I believe patriotism without politics is one of the root causes for crisis in our society today. Our politics are bending towards party government and less on governance. Time has come for us to revisit our definition on politics and strengthen our political system. Politics can be best understood as the art of amending and upholding law to maintain social order and safeguard citizens from threat. According to Thomas Hobbes in his political philosophy, every person has the natural right to do what he/she wants, but since humans are selfish in nature it becomes liable to conflicts or psychological fear. Therefore to bring order, justice and equality, politics came into being. Through this article I would like to optimise my opinion that Politics as defined is one form of Church ministry that needs urgent involvement.
As Christians many of us have become silent spectators to the happening around us because we have a general mindset that politics is dirty. We are often misled by our traditional thought that Church leaders, theologians and good Christians should not involve in politics. We notice all kinds of corruptions and injustices, yet we do nothing but only condemn politicians. However, the truth is we become self-righteous and hypocrites by not involving in political activities. We are trying to wash-off our hands rather than cleaning the dirt.
The political, economic and social contexts in which Jesus lived and did his ministry are similar to our present scenario. Against these backgrounds Jesus declared his manifesto in Luke 4:18-19, where he proclaimed that his ministry is to bring good news to the poor, release the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to restore full humanity and dignity. Here the four groups of people whom Jesus’ refer to is more than the literal economic poverty and physical blindness but it refers to those who are sinners; who are captives by various ideologies, social, politics and economic; who are blind to truth and values; who are oppressed of being a minority. Thus, Jesus’ ministry is directed towards liberation, justice and equality, and sight or wisdom to those who are blinded spiritually, physically or politically; which means salvation on earth as well.
The Church comes from the Greek word ‘ecclesia,’ meaning ‘community of believers in Christ.’ The Church does not have mission of its own but an extension of Jesus’ ministry in the perspective of Jesus manifesto. The community and ministry of Christ have been further elaborated and illustrated universally by Paul in 1st Corinthians 12:12-31 as “one body with many members.” All believers through baptism have become one with the body through the Spirit. Just as different organs of the body have different function, so is the Church, every Church member are given different gifts by the Holy Spirit to continue Jesus ministry. I hopefully affirm that ‘the art of politics’ is one gift of the Holy Spirit.
Against the traditional methodology that Christian should not involve in politics, it is clearly mentioned in Romans 13:1-7 that politics/government has been instituted by God and given authority to execute law and order to do good and punish the bad. Basing on the above two concepts we need to make a paradigm shift of our understanding and mindset that politics is one form of ministry that cannot be ignored and neglected. Every believer irrespective of profession is equally important because if one part suffers all suffers (Rom 12:26). The ministry of Christ is not limited to clergy class or theologian but it is a universal and holistic mission to achieve wholistic transformation.
I would like to conclude from my own spiritual experiences of faith and observations. It was impossible for human and God to reconcile again because of human sins, that involved all kinds of immorality and corruptions. Incarnation was the only possible way to make reconciliation with God and transform the world. Thus God came into this world, incarnating himself in the form of flesh to set an example in living and sacrifice Himself as atonement for our sins. And while ascending to heaven He sends the Holy Spirit as our “helper” to extend and expand his ministry, ‘The Kingdom of God.’ Likewise, we need good believers or theologically trained people to incarnate themselves as politicians and transform our political system with justice, righteousness and equality. We need politicians who can be the voice for the voiceless and marginalised people. We need politicians whose faith is reflected by his/her work. We need to walk the talk and practice what we preach.
I don’t intend to condemn the present politicians and clergy class, but I believe that more than before with the increasing crises in all spheres we need leaders whose faith and ideals are according to Jesus principles. I intended that we need to have a mindset and educate our Christian politicians that politics is also one form of Christian Ministry.
