Why my sermons are political

When I preach, I preach politics.

It is the most Christian thing I can do whenever I answer the call to stand before an audience that wants to hear a word from God.

I recognize that many people in the pews think that politics has no place in the pulpit.

I disagree.

Before I explain, here are two motives that often stand behind the preference for “no politics in preaching.”

The first motive may be most common among church leaders. As in the people who look at attendance and budgets. They want to avoid anything that could split or stir up their congregations. I empathize. I reckon that my own congregation lost some leading families in recent years over politics. When those families left, it hurt the church.

So if I were an elder or minister, I might think twice about saying anything that anyone could take as “political.” Why risk it?

The second motive for “no politics in preaching” is that folks don’t want to hear anything from the pulpit that even hints at criticism of their politics.

But the news that Jesus is the Christ and that his reign and rule are imminent is a political announcement. In the first century, those who made it, and those who believed it, knew it to be so.

The announcement that Jesus is the King (read “deliverer and keeper of true justice”) and Lord (read “protector and provider of peace”) is, at the same time, an announcement that the politics and politicians of the nations are not those things.

Therefore genuine Christian preaching always at least implies that the policies of the politicians in power cannot save us.

And, sometimes, when the people of God put their faith and hope in politicians, the preacher must bring them back to the only Christ, King, and Lord worthy of their allegiance and loyalty. A preacher has a duty to preach in a way that the conscience of the church reveals when it is giving to Caesar what belongs to God.

I think it would be easy to mistake rebutting the political actions and messages of the day as preaching the gospel. As if the preacher is delivering the opposition party’s response after the president gives a speech before Congress.

The kingdom of God does not arise as a reaction to the kingdoms of the world; it comes first. A preacher does not preach from the back foot, for the news the preacher announces is this:

[The Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers–all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross, (Colossians 1:15-20).

The agenda, direction, inspiration, message, motive, and power for preaching comes from this truth and this truth only.

This is the gospel and we who preach must preach it without apology, hesitation, or timidity…even though it makes claims that are sure to antagonize those who hold political power and those who support them.

So be it.

For those of us on whom God lays “the obligation” of preaching, woe to us if we do not preach the gospel–political as it may be (see 1 Corinthians 9:16).

And woe to those who, if we do not preach the gospel of Jesus the Christ, have nowhere to turn but the politicians who are happy to preach themselves.

Photo by Mitchell Leach on Unsplash