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THE BRIGHT LIGHTS OF BROADWAY #1
LUSTING FOR THE OVAL OFFICE
Every time we go through an election year here in the
United States, most of the nation HAS to be sitting back and wondering
one thing: “Why in the WORLD do these people go through it all? What drives
them to work so hard, running, campaigning, traveling, fretting . . .
and then if they win, they just keep right on at the same pace for the
next four or eight years?” If you’ve been watching the recent NBC drama,
The West Wing, you get just the tiniest picture of what a frenzied life
it’s got to be.
Our spiritual topic for the week is this: POWER. Is it wrong to WANT power?
Is it wrong to SEEK it, to campaign for it, to ask the American people
to give it to you? Can a born-again Christian appropriately offer himself
or herself as a candidate, and say: “I want to rule”?
There’s a little Bible story we find in the book of Matthew, chapter 20,
where two young politicians had their mother go on C-SPAN, so to speak,
to campaign on their behalf. The wife of Zebedee, and the mom of James
and John, dragged her two boys over to Jesus . . . and she actually knelt
down to make this request. Here it is, beginning in verse 21:
“‘What is it you want?’ He asked. She said, ‘Grant
that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other
at your left in Your kingdom.’”
In other words, Jesus, when You become King — as we
all KNOW You’re going to eventually do — please let my kids be Prime Minister
and Secretary of State. That’s really all we want . . . just this tiniest
favor of “patronage.”
Well, 2000 elections later, we have to ask: is that kind of power-grabbing
all right? Surprisingly, Jesus doesn’t tell them this is an inappropriate
request. If you read the story, the two things He says to them are — first
of all:
“You don’t know what you are asking. Can you drink
the cup I am going to drink?”
Meaning persecution and crucifixion? Mama thought Christ
was heading for Washington and Capitol Hill, when He was actually going
in the direction of CALVARY Hill. Was THAT something they wanted to join
Him in experiencing?
And then number two, He plainly told them:
“You will indeed drink from My cup, but to sit at My
right or left is not for Me to grant. These places belong to those for
whom they have been prepared by My Father.”
So they’re seeking a kind of power Jesus can’t promise
them — because it’s not His place to. But just one chapter earlier, He
HAD told His followers:
“I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things,
when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed
Me will ALSO sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
The book of Revelation contains the same metaphor,
where people just like you and me get the very thing Mrs. Zebedee asked
for — to sit on thrones next to Jesus and join in the judgment. To partner
with Him in ruling the universe. But our question is this: is it wrong
to ASK for that kind of a throne? To seek to move up the ladder from lawyer
to judge, from mayor to governor, from vice president or Texas governor
to the Oval Office in the White House?
If you browse through some of the political tell-all books of recent years,
you’re immediately struck by one thing: it takes an incredible, almost
super-human amount of drive and desire to even MAKE this run for the presidency.
You have to WANT power, and you have to want it bad. In his recent bestseller,
All Too Human, George Stephanopoulos tells about the relentless pace of
political life — both BEFORE the 1992 election, where his candidate won,
and then in the White House itself. Life as Clinton’s advisor was so frantic
he broke out in a facial rash caused by nerves, and had to grow a beard
to keep reporters like Helen Thomas from knowing. Halfway through the
first term, he was so near collapse he had to seek counseling just to
survive. And, as we all know, after just the first four years, he quit.
Being in power, having an office right down the hall from the Commander
in Chief, was simply not worth it.
In their joint tell-all book, All’s Fair, Mary Matalin, who worked for
Bush in the ‘92 race, and James Carville, the enemy who helped Clinton
BEAT Bush, tell us what it was like to make their respective runs for
the White House.
“For a lot of these people,” Carville writes in his
half of the back-and-forth journal, “the day ran eighteen hours. It was
not unusual that people would leave, go take a shower, and come back for
the seven a.m. meeting.”
Carville himself would routinely get ONE hour of sleep
a night for four or five nights in a row. And with what as a reward? Candidate
Clinton was known for his HUGE temper. Nearly every morning Carville or
Stephanopoulos would have to endure what they called SMO’s: the “Standard
Morning Outburst.”
On one such occasion, Hillary Clinton called up “the boys,” absolutely
screaming that they had to cut her husband a little slack. He just HAD
to have a few hours off at least every MONTH or so. There was a volleyball
game little Chelsea was going to play in, and he hadn’t been able to see
even one yet. So they went, “Yes, ma’am, yes, ma’am.” Just a little bit
later, Governor Clinton was on the other line. Who in the world canceled
such-and-such event at Lake Charles, Louisiana? The Democrat senator down
there was counting on him; he’d promised to go. What kind of an idiotic
War Room team had pulled the plug? And “the boys” said: “Well, sir, your
wife wanted us to kind of ease up your schedule. She read us the riot
act and everything. So that’s why.”
“Well; forget THAT,” Clinton told them. “We’re going. I already promised
them at Lake Charles.” So they went, “Yes, sir. Yes, sir.” And put the
event back on the calendar. Which took five hundred phone calls to get
it restored, and smooth all the hurt feelings in Louisiana.
Half an hour later, Mrs. Clinton’s on the line again: “What in the world
are you doing? I TOLD you Bill is exhausted. Now, when we get back to
Little Rock, I’m just going to have to come in and take over the whole
schedule.” Etc. Etc. And it went like that, day after day after day .
. . with the same kind of intensity over on the Republican side of the
rat race. Faxes and e-mails and cell phone calls at three in the morning.
Nonstop for twenty-two-and-a-half hours a day. Why? Because you want power.
Well, what about this? You and I aren’t running for president, but in
our own little worlds, the same realities exist. Don’t they? Power is
“out there” for us too, just beyond our reach. Where we work. In our marriages.
In the family between parent and child. Some of us who work in the field
of religious broadcasting actually face the “Mrs. Zebedee syndrome”; we’re
tempted to want or expect the proverbial throne next to the one occupied
by the King of kings. In my own Christian denomination there are presidencies
to be attained on four levels: conference, union, division . . . and then
the big chair at 12501 Old Columbia Pike in Silver Spring, Maryland. World
headquarters. People move up; people move down. Terms end, and new ones
begin. Pastors move from small churches to larger ones. Elders and deacons
have the opportunity to become HEAD elder or HEAD deacon.
And do you know something, friend? The Bible teaches that this is all
right. Power is an acceptable thing to have. I want to just share two
verses with you, and then save the rest of our discussion for tomorrow.
But notice this verse, from the very heart of the Christian gospel, found
in Romans 13:1:
“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities,
for there is no authority except that which GOD has established. The authorities
that exist have been established by God.”
In the more familiar King James:
“The POWERS that be are ordained of God.”
And you know, that applies to the man sitting in the
White House at this very moment, and at Number Ten Downing Street . .
. AND at your own church. God allowed this person to have power — and
so it follows that it is acceptable for that person to have SOUGHT the
power. It’s a plain fact that you don’t get to be president if you don’t
run.
Secondly, let’s note that even Christ, who did teach His followers, “The
first shall be last, and the last first,” and “He who would lead must
first be a servant,” acknowledged His own position of authority. He had
power. He asked men and women to follow Him. And in John chapter 13, He
looks around at His disciples, and says to them:
“You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’” — “You call Me MASTER,”
says the King James — “and rightly so, for that is what I am.”
So there’s nothing wrong with being a boss. Or a master.
Or a president. But it’s interesting to notice that this statement by
Christ, “You call Me Master . . . and I AM,” is in the very same chapter
where Jesus gets down on His hands and knees and washes His disciples’
feet.
Apparently when you’re running for high office, motives — and wash towels
— count for quite a lot.
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