Is Mitt Romney the Messiah?

It is election time here in America. Election time is a fascinating, if not an extremely annoying, time to be alive. The hype is made even greater because the highest office in the land is up for grabs. So much power hangs in the balance.

The Republicans are shouting at the top of their lungs. Their message is that our current President, Barrak Obama, has failed miserably in his leadership of the country. Obama, so they say, has failed to use the power of the Office of the President to its fullest extent. The President has failed to properly use the power of the office to fix the economy. He has failed to use his power correctly to work for peace and stability and our American interests in the Middle East. Former Governor Mitt Romney charges Mr. Obama with simply not knowing how to fix the country’s problems. The office of the President is a powerful office, and President Obama has failed to wield its power effectively. So the Republican story goes.

The Democrats are also shouting at the top of their lungs. Their message is the same, just with different characters and timetables. It’s argued that if Mr. Romney were elected, he would use the power of the Presidency to destroy all that is good about America. Those who have an abundance of resources will get more. Those who have less will be taxed more. Millions of Americans will be without health insurance. Mr. Romney’s foreign policies will drive us into war again. If Governor Romney is elected, America as the land of opportunity will be lost or at least greatly inhibited. The office of the President is a powerful office, and if Mitt Romney is elected, he will use the power of the Presidency in ways that have been proven to be destructive to the American people. So the Democratic story goes.

As we’ve journeyed through learning to pray the Lord’s Prayer, we’ve made one assertion over and over again. God is God, and we are not. We did not create ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. The final phrase in the Prayer, “For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever, Amen.” is one final confession of our creaturely status.

To make this confession is to declare that the only true King is God; the only true Kingdom is the one that Jesus has brought and is bringing. It is to confess that true Power, the power to create, to sustain, to repair, and restore belongs to the only true King. All other power is a frightful impersonation – a gnarled idol and a warped and distorted mirror of God’s true Power.

God in Christ showed his true power as he spoke the world into existence. God in Christ showed his true power by healing the sick, by causing the blind to see, by making the lame walk, by setting the prisoner free. God in Christ showed his true power by taking the world’s fake power on himself, by letting it do the very best it could do to him – death, and then by bursting forth in Resurrection. It is the power that is made perfect in weakness. It is the power that is strong because of its willingness to give completely of itself, even to the point of death, for others.

Which Presidential candidate has done the same?

Neither. Neither can nor could do the same.

We cannot escape the kings and kingdoms of our day. We cannot escape hearing the claims of power or lack of power made during a Presidential election cycle. But what we can do, in the midst of all the untruth and vitriolic discourse, is confess that Christ is King.

Our ability to live as faithful apprentice sons and daughters of God is bound to our confession that the powers of this age and world are not really powers at all. Yes, we must find ways to work within these fake powers – even for their redemption, but confessing that they are not true powers at all removes us from a position of fear and doubt about the future. These powers that seem to rule today will not, and indeed cannot, ultimately win.

So we confess, For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever, Amen!