Grace and peace to you and mercy from Christ our King!
We are met in an age of grave division.
Political loyalties, hardened into factions, have poisoned the relations of neighbor to neighbor. Families have been divided. Friendships dissolved. Even the household of faith, which is called to unity—our own household of faith, our Emanuel family—has suffered from the divisive disposition inherent in partisanship. It is not pleasant to confess this, but truth compels it. When the church suffers the same fever that consumes the nation, the gospel itself obliges us to speak.
Our first allegiance belongs to God. Not to a party. Not to an ideology. Not to a faction or a leader. We are Christ’s, and no earthly power has claim upon that which is his. As St. Paul declares to the Corinthians, so he declares to us: no authority of this world has power to save; salvation rests with God alone. To be sure, civil authority has its place. Good governance is indeed a gift of God himself, bestowed for the protection of the weak and the ordering of our common life. But such governance cannot redeem us. It cannot forgive sins. It cannot confer eternal hope. These belong to Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Because Christ is Lord, no authority escapes his judgment. Jesus himself was executed at the hand of the state, condemned on the charge of kingship—a rival to Caesar. His cross was political as well as religious. Thus, when the gospel is preached in truth, it must ever unmask the corruption of power. It unsettles figureheads who mistake themselves for saviors. To resist such witness is to resist Christ himself. And those who grow restless beneath the church’s rebuke must ask why. It may be the Word of God is revealing our own betrayal of his way.
We must be plain, even blunt: faith is not measured by politics. To weigh fidelity to God on the scales of party platforms or the character of leaders is idolatry. It is to give reverence to the banner of humanity in place of the testimony of the cross of Christ. Sin delights in cunning deception. It whispers, “This is politics only; faith is not concerned.” But this is falsehood. A lie. A distortion of the notion of separation of church and state. The separation of church and state does not confer immunity from subordination to our Christian calling to obedience to Christ. As the prophet Amos proclaimed, justice must roll down like mighty waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Where injustice, whether worldly or religious, multiplies and truth is twisted, the gospel speaks. And it does not speak silence.
This witness does not counsel violence or hatred. It calls instead for courage, conscience, clarity. As citizens, we vote, serve, build, and labor for the common good. As people of faith, we forgive, love, and testify to the truth. These are not opposites but companions. When laws guard the weak, when rulers act with fairness, when communities prosper, we give thanks. But when power is abused, when the poor are trampled, when truth is corrupted, then speech is required. Paul teaches us that when one member of the body suffers, we all suffer. We are not exempted from the suffering of our fellow citizen simply because such suffering precipates from the action of the government; on the contrary, we are to stand in Christian and human solidarity with those who fear, worry, and hurt. Silence in such moments is not faithfulness.
The gospel does not summon us to bitterness or blind loyalty to groups. It summons us to a higher allegiance. It summons us to Christ, whose reign exposes the emptiness of earthly power and whose cross unmasks every idol. We live under presidents and legislatures, it is true; but above all, we live under the reign of the crucified and risen Lord, whose body, even in its imperfection, is manifested in the church on earth in our time.
We are a people of courage, not of fear. Division of parties does not define the church. All things are weighed by the Word of God, not by the slogans of our age. Our allegiance rests with Christ, who commands us to serve our neighbor in love, to uphold justice with strength, to speak truth with humility, and to walk in the unmerited mercy of God.
And now may the peace of Christ, who is above all rulers and powers, guard your hearts and minds. May his cross remind you that no office, no law, no nation endures but his kingdom, and no authority stands higher than his mercy. May his Spirit bend your will in obedience, not to fleeting powers, but to the eternal Word made flesh. And may your life be marked by devotion, by humility, and by service to neighbor, so that all you do gives glory to the one who reigns without end; in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Your brother in Christ,
Pastor Daniel W. Spigelmyer, Jr.
The Rev'd Daniel W. Spigelmyer, Jr. 