Signs of the Times

In Luke 12:49-56, Jesus exhorts his disciples to interpret the signs of the times. Would that it were so easy? It’s hard to know what are the significant social, cultural and economic movements in our time. In this election season, we are presented with many claims and counter-claims about what’s important and what will make things better (or worse).

As Christian people, we begin from a particular perspective in our analysis. We begin with our understandings of who God is, who we are before God, and what is God’s will and purpose, not just for us, but for the whole of creation.

The Twelfth Assembly of The Uniting Church in Australia (July 2009) adopted the statement An Economy of Life: Re-Imagining Human Progress in a Flourishing World. This statement describes how the Church understands God’s will for the reconciliation and renewal of all creation and what this means for how we understand human progress. It considers the values and goals of the current global economic agenda and suggests that a Christian economic perspective would be based on different values and aim to achieve the wellbeing and flourishing of all people and the planet. Pre-election materials have been prepared based on this statement by UnitingJustice (http://assembly.uca.org.au). That resource reminds us:

Like all citizens in a democratic state, Christians have a responsibility to actively engage in the political processes of their country. As Christians, however, we have a particular responsibility to think about how we do this in a way that answers the call to be good news in the world: to bring justice, peace and hope to those processes and to seek justice, peace and hope as outcomes.

Let us pray that we may faithfully interpret the signs of the times in God’s terms and act within God’s will for the whole creation. Happy voting!