Let me ask you to put to one side where you are, who or what you vote for, whether you think the EU, the USA, ASEAN or whatever is a good thing, a bad thing or who the heck knows what thing... and consider this: There is a creeping evil in this world, which is subverting people and governments. As Christians, it is our duty to stand and fight that. We live in the world, yet we're not of the world, we come bringing Good News that is sometimes rejected because it's the steep and narrow way, but it is indeed the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Realpolitik... a creeping evil
I have been struggling to find words to express what we have been increasingly seeing in politics in the last few years, culminating in Brexit and Trumpism. I've realised the problem is that politics has morphed into realpolitik. Make no confusion about it; this is not the way of Christ. It is immoral and a form of idolatry, subverting following the Way and replacing it with following the choice facing Adam and Eve; the choice of a life led by the Spirit or a life where moral choices are determined by expediency.
There is a creeping evil in the UK, USA and many other nations. I almost hear from every friend I have worldwide how evil is creeping over their land. Our ability to govern ourselves, and by this I mean worldwide, not merely in the UK, in an endurable ongoing fashion, has not developed much over the past two centuries. Our weapons have become more targeted but more prolific. Refugees are running from increased terrorism and we see Christians in the UK wanting to bolt the door and pull up the drawbridge to keep these innocent terrorised people out.
It's 2016 and approximately the same number of people as the combined population of England and Wales are refugees worldwide! Obviously the UK cannot welcome them all in, but compared to countries like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan they are doing pitifully. It’s a horrendous indictment upon British Christians that they are more prepared to vote for isolationism than to care for the sojourner in their midst. They want 'the Jungle' to be in Calais so that the poor, the weak and the needy are kept at arms length.
A spiritual battle
We need to realise that this is a spiritual battle. You need to be a follower of Christ and to see with spiritual eyes. You need to experience Jesus in your life, it's not logic, it's not common sense. Yet even the disciples were baffled at times. Jesus said to them, 'Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember?' We're talking about the indwelling Holy Spirit. Yet many followers of Jesus are blinded to the creeping evil they are embracing.
The European context
In my context, born as a European in the UK, the battleground is Brexit and Remain. The Christian founding fathers of the EU, Christian democrats like Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, Alcide de Gasperi, Joseph Bech and others would be horrified at the UK deciding to turn it’s back on building bridges that rebuff the division and hatred that tore Europe apart in two world wars during the 20th century and the xenophobia sweeping across the continent. Now we hear demands for counting foreigners working in British companies, for checking ethnic identity and country of birth for kids in British schools, for passport identity before you can give birth in British hospitals… this is an ugly repeat that Brits along with other European peace lovers fought to shun 70 years ago.
We are Europeans, we have wider natural ties than being island isolationists. To spurn that unity is to reject God’s call on our lives, to turn self-centred. There is a need for Christians who voted Brexit to repent of that sin. We need to hear again the call of John the Baptist in the desert to repent because the Kingdom of God is near - as close as your hand! The Kingdom of God is not some nationalist and isolationist
structure, but an open bringing together of people and reconciliation
of God and man.
Open our eyes
Repentance is about a change in direction not an apology. That change in direction needs to be towards bridge building and unity, yes, towards an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe and the peoples of the World. They are not clients to be sold things, this is not some trade contract but about humanity. It's totally wrong to see Brexit and Remain in terms of trade! All the trade discussions I have heard tend more towards expediency than morality.
Make no mistake about it, the EU is not the Kingdom of God, nor is the UK, nor the USA, nor any man made nation state. The Kingdom of God is spiritual. Nevertheless, we Europeans, we Christian Europeans, through the EU, are modelling Christ's way on earth, not isolated inward-looking nationalism, but community embracing transnationalism. Like Elisha, we pray, 'Open their eyes, LORD, so that they may see.' When the LORD opened Elisha's servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. This is indeed a spiritual battle.
