Messianic

As election day approaches, are we still secretly longing for a Messiah who can save, protect, unite the nation and lead us forward? I don’t think any of the party leaders has what it takes – although Nicola Sturgeon certainly generates a messianic fervour among supporters.

My daughter Bethany and I will be exploring the roots of the word ‘Messiah’ when we go to Eden Court this Sunday to hear Inverness Choral perform George Frederick Handel’s work of the same name.

Handel’s Messiah consist entirely of texts from the Bible set to the most wonderful music. It describes the Jewish people’s longing for the Rescuer (Messiah) they believed God had promised. It tells the story of the coming of Jesus, who didn’t at first seem to fit the messianic model.

Jesus had a clear, but perplexing agenda devoid of military bravado and political shenanigans while embracing love, justice, humility and service. And he had the misfortune, fatal to messianic expectations, to get himself killed. Another Messiah bites the dust?

Well, no. ‘I know that my Redeemer lives’ says one of Handel’s arias. Jesus lives, now recognised as a bigger Messiah than anyone had expected, the saviour not just of one nation or ethnic group, but of the whole world.

In a recent sermon, Kelvin Holdsworth from St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, imagined Jesus’ followers, after his death, setting out to look for another saviour, another Messiah.

It strikes me that when we turn our backs on God as our Rescuer and Defender our hearts draw us to embrace other Messiahs – science, technology, psychology, the political process. Who will save us?

But as Kelvin puts it pithily, there’s no need to look for another Messiah: ‘One was always enough and he’s still around.’

So we’ve got our Messiah then.  No need to bother voting next week? Wrong! Some Christians have taken the view that because we’re citizens of God’s spiritual dimension we should keep our hands clean, not becoming too involved in the world. This is so wrong! God entered the physical universe in Jesus in order to be Messiah to this messy, material world. This world matters to God.

Some Christians say ‘It’s too messy and confusing. There are Christians in all political parties, and even a separate Christian Party for heaven’s sake! Who am I supposed to vote for?’ And they opt out. Wrong!

God is far too big, far too subtle, far too imaginative, far too liberating to govern our lives with a thousand rules about how we should vote. God calls us to love, creativity and justice, and gives us passion and freedom to get involved in the world – and that includes voting with discernment.

But it’s not enough to vote. The Messiah seeks to make the world a better place with us, not as casual supporters of the God party who cast our votes for God in the offering plate each Sunday, but as active campaigners, on the streets, partnering with Messiah.

Perhaps we’ll get involved in projects to make our communities and world better places – including faith-based initiatives and those with strong faith-based leadership. Street Pastors, Foodbanks, New Start and Calman Trust, for example, are making a difference here in Inverness.

Perhaps we’ll become involved in politics. It’s not enough just to fish people out of the river – we need to understand why they’re falling in and prevent this happening.

And, most important, we’ll have confidence in the power of the Gospel – not the empty, desperate words of politicians, but a life-transforming message that God is real, God loves us.

This message is for all of us. It’s not necessarily a question of acquiring skills and techniques or of adding more to already busy lives. It’s simply about being thoroughly Christian in our daily living, open to God’s creative prompting.

Kelvin Holdsworth said in his sermon ‘The Christian gospel is spread by kindness, good humour, by people who bear the marks of Christ in their souls to reach out to a world that needs to know more about God’s love. It is spread by the enthusiastic witness of those who know the love of God to be true and to be the most wonderful thing in the world.’

Donald Boyd

Donald Boyd of the Scottish Christian Party complains about parties with an agenda, but no vision. Christians have a vision. A vision of a better society and of a future perfect society. A vision which brings life and power to political parties whenever it is embraced. A vision which on Sunday night at Eden Court the choir and soloists will be belting out.

For the Messiah, no mere party leader, is God of all parties, God of the universe. ‘He shall reign forever and ever. King of kings, and Lord of lords.’

(Christian Viewpoint column from the Highland News dated 30th April 2015)