Not of this world

No matter which side of the American political spectrum you are on, today is probably something of a shock.  And that is all I will say about politics.  The only solace in the whole mess, at least for a certain obscure branch of thought, is that 'our Kingdom is not of this world.'  It doesn't matter who wins or loses, which nations rise or fall, as C.S. Lewis so nicely put it:

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors."

The vast majority of humanity thinks nations and kingdoms are the important thing, but a backwards little sect from Roman occupied Jerusalem, composed originally of uneducated fishermen, came to a rather astonishing conclusion: it is the people that last forever and are therefore important, not the Kingdom or those who run it.

That's something American Christians often confuse: America is nothing in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter who sits in the White House, God will work out His plans regardless of our hopes or fears.  But it isn't just the modern American Evangelical who gets a bit confused.  Jesus's original followers were equally blind, thinking He had come to oust the Romans and restore Israel as a glorious nation, but He had bigger plans, He had a whole world to save.  We need to look outside our own little neighborhood, life, country, and even world, and rather ask, 'what is God's great plan?' rather than dreading what the election or loss of so-and-so will mean.  America and her politics are not at the heart of God's great scheme, rather the turning point came two millennia ago in an unfashionable part of a shabby little suburb of Jerusalem and culminated on a blood soaked hill just outside it.  Even then, God was in the politics, using men's schemes for His own glory and the good of all men.

There is great comfort in that thought: that whoever wins the election and however they rule, it is not outside God's knowledge or keeping.  Our ridiculous little country is not responsible for the fate of the world or the universe, in fact we already know the end of that particular story, no matter that the election turned out in so surprising a manner, there need be no surprises when we finally get to the end of history.  The only question is, have we put our faith in an idol: a political figure, a country, a lifestyle, an ideology that will one day come to naught, or have we put our faith in the One who wrote the Book and the only One who can salvage each and every character from meaninglessness and obscurity?