"Politics Without Principles"

Palm Sunday

John 18:28-19:16

A Sermon Preached by The Rev. Douglas M. Donley

March 24, 2002

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

Pontius Pilate watched over the execution of Jesus.

On the surface, it would seem that Pilate was involved in politics without principles. He was more interested in saving face than he was in saving lives. John’s gospel in particular shows Pilate as being much more sympathetic to Jesus than the Jewish leadership. At worst, Pilate is portrayed as a wimpy person who flows with the winds, not wanting to upset the crowds. "Here, let me execute Jesus if that’s what you really want, but I wash my hands of any responsibility."

. Jewish historian Josephus, however, remembers him as a very ruthless leader. Pilate didn’t have many scruples. He was a sinister politician. Killing Jesus would not have been out of character for him. I point this out so that we don’t paint the Jewish leadership in as bad a light as do the gospel writers, remembering that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John’s communities had built up a reputation of opposition to Jewish leadership.

Even the writing of the Gospels, it seems, reflect the politics of the communities doing the writing. Which picture of Pilate is right? The Gospels? Or Josephus? Whose principles guide the politics?

The principles that matter are God’s principles. Politics should always be derived from that. But who decides which principles are God’s? Which god’s principles do we follow? More on that later.

It’s hard to find politicians with principles these days. We expect our politicians to lie to us. Whether we’re reading the president’s lips or watching his pointing and denying finger, or his mug chomping on a cigar, we are no longer surprised by a lying politician. Almost, if not all of politics is the art of compromise, courting favor and, sadly, fundraising.

Principled politicians don’t last long.

I enjoyed reading John Lewis’ biography a few years ago, called "Walking with the Wind". He seems to be one of the few politicians to embrace principles at least the principles of justice, and keep his job amidst seemingly huge odds.

We need to remember that Newt Gingrich had principles. They might have been the principles that demonized his enemies. But they were principles nonetheless. I admire him for sticking to them, even if many were abhorrent to me.

According to Josephus, Pilate had principles and he stuck to them.

The crowds had no principles. They were fickle. They shifted their allegiances with the wind. That’s the Gospel writers’ view of Pilate, too: a politician without principles.

Where the rubber hits the road is the definition of principles. And once defining godly principles, developing policies to support those principles and only those principles.

The principles I think Gandhi was talking about were the principles that helped the most people. The principle that we are all created in the image of God, the principle that all people have a right to dignity, a home, food, healthcare and freedom. Any politics that denies one of these tenets is unprincipled politics.

Gandhi said that a public worker should accept no costly gifts. (My Experiments with Truth, p.194) This would include, we imagine, campaign contributions. His idea was that if you accepted costly gifts, then you were susceptible to arrogance. You were susceptible to influence. You might even do your work in order to curry favor of those willing and/or able to give you such costly gifts. You might sacrifice your principles for money.

Early on in Israel’s history, they understood this principle. There was one tribe of people who were set aside to be the priests of the Israeli people. These were the Levites. Aaron, Moses and Miriam were of this line. In order for them to be true to their calling as messengers of God, they were given no wages. Instead, the other 11 tribes were to give 10% of their income to the temple for the support of the priestly tribe, the Levites who had no other form of income. If everyone gave 10%, they agreed, then everyone would get an equal hearing. Ever since, the concept of tithing, giving a tenth has been a way of keeping the principles holy of both the priestly class as well as that of the givers.

Jesus, of course, was concerned with the people who stuck to those tithing laws while ignoring principles in the other parts of their lives. In Matthew 23 Jesus rails at the religious authorities, the politicians of his day, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe the mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; those you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining our a gnat and swallowing a camel!"(Matt.23:23-24). Don’t you love the hyperbole? In other words, your politics must be principled. And those principles are law, justice, mercy and faith. Politics without principles ignores law, justice, mercy and faith.

So let’s look a those four principles as we seek to define politics with principles:

Law, justice, mercy and faith.

Law of course, in this context refers to the law of the Hebrew people. The Torah. The 613 laws in the first five books of the Bible. These were laws which were designed to make Israel a unique people. They were designed to make it easiest to practice justice, mercy and faith. The problem is that people got too hung up with the law that they forgot the ethic behind the Law. Jesus said in the sermon on the mount five statements in which he reinterprets the law based upon justice, mercy and faith:

You have heard it said, thou shalt not kill, but I tell you if anyone is angry or insults a brother or a sister they are liable to judgement. Leave your gift at the altar and go reconcile yourself first.

You have heard it said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you do not resist evil. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, offer them the other;

You have heard it said, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say to you anyone who has looked with lust has already committed adultery in the heart.

You have heard it said do not swear falsely, but I say to you don’t swear at all. Let your yes be yes and your no be no.

You have heard it said love your friends and hate your enemies, but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Jesus said the Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath. The following of the law means following the spirit of the law; in other words, justice, mercy and faith.

These days we get law confused with what is right. It is church law in many denominations, for instance to deny ordination and acceptance to practicing homosexuals, even when such restrictions leads to suffering and death for our LGBT sisters and brothers. Jesus stood up to unprincipled laws. And so should we. Jesus was in favor of the law, the spirit of the law; the principled law handed down from God not the unprincipled law we have interpreted to our own gain. That’s the first principle, law.

The second principle is justice. This means making things equal and supporting truth. This means equal access to God and no oppression. Jesus turned over the tables of the moneychangers because they had neglected justice. Many a Hebrew prophet preached against people who did not care about the poor or the orphan. The prophet Ezekiel said that the sin of Sodom was their arrogance and their ignorance of justice:

"This was the guilt of your sister Sodom, she and her daughters had pride, plenty of food and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49)

In the 80’s I remember being enamored by the attempts of the new Sandinista Government to do politics with principles that would benefit the majority of the people. They made a whole lot of mistakes, which is normal for a bunch of guerillas that become politicians. But they instituted land reforms, a literacy program, tried to unite the diverse indigenous peoples with the Spanish language people. They offered each political party equal television time, no matter how small they were. The outlawed capital punishment and established gender equality programs. The unprincipled Contra War run out of Washington and Miami shattered this dream.

The Minnesota House voted Friday to deny insurance to same-sex partners, a key component of the collective bargaining agreement that settled last fall’s strike of state workers. It is saying that one kind of family is better than another kind of family. It is saying that one religious belief is better than another religious belief, because when you get down to it, the disagreement over homosexuality all hinges on how one interprets scripture. It’s a religious debate which gets played out in the political arena, all the while denying justice and protection to a minority group.

Law and Justice followed by mercy

The Greek word for mercy is also compassion. This is how many of us know God as the merciful, compassionate friend who stands by us at all times.

Psalm 51 opens with a plea for personal righteousness, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions."

Psalm 123 calls for mercy in the face of injustice, "Have mercy upon us, O LORD…for we have had more than enough of contempt. Too long our soul has been sated with the scorn of those who are at ease, the contempt of the proud."

Jesus said in Matthew 9, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." (9:13)

Mercy is the way in which we show our Christianity. The old folk hymn is true, "they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love." Isn’t it interesting that these days, when we hear people identify themselves as Christians, we no longer automatically assume they are merciful or loving? A part of us expects them to be judging and restrictive. What has happened to Christianity?

Soren Kierkegaard wrote the following indictment of us religious folks: "Gold and silver I do not have, but I give you what I have; stand up and walk," said the Apostle Peter. Later on the clergy were saying: "Gold and silver we have—but we have nothing to give."

As a church, we give between 10 and 20% of our resources to missions, especially if you take into account how we use our building. That’s how important mercy is to us.

One of the groups we support is the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition who has called on clergy this weekend to encourage faithful congregants to denounce the Minnesota House budget cutting bill because it represents an unprecedented assault on the poor. The bill cuts off general assistance to people unable to find work, it guts vital human service programs and it puts a gag order on family planning centers so they cannot even mention the word abortion. Holy week is the week to call legislators and ask them to remember the principles that one needs to be an effective politician. Those are the principles of law, justice, mercy and faith.

Law without justice and mercy is oppression. Justice without mercy can be brutal and punitive. Justice without law, does not last. And any of it without faith is useless.

Faith is not simply a sticky sweet notion to make us feel righteous. Faith is living a life of integrity and remembering that a force greater than yourself is watching over and encouraging you. It also means that that force is watching when we step out of line, crying, I believe. That force, which many of us call God, also rejoices when we embrace a life of justice and mercy.

We follow one who came so that we might have the faith to believe that the ways of this world are not the final answer. The one who came to show us that we do not need to be conformed to this world but could be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The one who said to Peter, "O ye of little faith" encouraging him to look beyond the boxes of his narrow life.

We follow one who came to set the captives free and who knew that this power comes from God. The only people who can sustain the struggle when the going gets tough are those with a strong faith. We can be fair weather Christians, but when things get tough is when the faithful are separated.

Jesus got upset with the scribes and the Pharisees because they were fair-weather faithful people. They could not handle the faith of those who made their life difficult.

My daughter Amanda taught me about living a life of faith this week. One of her favorite videos is the Iron Giant—a great tale of good verses evil, prejudice and fear set in the cold war. In the movie there is an atom bomb which the Iron Giant sacrificially destroys saving the world. Amanda asked me with a worried look on her face, "Daddy, are bombs real?"

I had to answer her, "Yes, they are."

"I’m scared of bombs, daddy."

"Me, too."

"Why do people make bombs?"

"Well, it makes them feel safe."

"But it doesn’t make me feel safe to have them around."

"Me neither Amanda." And after a long pause with her head buried in my chest, I said, "But you know what, that’s one of the things we do as people who believe in Jesus and go to church. We try to live life in such a way that no one will have to have bombs and we can tell people that using bombs is wrong."

She looked up, "Who can we tell?"

"Well you can write a letter to the president."

So fifteen minutes later, she handed me the letter that read, "Dear President Bush: Please break the bombs in half so I won’t have to be afraid. Signed Amanda Donley." I mailed it on Thursday and she has asked me every day since if the president got the letter and if he did what she wanted yet. This five-year-old put her faith into action and reminded me of my obligation as a persona of faith and as a father, to help bring about a world where law, justice mercy and faith mingle together to bring about a world that pleases God.

As we encounter anew the passion of Jesus this Holy Week, may we be changed by the message of Jesus. He faithfully, mercifully and justly called people to make sure that their politics had principles—Godly principles: principles worth living for and principles worth dying for. Any politics without these principles are sinful and ruthless.

Those are the kind of politics that killed Jesus. Pilate participated in politics without principles. The Jewish leadership participated in politics without principles. Peter in his denial and Judas in his betrayal participated in politics without principles.

The principled politics of Jesus is the radical work of the church. It is turning enemies into friends. It is ridding our lives of hypocrisy. It is committing to lead our lives by the principles of discipleship which will obviously set us at odds with the world. It is the way that grants life. When people do this, then a resurrection happens. And we don’t have to wait until next week. It can happen right now as you make a commitment or renew your commitment to living your life as a disciple of the one who came that we all might be set free.

That’s what the Christian life is all about. It is about setting us free and to no longer be bound by the ways of this world. Living the Christian life means we are no longer prone to define ourselves by

wealth without work

science without humanity

commerce without morality

education without character

pleasure without conscience

worship without sacrifice

politics without principles.

May we truly embrace a discipleship marked by principles of justice, mercy and faith. May law, our politics derive from that and only that. Then we will experience the kind of salvation for which Jesus lived and died and on the third day rose again to live on in us.

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