minutes? Can you get hold of a Psalm book, or a hymnal? Try reading the psalm or hymn and hear it as God speaking to you, before you begin your speaking to God. You might want to read it through more than once. The second time, simply letting your eyes fall across the page until a word leaps out, a word just for you.

Prayer is too awesome to be argued about in court. Prayer is too tremendous to be trivialized in legislation. Both of those realities should bring us to our knees, not to bare our knuckles.

It's not likely we’ll ever have a mountain top prayer experience that comes close to what Peter, James and John saw and heard. Few of us will start seeing the details of our lives in some grand biblical story line. But each of us is called to do what the heavenly voice said: Listen to Jesus, because he’s God’s beloved Son.

As we learn to listen, in prayer, even if we say silly-sounding things, we might just find the glory of God surrounding us. As we come with our whole, real selves before this loving, forgiving, way-making God, we might just find the road ahead of us lit up with new insight and clarity.

Then, no matter how high our prayer plateau, we could begin to see the real miracle of this story of a transformed Jesus. Despite the inability of his disciples, then and now, to grasp the fullness of Kingdom vision, Jesus keeps coming down with them, with us, never losing faith in us, loving us enough to die for. If preaching that reality is not a political act, I’ll send my next tax refund check back to the United States Treasury.

Pastor Jeff Iacobazzi