At the beginning of each and every sitting in the House of Commons they pray. Here's an example of one of the prayers that the Chaplain to the Speaker would pray:
Lord, the God of righteousness and truth, grant to our Queen and her government, to Members of Parliament and all in positions of responsibility, the guidance of your Spirit. May they never lead the nation wrongly through love of power, desire to please, or unworthy ideals but laying aside all private interests and prejudices keep in mind their responsibility to seek to improve the condition of all mankind; so may your kingdom come and your name be hallowed. Amen.It appears to me that this says something about our political system, and about our faith in Jesus Christ.
Firstly, our political system. Many say that the politics of this country is based upon Christian ethics and values, and they are right. These things are not necessarily being attacked at the moment in this country... the atheist, the Muslim, the Hindu, would be in general agreement with laws against theft and murder, which is what people most often mean when they say this country is built upon Christian values. But something greater is both the foundation of politics in this country and being attacked before our eyes. It is this: that there is something above the system, something better than the system, something greater than law for laws sake, that we serve as Christians (and once did as a country through our politics) a God who is bring in
His Kingdom, not ourselves as we seek to build our own. Clearly this has not always happened - and we can all see the fact of our fallenness throughout the history of Britain. But this is reflected in the above prayer - that we serve for the glory of another kingdom and another King, and that we need protection from the temptations of power, people-pleasing and private interest.
It is this foundation that is being attacked in British politics today. Unfortunately
Mr. Campbell is wrong, in politics we
do do God. Our country does, and indeed must, or we will be heading toward destruction (are we not, in fact, already on our way?). Equally, as Christians, we must never put a barrier between the God we love, serve and have communion with by the grace given us through Christ, and the politics we live in and live out in this country.
And so secondly, this prayer says something about our faith in Jesus Christ. It reminds us as Christians that we live for a different Kingdom than our society does - though we utilize the same means, the British Parliamentary democracy. We cannot be motivated in our lives by lust of power, wealth or fame. But we must be motivated by the love and grace given us freely, to go out and be graceful to others and to love others. This means we will inevitably share many of the same aims, goals and desires as many politicians - but we will often have different motives. We will be seeking
His Kingdom Come. And whilst we pray that prayer above (as we indeed should, especially as we come toward a General Election), we must be mindful that we are not called to keep separate the sacred and the secular - in fact, that is a totally dehibilitating myth that we need to completely put out of our minds and lives as it is totally unbiblical - but we are called to love our neighbour, locally, nationally and internationally. And that will mean being involved in politics, locally, nationally and internationally, for the sake of Christ and to see people's lives changed - not just materially, though that be of great importance, but also spiritually. We want lives to be liberated and transformed inside and out - that's our vocation, that's our calling, that's our challenge. Let's seek His Kingdom in politics.
(The prayer is found in
Krish Kandiah (ed.), Just Politics, p. 23.)
