Week of November 1

We have just gone through a midterm election that has been marked by a new level of mud slinging and divisiveness in the body politic.  This situation has been fueled by the recession that is beleaguering our nation.  Jobs are scarce, unemployment is he highest since the great depression in the 1930s, housing values have plummeted.  People have seen their retirement nest eggs become valueless causing them to keep working long after what was to be their golden years.

I am reminded of family dynamics that I observed in my years of doing family therapy.  A family would come to therapy to resolve their painful issues.  Despite gaining knowledge about the problem and learning what they would have to change in their lives they often failed to do so.  This is because change requires patience, discipline and sacrifice. It is easier for all of us to maintain the status quo.  The same thing happens in societies during difficult and conflicting situations.  Members of the society repeatedly tend to vote for change, but often become impatient and reverse themselves in the commitment to change.  Unfortunately politicians seem to use this tendency in human nature to leverage themselves into positions of power.

Politicians will present themselves as the sole answer to today’s problems.  But they fail to remember Jesus advice to us to render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is Gods.   Fifty eight years ago Adlai Stevenson stated that things like minimum wage, farm prices, military spending and health care were under the jurisdiction of the government.  God’s jurisdiction is conscience and thought, man cannot control these.  Many politicians of both parties seem to be fighting for control of our conscience and our thinking rather than working constructively to address the political, social and economic problems they have been elected to address.

Paul warns us (in his second letter to the Thessalonians) to be suspicious of those who tell us they have the only answer to our problems. The point of today’s second reading is that given today’s concerns many will present themselves as our “saviors”.  As Christians we believe there is only one savior, Jesus Christ.  Paul has it right when he states, "Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word."

So long and God bless,

Jim+