So the EU election results reject the status quo and bring
in those espousing extreme views from right and left. Is anyone surprised?
During these last several years of economic crisis, we’ve
been voicing lots of outrage over fat cats and bonuses, only to watch the
disparity between rich and poor continue to grow. Politicians, a class of people
who used to command respect, fiddle and fudge their way through their terms of
office. A few get caught and pay a price but many continue to act as if they
are above the law.
It’s seemed amazing that there hasn’t been more civil
unrest. Of course there has been some, but maybe not as much as I would have
anticipated. And maybe that’s the strength of democracy and even of the EU;
where there might have been revolutions or wars before, now outraged citizens
take to the ballot boxes and vote in the most outrageous candidates just to
make sure the powers that be recognise the depth of the populace’s discontent.
Where are we going with all this? I don’t know, but this
morning on my walk I was reminded of a bit of Scripture from Micah: What does
the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly
with your God.
To act justly. I guess the Germans don’t feel it’s very just
for them to be working hard in order to bail out the southern nations whose
work ethic isn’t the same.
To love mercy. I guess the Greeks don’t feel it’s very
merciful to be stripped of their income (and their extremely early retirement
packages!!) by the powers that be.
To walk humbly with your God. Well, there’s few enough of us
Christians who manage to do that, let alone politicians who are out to line
their own pockets.
But I think this is the challenge. As secularisation gains
in strength and power, fewer people are going to make an effort to live by God’s
guidance. Does that matter? Do people have an inherent sense of goodness and
fair play which will still seek a high ethical standard?
No.
The only way to succeed in acting justly, loving mercy and
walking humbly is by living as close to God as is possible and allowing him to
be Lord of one’s life, to listen to his voice and swallow one’s pride and love
God and neighbour before self.
People deride Bible-believers because so many of them focus
on the trivial – arguing for a literal seven days of creation, for instance,
when actually, does it matter how long it took God to make the world? Real
Bible-believers should be recognisable by the way they behave in a just,
merciful, and humble way.
Not many of them on the political scene, but there are some.
But before I worry about them, I think I better check my own life’s choices.
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