Hierarchical bad, democracy good. . .

I suppose you have heard the dust up over calling Christ King.  It seems that we insist upon hearing everything through the lens of our offense anymore.  So there are those who are all riled up about Christian nationalism and Jesus called King.  It is weariness.  We do not seem to listen past the first comment we can latch on and be offended by -- so thin is the modern skin.  This one, however, unpacks a host of sacred cows that probably deserve to be debunked.

You have to love the Churchill quote from way back in 1947:  ‘Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’  From time to time we are reminded of the faults and failings of democracy and sometimes we are forced to admit with a sigh that is it the least worst of all the poor choices of governments available to us.  Once we thought kings ruled by divine right and popes recognized kings.  Then kings stopped depending upon popes for recognition and eventually governments stopped recognizing kings as rulers.  It is how it goes.

That said, it is worth remembering that everything in the Kingdom of God is hierarchical and not egalitarian nor democratic.  The government we struggle with in politics is even worse as an ecclesiastical form of government.  The classical form of orthodox Christianity is most certainly undemocratic.  Everything about the God whom we know by revelation and everything about this God makes it clear that the world is neither democratic nor egalitarian.  It is hierarchical hard as that is for us to swallow.  This is not about some patriarchal preservation of power to an elite group but the shape of God's self-disclosure and His order.  The simplest Christian confession attests to that -- Jesus is Lord.  As we confess the creed, informed as they are by Scripture, we confess a hierarchical structure in which we are on the bottom -- except when it comes to the beneficiaries of God's mercy when the last are truly the first.

Of course we abhor this structure and inherently distrust all forms of hierarchy.  We prefer to shape God according to our sense of what is good and right instead of admitting that things are as God defines them. We jealously guard our rights and none more sacred than the right to vote -- on everything from what we believe to whom we will call Pastor.  Voting has replaced prayer and self-interest governs it all, it seems.  We do not want nor do we feel the need for anyone between us and God.  The modern creed says, “I don’t need any mediator between myself and God and I don't need Church and I don't need to confess my sins to anyone, and I don't need to do any good works, either.”  Our access to God is without interference, without mediation, without hierarchy, without sacrament, ultimately without any need for anyone else -- and the online version of Christianity and worship has only brought this to its logical conclusion.

 “Salvation by grace through faith” was once a phrase that meant something noble and lofty -- the triumph of God's redeeming love and work.  Now, it has been transformed into a doctrinal tenet in support of radical individualism -- me and Jesus against the world.  In this pseudo Gospel, grace has become an entitlement program and the law has become like the old saying about children -- it ought to be seen but not heard!  We can nod to its goodness without paying any attention to it.  Furthermore, the mission of the Church has become the enforcement of social mores that change according to the times and its domain is largely the improvement of humanity according to the sacred cows not of God but of our own enlightened ideology.  The freedom of Christ has become mere license to feel, think, and do whatever we please.  This is the liberal and progressive way but conservatives and traditionalists are not far behind.

God must tolerate democracy but He surely does not submit to it.  He most certainly refuses to submit to it in His Church.  We do not vote on truth or doctrine or practice as if preference rules but not because we do not want to -- God will not submit to it!   Even conservative churches who ought to know better find it hard to set aside the language of rights and the protection of a democratic character to the institution that is Christ's Church.  In my own tradition, we elevated this to a term of art -- the voters meetings in which the majority always rules -- even when what is voted upon is contrary to God's Word!  God does not require our consent to exist nor our approval to order His ways upon us.  We do not deserve it but He is merciful and slow to anger -- much different than the old man who writes these words.  Perhaps it is time we remember that God's mercy must not be mistaken either for His approval of our designs or His willingness to leave it all up to us.  Faith if it is anything is at least obedience to the King of Kings that trusts Him more than our own desires, inclinations, or wills.