How do you get from these instructions…Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. (Romans 13:1-2)
To these words which launched the American revolution…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
The leap from accepting divine rule as divine right to advocating the overthrow of the colonial government occurred because Presbyterians began to read their Bibles and came to a different conclusion than those who had read these same words for 1700 years. What seems so mundane and obvious to us as twenty-first century Christian Americans, was unprecedented and controversial in the early 1700’s when Presbyterian pastors climbed up into their pulpits and began to question what everyone, until that point, had accepted as the way God wanted it to be. Sure, there had been curbs put on absolute divine rule by documents like the Magna Carta which King John was forced to sign in 1215. But questioning the right of the king to rule at all was simply preposterous.
The seeds for the American revolution can be traced directly back to John Calvin and the Geneva church. While the ruling Roman Catholic church tried to keep the lid on the growing unrest caused by the availability of the printed Bible being read by more and more people, the lid blew off when Martin Luther posted his 95 objections on the Wittenberg church door. Suddenly so many of the assumptions, which until that point were simply accepted as the way God wanted things to be, were being rigorously questioned.
John Calvin, a trained French lawyer, brought his keen legal mind to bear on the right of the Roman Church and Pope to rule matters of faith and conscience with absolute authority and concluded the whole thing was a house of cards that needed to be torn down and rebuilt along scriptural lines. Rather than absolute right of clergy to rule unquestioned, Calvin reached back into the New Testament church and reinstated the power of the laity in the office of elder. Echoes of Acts chapters 6 and 15 can be heard in the church structure that emerged under Calvin’s guidance as he reestablished the priesthood of all believers and specifically the offices of elder and deacon and delegated to them real power.
Strangely enough, Calvin’s creation of institutions which wield real clout, not just the illusion of authority, was driven by his low view of humanity. Billy Currington sings a song with the lyrics, “God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy.” I think Calvin would have agreed. (Note: Both Luther and Calvin liked their beer but preached against drunkenness.) While struggling to throw off the tyranny of absolute power and control as exercised by the Roman Catholic Church, Calvin recognized that no one person could be trusted to govern without powerful checks and balances. His low view of humanity as fallen sinners meant he didn’t trust anyone, even himself. Nor did he trust the majority to always make the right decision. The result was a representative form of church government that acknowledged the views of the majority, protected the rights of the minority to dissent, while balancing power between the clergy and laity so as to protect the future church from the abuses of power that bred corruption. It was nothing short of brilliant, so brilliant that much of its structure and all of the principles were implemented in the constitution that emerged post-revolution our own United States.
The reason this is so important for us today as Presbyterians is that we have a form of church government and a way of doing theology together that while cumbersome and messy some, if not all the time, allows for discussion, debate, and course corrections, as we work together to discover God’s leading and will in the midst of real life and the leading of God’s Holy Spirit into God’s future in Jesus Christ.
So come and celebrate July 4th weekend as we worship together and celebrate our Presbyterian heritage.
Now…for the other stuff on my desk…
My thanks to the many volunteers who made this year’s Vacation Bible School a smashing success even in the midst of in climate weather. The VBS team and children will be leading us in worship this Sunday, so this is going to be fun!
Remember to bring your donations of name brand sodas and waters with you to church this Sunday. This is the last day of collecting before the burger booth goes into action. Then, after watching the great home-town parade, stop by the booth and buy a burger and support our El Salvador mission project.
With that…you really do know what I know…
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