Not Unelected or Reelected
He's still in charge.
One of the most important positions of leadership and influence experienced no shift in power in Tuesday’s midterm elections and the incumbent remains in control. To be honest, he wasn’t up for re-election because God doesn’t need to campaign for office.
Nobody unseated God on Tuesday. No ballots gave anybody the option of voting him out. What was true in God’s kingdom in 2010 will be true in God’s kingdom in 2011. What was true in God’s kingdom when Jesus spoke to the crowds is true on this day that we consider the impact of those words on our faith and lives.
No shift in power or personnel or platform. The principles and the promises of God doing his work in the hearts of people remain constant to the very end, to the last sunrise this planet sees before Jesus returns on Judgment Day. Jesus teaches us in Luke 19 that what people do with God’s kingdom now is exactly what people will be doing with God’s kingdom later, only to a much greater degree.
One servant whose master had given him a sum of money, and then departed on a trip to be declared king, returned to his servant. He asked for an accounting of the money (called a mina and equaling three months’ wages). “Sir, your mina has earned ten more.”
“Well done, by good servant. Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.” Oh, there was another servant who didn’t carry on business with his mina, and the king took it away and sent him away.
Keep your safe distance from God now, and after Judgment Day you’ll be distantly separated from God forever. Mock God now by living in sinful behavior even though you know it’s wrong, and after Judgment Day every thing you do and decide will be dirty, vile blasphemy in partnership with the devil.
Repent now, and after Judgment Day your quest for holiness will finally find fulfillment so that everything you do and decide in heaven will be untainted by sin or weakness. Follow Jesus now by taking up your crosses of discomfort or inconvenience because you are his disciple, and after Judgment Day the crosses that wear you down will become a glorious crown that lifts you up.
Not by our power or productivity, but God’s. He’s still in charge.
PRAYER: Thank you, Jesus, for your gifts of grace. For your blessing of forgiveness, the guidance and promise of the Bible, the creative and re-creative life of the sacraments, and the talents you have instilled in my being. When I take inventory of all I am and all I can do it humbles me because, honestly, I don’t always see much or feel that great. I am little. Take all I have and all I am – potential you only know – and use me for your kingdom. Invest yourself in my weak, mortal body so that I am transformed into a disciple who faithfully follows you and changes the world. Finally, keep me and all believers prepared for the last day of judgment, so that when you return we look at the end of this world with faith in the future of life everlasting. Amen.