My name is Greg Hampton. If we had never met before, I would love to meet you. I'd love to buy you a coffee, take you out, hear your story, learn more about you.
The last few weeks we have been in a series called Fully. Jesus told his disciples that the enemy wants to steal and kill and destroy, but he gives life to the full.
It may not always feel like it, but we can be full to overflowing, joyfully, generous, faithfully, trusting God, prayerfully shaped.
Today, we can be full of truth. Now, I'm not sure what your online habits are like, but the latest data actually from this last month,
the latest data show that teenagers average about 2 hours and 45 minutes every day on social media. Is anyone surprised that that's not higher?
I think a lot of us probably thought that that would average out to be higher, maybe because some of us spend more than that on social media each day.
Adults aren't doing that much less. Their time on social media goes from, if you're 25 to 34, you spend around 2 hours and 40 minutes, just 5 minutes less than teenagers.
35 to 44 year olds are 2 hours and 19 minutes. 45 to 54 year olds is 2 hours and 1 minute. Now, there is a disparity between male and female, but I've just averaged those together.
The biggest drop in online usage is actually 55 to 64. They drop down to an hour 38 every day.
The amount of time we spend on social media matters when we're talking about truth and our perceptions of it, maybe even especially as it relates to politics.
People worry about whether CNN or Fox is biased. There's a website you can go to called Allsides.com.
It tells you left, leaning left, center, leaning right, far right. It'll tell you where a news source falls, whether it's neutral or not.
If that's what you're looking for, you can find things that are neutral. But here's the thing. A lot of people don't go directly to a neutral news source to find out what's happening in the world.
A lot of us, if not most of us, go to social media where an article has been shared and shared and shared. So you're not looking to find out if it is a neutral source of truth or not.
The reason is because you trust the people that have shared it. I'm here to tell me and us that that's problematic.
It's problematic and it's concerning because research shows that up to 33% of the content that you see on the site formerly known as Twitter is created by only 3% of the users.
And that 3% is what's called toxic users. 33% of what you might see on Twitter is created by 3% of the users that are considered toxic.
Or if you're looking at political content, did you know that 97% of the political content that is created by is created by only 10% of the users?
90, basically all of it, 97% is created by only a tenth of all of the users. It means that 90% of a populace on whatever side you're talking about is only represented by 3% of what gets posted.
Did you know that 74% of all fake news is created by 0.1% of online users? 0.1.
Say it again. Getting your news on social media is problematic.
Research that I was referencing also says that not only does this extreme minority stir discontent, spread misinformation, and spark outrage online, they also bias the meta perception of most users.
Users being us.
Anyone watch the Yankees and Dodgers this last week? World Series? Cut.
Here's an example of a meta perception, the opportunity to develop a meta perception. Anybody watch Game 4?
Anybody see what happened in the bottom of the first?
In the bottom of the first inning, the Yankees were up to bat.
The ball got hit into foul territory along the right field line.
Mookie Betts runs into foul territory, reaches up with his left hand, catches the ball near the wall, just above the wall, and as he catches it, a Yankee fan grabs his glove,
pulls him to the stands, starts trying to pull the ball out of the glove when Mookie Betts reached up with his other hand to try and get the guy to let go.
Another fan reached up, grabbed his hand, would not let him pull himself away from the stands until the first Yankee fan got the ball out of the glove with a giant grin on his face.
When the umpire came over and called that it was still an out, the Yankee fan was like, no, what, the ball's over there, it's not an out!
Now, a narrow perception, a micro perception, would be to say that those two Yankee fans, in particular, lack maturity, they lack impulse control, and they do not know how to act in public.
A meta perception, when seeing that, if you didn't see that, I'm amazed, because it was shared broadly, because of how ridiculous it was that someone in the stands would grab a professional ball player and not let them go.
A meta perception would say that the Yankees have the worst fans in the world because they all act that way.
That is what Dodgers think.
A meta perception is what leads people to think that all Democrats are like so-and-so.
A meta perception is what leads people to think all Republicans are like so-and-so.
The research continues, this can lead to false polarization and pluralistic ignorance, meaning that we are ignorant about the plurality of the world that we live in, that there are a plurality of things happening.
It's also linked to a number of problems, including drug and alcohol use, hostility between groups, and support for authoritarian regimes.
Moderate opinions are effectively invisible on social media, leaving the most extreme perspectives most visible for users.
I hope you're getting the point here.
What you see online, especially politically, is not reality.
It is not the full story.
It is not the full picture.
Christians don't have to be the smartest people in the world.
But we should be aiming to be some of the most thoughtful, because we belong to the truth.
And so I don't think I've ever done this before, but with the presidential election in two days, I thought that we should talk about how we walk in truth in the current situation that we found ourselves in.
So with that, let's start by opening up our Bibles.
We're going to open to John chapter 18.
John chapter 18, it goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans.
If you see any of those, you know you're in the right neighborhood.
There are Bibles on the table if you don't have one.
Those blue books, those are Bibles, and we also have them on the bookshelf out in the lobby.
You're welcome to take one of those, take home if you would like.
We have a tradition of giving the scriptures our full attention.
One of the ways that we do that is by standing together as we are able.
If that is something you'd like to do, please stand with me now.
John 18, starting in verse 36.
Jesus answered, My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over.
But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.
Pilate asked him, So you are a king?
Jesus answered, You say that I am a king.
For this I was born, and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.
Pilate asked him, What is truth?
Let us pray.
God of every tribe, every tongue, every color, every nation,
we thank you for the scriptures that they have persisted throughout the millennia,
that we still have them to read, to consider.
Whatever you have for us to learn today, I pray that it would stick,
that it would become part of the framework of our faith,
that our faith would become stronger as we become more like your son, Jesus.
Amen.
Alright, so first of all, it must be said and it must be understood.
How we think of politics was not the political reality of Jesus' death.
The first democracy dates back to 500 years before the birth of Jesus,
but Caesar Augustus had eliminated direct elections by the time of Jesus' birth.
Like, you could probably still elect like your local mayor,
but your governors, your senators, your representatives,
anyone that had power to control a region,
all of those people were put into position by Caesar Augustus
because he had consolidated all of the power into the position of the emperor.
So Pilate, as a governor, as we would think of as a governor of a region,
he was in charge of multiple regions, Pilate was appointed.
He was not voted in.
His job is to make his emperor happy, not to serve the people.
And the people that handed Jesus over, they were not elected,
they were not voted into those positions.
When the authors wrote about kingdoms and governments,
they were not thinking about representative democracies or democratic republics.
And they did not have presidential races in mind.
It is unique.
It's actually a gift, but it is very special and unique
that we get to both follow Jesus and play a part in who gets to lead our country.
That is unique.
Of course, one thing is probably exactly the same.
Whether it's an empire or a democratic republic,
politicians always answer the same way.
What is truth?
Pilate fits very well into the modern day spectrum of how politicians may answer questions.
So we ask ourselves, how do we as Christians, as followers of the ways,
people that look to Jesus, how do we walk in truth in the political climate
that we find ourselves in as those that are both Christian
and those that have the privilege of getting to vote?
Well, then a decade ago, a pastor named Brian Zahn
wrote a list of ten things for Christians to consider as they vote.
And we have that. We're going to put it up.
We're going to leave this up throughout the rest of the message.
You can keep looking back to it if you want. You can read it.
I'm going to cover four of these.
Some of them I find to be slightly redundant,
but I'm going to cover four of these.
And I hope that you find them helpful.
It's pretty easy to find this online. Just type in Brian Zahn, Christian Voter Guide.
You may have already seen it. Shared on social media.
Brian Zahn is the pastor that was leading the prayer retreat I was on in Colorado a few weeks ago.
I've been reading his books for a number of years.
The first thing on his list says this.
The political process, while necessary, has little to do with how God is saving the world.
Listen, Brian is saying this to refocus the Christian imagination onto God's kingdom
instead of obsessing on our earthly governments.
What was it that Jesus said?
But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.
See, earthly governments serve a deeply important purpose,
but our governments and God's kingdom are not synonymous.
Governments can do a lot that is in line with God's kingdom.
But even the most altruistic governments throughout the entire course of history,
they do not have at their core the care and concern for the spirit of God's creation.
When we expect or attempt to force governments to take the spiritual route of God's creation,
to take the spiritual role of the church,
history is borne out time and time again that they create as many, if not more, problems than they solve.
When the church and the state are married, it creates problems.
Now, that does not mean that Christians have no place or should have no opinion about government.
That's not what we're saying.
We're saying the government does not save the world. Amen?
The government doesn't save the world.
Who saves the world? Jesus saves the world.
So it doesn't mean that Christians have no role.
It doesn't mean that they should have no opinions.
One of the Bible commentaries that I was reading in preparation for this, in this passage, says this,
Jesus' disassociating the origin of his kingdom from this world should not be taken as implying that the kingdom of Christ has no political concerns,
or that its righteousness is not to be applied in the political arena.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote this, specifically about the church.
The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state,
but rather, listen, the conscience of the state.
It must be the guide and critic of the state and never its tool.
The point is for Christians not to be involved at all.
The point is for Christians to understand that our involvement in the government is not what saves the world.
Even though our involvement in governmental processes can serve some of the purposes that God desires.
The Christian and the church should never elevate the government to the position of God.
And the Christian church must never lose its ability to be a voice of reason, even prophetic confrontation.
So, the political process may have little to do with how God is saving the world, but let me also say this, listen carefully,
in whatever little way it is being used by God, it matters that Christians carry truth in that space.
In whatever little way that earthly governments are used, the purposes of God doing work on this earth,
it is important that we carry truth into those spaces.
Second point that Brian has up there, it says the fate of the kingdom of God does not depend on a political contest.
That should be obvious, right?
The fate of the kingdom of God does not depend on political processes.
The future of God's kingdom is set. We sang it. We sang it.
I believe in the resurrection, I believe that he will come again. I believe that we will rise again.
It is Christian doctrine that we believe that God's kingdom has already come and is coming,
and will be made perfect when Jesus returns again and makes all things new.
It is throughout the scriptures, it is affirmed in both the Nicene and Apostles' Creed. God's kingdom does not depend on who wins on Tuesday.
But let me say this, God's kingdom does not depend on who wins,
but the needs of your neighbor may at least partially depend on who gets elected.
Why? Because there's things like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, school funding, taxation, police reform,
long list of things that affect you and your neighbors.
So what is the future of God's kingdom?
Because there's things like Medicaid, school funding, taxation, police reform,
long list of things that affect you and your neighbors.
So when we vote, again maybe this is obvious, we should not only think of ourselves.
only think of ourselves. Greatest command is this, love the Lord your God with all of
your heart, with all of your soul and strength. And the second is like this, to love your
neighbor as yourself. For in these commandments are all of the law and the prophets. We have
a pretty self-centered world. I have been guilty I'm sure in the past saying, well vote
your values. Today I want you to hear me say pray about your values but also vote for your
neighbors that might have completely different values than you. But what happens politically
may very well affect their lives. So we should pray about deeply held beliefs and then we
should pray about our neighbors needs and then we vote accordingly. Because voting with
your neighbors needs in mind is one way to put your prayers into action. Now maybe you
think voting won't change anything and maybe you think that just praying about it is enough.
I'll pray and then I'll just pray my value I don't have to pray about my neighbor. Let
me once again quote Dr. King. He said, the idea that man expects God to do everything
leads inevitably to a callous misuse of prayer. A man said to me, I believe in integration
but I know it will not come until God wants it to come. You Negroes should stop protesting
and start praying. Dr. King replied, I'm certain we need to pray for God's help and guidance
in this integration struggle. We are gravely misled if we think the struggle will be won
only by prayer. God who gave us minds for thinking and bodies for working would defeat
his own purpose if he permitted us to obtain through prayer what may come through work
and intelligence. Prayer is a marvelous and necessary supplement of our feeble efforts
but it is a dangerous substitute. James would say, tell me you have faith and I would say
let me see your works. Let me see how you are acting on the faith that you have. The
fate of the kingdom does not depend on a political contest and the government may have little
to do with saving the world but the needs of our neighbors can very well be affected
by how we act or do not act even if we have prayed as much as we can. Maybe this is a
new idea for you but this time around don't just pray. Don't just pray about yourself
and things that you believe. Pray and vote with your neighbor in mind. The fourth thing
that Brian Zahn has on his list says the bottom line for political parties is power. The bottom
line for Christians is love. Herein lies the rub he says. This problem, the problem of
power, is why I choose as an American citizen to vote for character above promises. I vote
for character above promises. What do I mean? Everyone, maybe even especially politicians,
are susceptible to power. They are susceptible to power and the abuse of it. Some of us have
work environments where we see that every single day. And for me, my personal belief
is that character is what tempers one's use of the power they are given. Character is
what tempers the use of the power that one is given. Strong character acts like a conduit
directing and redirecting power to and for others. Poor character acts like a bottomless
battery that can never soak up enough power. It gets as much as it possibly can while using
that power to shock their enemies. Politicians can make a thousand promises, but it's their
character that will shape how they try to accomplish them. Every politician will have
a moment, listen, every politician will have a moment where only their character will stand
between doing something ugly or doing something beautiful, even if it is at the expense of
their own benefit. Only their character will stand between doing something selfish or doing
something selfless. And those moments, their character could affect everyone that they
are meant to be serving. Lastly, number eight on Zahn's list contends that to dismember
the body of Christ over politics is a grievous sin. Over the years, but especially in the
last 50 years, things like abortion and immigration have become very divisive topics, not just
politically, but across the church in America. Let me say this as clearly as I can. There
are no political parties in America that should check all your boxes. Truth is, both parties
have policies and legislation that are not the greatest hope of God's heart. And both
parties have policies that honor God's heart. And if we, any of us, are ever in a place
where we cannot admit that, then we are not just a member of a political party, we are
dangerously close to being in a cult. Because there is no political party that can check
every one of your boxes. That also means that we have to admit as Christians that neither
party is completely wrong. And to treat other Christians like they are less than, or like
they're not really trying to follow Jesus or they're no true follower of Jesus because
of who they voted for, is a mistake. And it's wrong. We are all misguided about something.
We are all wrong about something. And we are all still loved by Jesus. I know so much of
this world is working to shape our meta perceptions and to divide us. To say, if so and so votes
for such and such, they're just like so and so. You can fill in the blanks. And different
people in this room will fill in the blanks with different names. We are all created in
the image of God. We are all loved and beloved. We are all more alike than the one that steals
and kills and destroys what like us to believe. So listen, a lot of people that you know,
maybe you, you will wake up on Wednesday and feel a deep sense of loss based on whoever
wins the presidential election. That's okay. Mourn for the moment. Mourn that your deeply
held beliefs weren't validated at the voting box. But do not develop a vitriol for the
other side. Do not choose division. We will have to move on from the moment and embrace
the love of Jesus for our neighbors, our neighbors that believe differently, that act differently,
that vote differently. We asked earlier, what is something that was surprising when you
found out it was true? Well, how about this? Let's be part of surprising the world that
we really do love our neighbors no matter who wins on Tuesday. Amen. Let's be a part
of surprising the world that we really do love our neighbor no matter who wins. Let's
be part of surprising the world that the love of Jesus can so radically transform us no
matter who wins that they know that we love them. Amen. Let's pray. Jesus, it is humbling
to think that were you someone that needed to be elected, we... I don't know. Sometimes
it feels like the world would not vote you in. But I pray that today, those of us that
are in this room that we would so clearly choose you that no matter who gets chosen
on Tuesday, that the foundations of the throne in our heart that you sit on would not be
moved. We pray for our country. Right now as a church, every single one of us, we direct
the attention of our hearts to praying for our country. This country that can feel so
divided that we all share the same molecular makeup. We are all made of atoms. We all have
flesh. We all have hearts that beep. We all have brains with electrical signals rushing
throughout our bodies. We all breathe the same air. We're not born and we're not meant
to live with an R or a D stamped on our hearts. I pray that your spirit would help us surprise
the world. That we would be active in all ways we're meant to be active. That we would
trust you and walk with you and hold to you closely in all our ways. In the name of Jesus,
amen.