Sermon of June 17, 2007

11^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
I Kings 21:1-21a
June 17, 2007

On Faith and Politics

If you were not moved to shout “Thanks be to God!” following this morning’s Old Testament reading, I can’t say that I blame you. Not very uplifting stuff, this tale of greed, intrigue, and murder in high places. If the main characters didn’t have funny-sounding names like “Ahab,” “Naboth,” and “Jezebel,” you might think you were hearing a reading from the National Inquirer, or for that matter, the New York Times.

This tale has just about everything needed to cause a yellow journalist to salivate: a greedy but emotionally immature monarch, a conniving first lady, a principled but naïve victim, and a social reformer with God on his side. Throw in an attractive intern or perhaps an Attorney General with a severe case of selective memory, and you’ve got a hit. “The Sopranos” has run its course. Next up: “The Samarians,” staring Ahab, the gangster-monarch. If he makes you an offer, you can’t refuse.

Perhaps we should review the sordid details, just in case you missed a few. Ahab is the King of Israel. Although he (supposedly) worships the God of Israel, his wife Jezebel worships the local deities, the Baals. Next door to Ahab’s palace in Jezreel is a prime piece of real estate owned by Naboth, the Jezreelite. It’s a vineyard, but Ahab would like to have it for a vegetable garden, so he makes Naboth an offer. “I’ll buy that vineyard of yours or I’ll swap you for another, better vineyard.”

Nothing wrong with the offer, but here’s the catch: This is ancestral property. Naboth is obliged to keep it in the family. King Ahab is not family.

“No deal,” Naboth says. “The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.”

Ahab responds like a typical oriental potentate. He goes home to his bed, pulls the covers up over his head, and refuses to eat. (If this were a modern story, we’d call in Super Nanny to teach this brat some manners, but this isn’t a modern story.) Enter: Jezebel – the dancing first lady.

“Now what, you big baby?

“Naboth won’t sell me his vineyard.”

“For crying out loud! Who’s the king in these parts – you or that Yahweh- worshipping hick? Never mind. Get up and eat something. I’ll handle this.”

And she does. Jezebel did not become Queen of Israel to bake cookies. Using palace letterhead and the royal seal, she sends out letters to some scoundrels she knows and arranges for them to accuse Naboth of blasphemy and treason.

The plan works. Right in the middle of a church service the scoundrels stand up and say, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” The people, who had been fasting for some time, must have been in a nasty mood. They grab Naboth, take him outside of the city, and stone him dead.

When Jezebel hears about this, she informs Ahab that Naboth is no longer an obstacle. Ahab promptly heads to Jezreel to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard.

And that should have been the end of the story, but those ancient chroniclers of Israel, writing thousands of years ago, are with us in this meeting house this morning to testify that God doesn’t put up with that kind of thing.

Rulers might think they can act with impunity. They might ignore the written law and the unwritten code of common decency, and they might imagine that they can get away with it. But the ancient writers say “Not so fast.” Even kings in their palaces are subject to a higher authority. Even monarchs must bow down to the God who created them and entrusted their thrones to them for a time.

Enter: The Prophet Elijah, Ahab’s long-established nemesis. The word of the Lord comes to Elijah. “Go on down to Naboth’s vineyard, were Ahab is about to file the plat in the courthouse, and tell him I’m watching. Tell him what happened to Naboth is about to happen to him.”

Elijah delivers the message in particularly ghastly terms. “Thus says the Lord: In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood.” When you’re talking to a bully like Ahab, you first have to get his attention.

Now you may be thinking just about now, “Why should this ancient story be read in public worship in a Christian church today?” I can think of several reasons, but here’s the most obvious one: the divine standards for public service haven’t changed. God still expects those who govern the people to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.

Kings and presidents, queens and prime ministers, mayors and magistrates, city and county commissioners – whatever the office – are God’s servants. It doesn’t matter if the office-older is Christian or Jewish, Muslim or Hindu. It doesn’t even matter whether the office-holder believes in God at all. From a Biblical perspective, that office-holder is nevertheless accountable to God.

Take Ahab, for example. Ahab was a rotten king. He was an even more rotten Hebrew. He walked on both sides of the religious divide, worshipping the Lord on some occasions and the Baals on another. But that’s not the point of this story. The point is, the king answers to the Lord, the God who rules over all.

As a prophet of the Lord, Elijah’s job is to point this out to Ahab. He does his job so often and so well that when Ahab sees him coming his way, he cries out “Have you found me, O my enemy?” Perhaps that’s as good a way as any to spot a true prophet. To a false prophet the king says “Morning, Reverend.” To the true prophet the king says, “Have you found me, O my enemy?”

Christians in the Reformed tradition have an historic respect for public service. Since the 16^th century we Calvinists have held that public office is a high calling and that those who hold public office are charged by God to use their authority for the common good. John Calvin wrote that public office-holders are no less than servants of God, and as such are to be obeyed. But those same servants are to use their authority to the end that “men breathe, eat, drink, and are kept warm” (Institutes of the Christian Religion).

Unlike many modern clerics, Calvin did not trash public service or despise office holders. He honored them. For him, civil magistrates ranked higher than ministers of Word and Sacrament. There is no higher calling, said Calvin, than that of public service. He wrote in his Institutes,

              Wherefore no doubt ought now to be entertained by any person that civil
              magistracy is a calling not only holy and legitimate, but far the most sacred
              and honorable in human life. (Institutes of the Christian Religion)

A few years ago, some congregations in our area got together to form TEAM – Tallahassee Equality Action Ministry. The raison d'être for TEAM comes right out of the Bible. TEAM is all about human accountability before God. It’s about people in congregations using their God-given gifts to identify and analyze issues of social justice, and it’s about holding elected officials accountable for the decisions they make and the policies they set.

The idea behind TEAM is that we are all accountable to God for seeing that justice is done. Not just our elected officials – all of us.

It’s taken TEAM a few years to get the balance right between holding officials accountable and honoring their divinely-sanctioned office. In the early years we lined officials up and fussed at them before they had a chance to respond to our concerns. Too much Elijah and not enough John Calvin.

As the organization has matured, however, we’ve tried to deliver both messages. Now we say to officials, “We are thankful for your service. We honor your high calling before God, and the 800 voters in this room would like you to consider these topics and this course of action . . .”

So far, God bless them, the officials have not recoiled, Ahab-like, crying “Have you found me, O my enemy?” We hope that doesn’t happen. If it does, we’d better be sure our proposals are backed up with solid prayer and solid research. The only thing worse than a prophet who kowtows to the king is a prophet who doesn’t know what he or she is talking about.

TEAM has yet to uncover any cases of stolen vineyards or conspiracies to commit murder. We’ve stuck to such things as improved bus routes, bus shelters in poor neighborhoods, and healthcare for the uninsured poor. Not front-page fodder for the tabloids, but vitally important nonetheless.

According to the Biblical prophets, the poor and vulnerable have a special place in God’s heart. That’s why something so mundane as public transportation has theological import. Many poor people rely on the bus to get to work on time and to keep their jobs. The poor are also the ones who suffer most from lack of access to medical care. Poor people who can’t afford a dentist are more likely to die from heart disease caused by bad teeth. Babies born to low-income mothers are more likely to be small and sickly, with two strikes against them before they ever get to the plate.

And, since the Legislature has just left town, I think I should mention that God is a lot more concerned about poor people receiving basic services paid for by taxes than rich people getting tax breaks on their homes at the beach. Tax relief and tax reform are not necessarily the same thing.

It doesn’t take a prophet to figure these things out. It takes a prophet, however, to demand accountability. TEAM is a prophetic ministry.

Jesus, we Christians believe, was more that a prophet, but he was at the very least a prophet. We must never forget that he died convicted of the same trumped-up charges that were made against Naboth: blasphemy against God and disloyalty to the ruler of the state.

Political engagement is always risky, but it is never optional – not if you and I really want the Bible to be our guide to faithful living. The king is accountable, and so are we. We must not let the king forget it, or forget to hold ourselves to the same divine standard.

If you would like to receive these sermons by e-mail, send a note to brant@oldfirstchurch.org.

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