"My God is the Lord, Who Saves!"

Yesterday, Chuck Schumer called January 6, 2021 a day which will live in infamy. In so doing, he reminded this American of the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the first to utter the phrase, in deference to the cowardly attack of the imperial forces of Japan against the armed forces of the USA.

Representative Schumer’s remarks were his party’s response to Sen. Mitch McConnell’s statement that the US Senate could not convict former President Trump for inciting his supporters to attack the US congress and to attempt the execution of the speaker of the house, and of Vice President Pence.

I agree with both of these party leaders. McConnell was a coward to not vote to convict—whether constitutional or not. Similarly, Shumer’s remarks, just as politically motivated as McConnell’s, should put to rest and end all debate of what to me was a shameful chapter in American history. But despite what Shumer would have us to believe, it was not the first time that the Government of the USA, or an American President, an American majority leader, or a supreme court justice acted disgracefully.

Before I can continue with these remarks, I must state, that it is a shameful thing that an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren should have to make any kind of political comment. It only proves that our government—indeed our nation is morally bankrupt.

As an ordained minister, I should refrain from making political statements in the pulpit. In fact, most people would rightly say that the Church of the Brethren has historically been opposed to the government being involved in the life of the church—or that the church should comment in one way or another about the actions of the government.

Indeed, I am not making these comments to sway the mind of any member of any political party to state that one or the other are corrupt. Rather, I stand here today to declare the undeniable truth that the American system of government has been corrupted—not by its two party system, not by the superiority of one party over another. But rather the American government has been corrupted by corporate greed, by political infighting which places the power of a particular party over the will of the people who put that party into power.

Senator McConnell, yesterday, called the actions of former President Trump despicable. He said that Mr. Trump alone bore the guilt of inciting a mob to attack it’s own government officials, its police, it’s “hallowed halls.” He said the actions—and inaction of the President to protect this country’s lawmakers, police, citizens, and elected officials—directly leading to the senseless deaths of several of our fellow citizens a shameful dereliction of his duties, and a moral failure to keep his oath as president to protect the Constitution of the United States.

The true shame however is not what President Trump did or did not say that incited people to these things in his name.

The true shame is that our government has so crippled itself by the obstructionism and infighting of its leaders, that has prevented its government from helping its people during these dark days, that any of its citizens would feel so betrayed by our government that we would let anyone tell us that it was time for us to take up arms against our government—and that any of us would, just obey them!

So, why is this pastor making political statements. The truth is, my statements are not political—they are Biblical!

They have Biblical precedents. Today’s scripture text—which I must point out, was selected long before yesterday’s events. And they speak of a time in the history of an ancient government—not unlike our own.

The Kingdom of Israel is not unlike the republic known as the United States of America. First, it was not God’s will that Israel and its sister Kingdom, Judah, would ever be a kingdom. God wanted Israel to be governed, not by people—but by God!

When the people of Israel clamored after the judge and prophet Samuel to anoint a king to rule over them, he resisted! Yet, since God loved his people, he heard their prayers and gave them what they said they wanted, but the prophet Samuel warned them that when a man ruled in place of God, that man would never be as loving, as merciful, or as just as God would. That indeed, one day, the people would be sorry when the king began to tax them, in order to support his opulent lifestyle, when he began to require them to fight and die to protect his own interests, when he betrayed their trust—they would repent ever having asked that they have a king to rule over them.