A New Journey

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Summary

Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan in response to a question by a Hebrew scholar who asked him 'who is my neighbour'. Jesus answered the question by describing a neighbourly action - in this case the Samaritan who helped someone he had no reason to care about. The message here is clear – that we are required to love and to care for the well being of those around us including our families and friends, and our fellow citizens.

In our times it is the State and our democracy which binds us together as citizens and neighbours. Over the past century we have developed various systems to make our State work for the benefit of most people. These systems include our welfare state, the legal and judicial systems and of course elections. These systems don’t work for everyone equally - some people remain quite marginalised because of their age, or the colour of their skin or because of an illness or some past misfortune. These people are of course our neighbours and Jesus calls on us to be concerned for their wellbeing. Jesus in fact aligns himself with these marginalised people.

Many of us respond practically to Jesus’ request to love our neighbour by helping those around us who are in need. Practical action has been a mainstay of Salvationists’ discipleship for over 150 years. As most of us know, practical actions which fail to change lives and futures are ultimately futile. This means that we have to have concern for the structures which marginalise people and leave them in poverty and that we have to look for ways of building just structures – locally, nationally and even globally.

In democracies elections are an important way in which citizens and groups of citizens shape and reshape their society. The balance of values used in this shaping and reshaping is of critical importance to everyone and so is always a hotly contested debate. Christian values have an important place in this debate – not just because a large number of New Zealanders are Christian, but also because our values have something useful to contribute to building a secular society which is just, tolerant and prosperous.

Some Christian commentators suggest that Christians should have little to do with politics and should focus on the 'city of God' rather than on the 'city of man'. Other Christians are the exact opposite and use elections as a platform for advancing their particular set of Christian values. Most of us are in the middle of these extremes and perhaps participate out of a sense of civic rather than Christian duty. It is however a Christian duty to participate in elections, and in politics in general, since this participation is the neighbourly action Christ called us to undertake.