Recently, while driving very early one morning, I passed a church sign which proudly and piously stated, "Only Jesus saves, not politicians."
No doubt the recent election of President Obama is the backdrop for the statement. Churches in certain circles have been up in arms since many seem to be assigning Messianic expectations to President Obama.
It seems to me that the church has done it to herself.
You see the time was when the source of authority in our culture was the church, for better or for worse. She could give us hope when hope was no where else to be found. The time was when the masses, even though they may not have formally participated in Christianity, still had some regard for the authority of the church and found in the church and her message, even her God, a source of optimism about the future.
But the self-absorbed church is no longer getting the job done.
The truth is that we frail creatures of dust know we cannot manage our own lives.
This becomes especially apparent when things go south due to economic crisis, a time of war, an assault by terrorism or a any of the other potential plagues which might fall upon us.
When things get bad we finite sons and sisters of Adam start looking outside of ourselves for reasons for optimism and a basis for courage. The fact is that in many of the corners of our culture things are pretty tough and uncertain right now.
But as Nietzsche prophetically proclaimed long ago, the church has killed God. This case of divine homicide has forced us to look elsewhere for a way to face what appears to be our feeble futures.
So it really is not surprising at all that people would shop elsewhere in order to fulfill their cravings for a Messiah.
So is it really all that surprising that the masses and the media would project onto President Obama the role of Messiah?
So the church sign which reads, "Jesus saves, not politicians" contains a level of irony, which that particular congregation and the church in general will never understand. The fact that President Obama is regarded as a Messianic figure is a reflection of exactly how greatly the church has failed in proclaiming what it believes to be the message of the real Messiah who gives meaning, hope, and optimism the future seems too fragile to face alone.
