The Chief's Endorsement

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
The First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
October 10, 2004

The Chief’s Endorsement
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Luke 17:11-19

I’m going to tell you how to vote.
But first, even before I do that,
I’m going to tell you how not to vote.
Now I need you all to listen very carefully,
because I know this is highly controversial subject.
So I will say this just once.
Don’t vote Republican….
Now before any of you decides to get up and walk out
let me finish:
Don’t vote Democratic;
Don’t vote Independent;
Don’t vote Green;
Don’t vote Socialist, Libertarian, or Conservative.
Don’t vote a party.

No: vote Christian.
I am not saying vote for a Christian.
No: Vote for candidates from any party
who you believe represent the best of Christian ideals,
In each contest, from president on down,
vote for the candidate who you think
is most faithful to God’s will and way.

This is not easy to do, because most candidates claim
that they are good God-fearing souls.
Our task as voters is to dig past the rhetoric,
dig past the spin,
dig past all the public relations.
Dig past the untruths and the smears from the opposition.
Our task as voters is to listen carefully,
and learn about the person.
We have to do our homework.
Being an informed voter is hard work.

Every candidate running for every office on every ticket
wants us to think of him or her as God’s anointed.
The lesson from First Samuel helps us to understand what characteristics
God looked at before he anointed a king over Israel.
Height, stature, good looks,
where he or she went to school…
None of that matters to God.
The only thing that matters to God is what is in the person’s heart.
The person’s heart.
“For the Lord does not see as mortals see;
[mortals] look on outward appearance,
but the Lord looks to the heart.”
The Lord looks within the heart.
(1 Sam. 16:7)

David was the eighth and youngest of Jesse’s sons.
He was a boy, a shepherd.
But God knew that he had a good heart,
and so God guided Samuel right past the older brothers
to lay his hands on the youngest boy, David.
David was the one who merited God’s endorsement,
or the endorsement of the “Chief” as
the great Scottish preacher Peter Marshall used to refer to God.
It isn’t that hard to determine what is in a person’s heart.
As the phrase goes, “actions truly do speak louder than words.”
Look at what the person has done with his life or her life.
Has he or she looked after the needs of the outcasts in society:
The poor, the elderly, and the frail?
Speaking through the prophet Zechariah, God says to us:
“show kindness and mercy to one another,
do not oppress the widow, the orphan,
the stranger/foreigner, or the poor.” Zechariah 7:10
Right there is language that provides us with a lens
through which we can look at a person’s heart.

Matthew 25, verses 31 through 46 provide perhaps the best lens
through which we can look at a candidate for any office.
How does the candidate treat those who hunger,
those who thirst,
those who are strangers, aliens, and foreigners
those who are poor and lack clothing and housing.
Those who are sick,
those who are imprisoned both figuratively, as well as literally.

The National Council of Churches, an ecumenical group
has put together a helpful guide called
“Christian Principles for an Election Year.”
The NCC has listed 10 principles, 10 factors for us to think about
as we are considering candidates for office.
The list does not purport to be exhaustive,
but it provides an excellent starting point.

Principle Number One comes as no surprise:
“War is contrary to the will of God.”
Now immediately some may think this is a purely political statement
but the fact is, this has been a principle since 1948.
It is not about pure pacifism.
What it states is, “while violent force may at times be a
necessity of last resort,
Christ pronounces his blessing on the peacemakers.
We look for political leaders who will make peace with justice a top priority and who will actively seek
nonviolent solutions to conflict.”
You have heard me preach this message on a number of occasions,
most recently just last Sunday.
We Christians are called to work for peace.
Jesus Christ pronounces his blessings on peacemakers.
It is as simple as that.
War should always, always be a last resort,
when every other option has been tried and
been exhausted; when no other path is remains.

The Second Principle states, “God calls us to live in communities
shaped by peace and cooperation.
We reject policies that abandon large segments of our inner city
and rural population to hopelessness.
We look for political leaders who will rebuild our communities
and bring an end to the cycle of violence and killing.”
The inner cities of Newburgh and Middletown, each in our own backyards,
struggle with crime and violence.
Washingtonville is not immune.
Poverty, poor education, and lack of opportunities
are the chief causes of hopeless that leads to crime.
Ending the cycle of poverty, ignorance, and hopelessness
is the road that will eliminate violence in our own communities
as well as with other nations.

Principle Number Three: “God created us for each other,
and thus our security depends on the wellbeing of our global neighbors.
We look for political leaders for whom a foreign policy based on
cooperation and global justice is an urgent concern.”
When God led the children of Israel to the promised land,
he called it a land flowing with milk and honey.
And indeed it was: milk, honey, olives, and not much else.
The nation of Israel has few natural resources.
King Solomon recognized that the path to peace and prosperity
was built on cross border cooperation.
Solomon reigned over an era of peace that was marked
by what we refer to today as global trade:
spices from south Asia, silks from the far east,
Solomon’s palace was built with gold from Egypt
and cedar wood from Lebanon.
He and his nation were admired and respected by other nations,
and as result, they lived in peace.
His son wasn’t interested in cooperation with other nations,
and as result, shortly after Solomon’s death.
the nation was back at war.

Principle Number Four, “God calls us to be advocates for those who are
most vulnerable in our society.
We look for political leaders who yearn for economic justice
and who will seek to reduce the growing disparity
between rich and poor.”
Back in the spring of 1978 I was preparing to graduate
from the Wharton school with my MBA.
My classmates and I talked about how wonderful it would be
to join an investment bank on Wall Street
where the firms were paying the fat salary of $22,000 year to start.
We were giddy with excitement.
And we all dreamed that someday we would reach the pinnacle
and become partners, where the salaries hovered at $100,000/year
a handful earned as much as $200,000.
The difference between the salaries of the lowest paid worker
and the highest was a factor of about 20:
a secretary might be paid $10,000
and the most senior partner might earn $200,000.
The math has changed radically over the past two decades.
The typical CEO in this country earns a salary that is more than
500 times that of the lowest paid employee.
Salaries in the bottom of the pay scale have stagnated,
while salaries of top executives have skyrocketed
to absurd levels.
I am a proud alumnus of the Wharton School, but I don’t know anyone
from any class who is worth $10 million/year, $20 million, or more.
More than half of the parables Jesus uses to teach us
focus on economic matters, with special attention on the wealthy. Jesus reminds us that a camel will have an easier time
passing through the eye of a needle
than a wealthy man will getting into kingdom of God.

Principle Five, “Each human being is created in the image of God
and is of infinite worth.
We look for political leaders who actively promote racial justice
and equal opportunity for everyone.”
Could this one be any simpler?
And yet, we still distinguish others based on sex
or sexual orientation, or the color of their skin,
their religious practices, or their country of origin.

Principle Six, “the earth belongs to God and is intrinsically good.
We look for political leaders who recognize the earth’s goodness,
champion environmental justice
and uphold our responsibilities to be stewards of God’s creation.”
We are stewards of God’s creation.
God has entrusted this planet to us to look after it for future generations.
That’s what the Hebrew word “dominion” means,
when we read that God gave us dominion over all the earth.
It doesn’t mean power and ownership
It means responsibility and accountability
It seems fitting that an African environmentalist
won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Principle Seven: “Christians have a biblical mandate to welcome strangers.
We look for political leaders who will pursue fair immigration policies
and speak out against xenophobia.”
Xenophobia is the fear of anyone or anything foreign.
Our gospel lesson is a vivid reminder that our Lord Jesus Christ
could not have cared less where a person came from.
He healed the ten without asking whether they were
good citizens of Israel.
In Jesus’ eyes, they were all children of God.
He was not the least bit surprised that at least one
was a Samaritan, a race that many Israelites
considered inferior to themselves.
There isn’t a person in this congregation whose ancestors
didn’t come from another country.
My ancestors came from Scotland
We are all descended from immigrants,
people who came to this country as foreigners, strangers.

Principle Eight, “Those who follow Christ are called to heal the sick.
We look for political leaders who will support adequate,
affordable, and accessible health care for all.”
No one can argue that our health care system is a mess.
Go to a hospital emergency room and you will wait for hours
for someone to see you, you’ll spend a few days in the hospital
and you will run up a bill of $10,000.
We’ve got 45 million Americans who don’t have any health insurance,
five million more than just a few years ago.
Every year the Presbyterian Church announces increases
in premiums for insurance even as they scale back benefits.
And speaking as a lawyer, I am no fan of nuisance lawsuits,
but medical malpractice lawsuits play only a minor role
in the rising cost of healthcare.
We need to look at the health providers themselves:
the doctors, the hospitals, and the insurance companies.
The malpractice lawyers are not the villains.

Principle Nine: “Because of the transforming power of God’s grace,
all humans are called to be in right relationship with one another.
We look for political leaders who seek a restorative, not retributive,
approach to the criminal justice system and the individuals within it.”
A restorative approach, not retributive.
Isn’t that what we would expect from a follower of Jesus Christ?
To have hope for the redemption of any of God’s children.

Last, Principle Ten: “Providing enriched learning environments
for all God’s children is a moral imperative.
We look for political leaders who will advocate for equal educational
opportunity and abundant funding for children’s services.”
Education is the door to peace, the door to hope,
the door that leads out of poverty.
There is no better investment we make in the future of this country
than educating our children.
And we all have a stake in the education of every child, not just our own.
The children who are in schools in Newburgh and Middletown
are just as important to us as our own children here in Washingtonville.

Now this list is not exhaustive.
There are other things to think about.
But it is a start.
A way for us to begin thinking about candidates.
I’ve left copies of these Principles
on the Table in the Denniston Room,
Take a copy home and think about it.
If you’d like to organize a discussion group, I would be happy to do that
so we can talk in depth about these and other thoughts.

As you get ready to vote in a few weeks,
make a commitment not to vote as staunch Republican,
or a staunch Democrat.
Make a decision to vote instead as a Christian.
for that is what we are before we are anything else.
You don’t have to vote for a Christian.
No, the person could be some other faith.
But look for the man or woman
whose heart is clearly filled with the spirit of God.
When you step into the voting booth,
go in not as partisan for a political party;
Go in as faithful disciple of Jesus Christ,
as a faithful, loving child of God,
Go in and with your votes,
do your part to build the Kingdom of God.
Amen