Election day will be on November
4 this year, and I hope all of you who are eligible will vote for the
candidates of your choice. We are
blessed to live in the United States of America
where those who rule over us in government are chosen by the people and serve
successive terms of office only as long as the people wish to re-elect
them. We have had presidents who were
re-elected by huge margins such as Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, and we
have had presidents who lost their bids to serve another term such as Herbert
Hoover and Jimmy Carter. This is not a
presidential election year, but we still have the opportunity to retain or
retire our governor, senator, congressman, and many other officials. If they are not re-elected they return to
being ordinary citizens with no governmental power anymore.
When
we move from the realm of government to the realm of faith there is an entirely
different dynamic. Despite the fact that
pastors and evangelists continually invite people to make Jesus the Lord of
their lives, Jesus Christ does not hold the title of Lord by the vote or
decision of the people. This is his
title by divine right, and no vote can ever change it. What pastors and evangelists are really doing
is challenging people to see the reality of who is Lord and then live
accordingly. In Philippians 2:9 it says
that because of Jesus’ obedience up to and including his death on the cross,
“God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth
and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the
glory of God the Father.” There was only
one vote for Jesus, but it was the vote that mattered because it was God the
Father’s. Jesus Christ is Lord for all
eternity!
At
several points in his earthly life Jesus was deeply unpopular. When he delivered his first sermon in Nazareth
where he had been brought up, the people were so angry at his broad concept of
God’s mercy for all people of all nations that they forced him out of the
synagogue and almost threw him over a cliff.
(Luke 4:29) Later on, when he
delivered his teaching about being the Bread of Life it is reported “after this
many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him.” (John
6:66) But when he asked the Twelve if
they, too, wished to leave, St. Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we
have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.” St. Peter would not be swayed by popular
opinion. He knew the truth.
St.
Peter had this sense that, no matter what anyone said, Jesus was, is now, and
always will be Lord. He remembered that
Jesus had once said to him and his eleven companions, “You did not choose me,
but I choose you.” (John 15:16) So he
never felt that he had decided for Jesus, but that Jesus had decided for
him. And Jesus has decided for you, too,
whoever you are. He wants you to open
your eyes and see that he is the Lord of all.
He wants you to open your mouth and offer him the praises that are due
to him and which saints and angels sing to him (Revelation 7). He wants you to open your heart and obey him
and his precepts willingly. Won’t you
acknowledge the “name that is above every name” today? Won’t you live daily as a citizen of his
kingdom? Won’t you open your eyes to
the truth no man can change?
We
have had 44 presidents of the United States . They come and go. We have had 40 governors of Minnesota . They, too, come and go. But there is only one Lord, and his term of
office never ends.
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