The path of history is surely influenced by God's choice
Watching the televised inauguration of President Barack Obama, the phrase "cometh the hour, cometh the man" dropped into my mind. It was followed pretty quickly by the word "choice".
Watching the televised inauguration of President Barack Obama, the phrase "cometh the hour, cometh the man" dropped into my mind. It was followed pretty quickly by the word "choice".It's easy to be cynical about power: the lust for it no matter what the cost to oneself or to others is evident in party politics, banks and boardrooms. And it's as old as humanity - from the caveman wielding his club before the tribe, to the modern individual who wants to run the country or, better still even, the world.
But cynicism - never a good guarantee for sound judgement - has to be tempered with the matter of choice. And perhaps we are too ready to assume that choice is always within our human remit while ignoring that choice can come from, shall we say, an authority beyond ourselves.
History offers many instances of firm leadership in bleak times - Lincoln in the 1860s, for example; and within living memory there's Roosevelt (crippled with polio) in the 1930s and Churchill in the 1940s (having come in from his "wilderness years").
Why not Obama at the centre of a broken and troubled world? A black man - an African-American - leading the world's most powerful nation, living in Washington's White House originally built by black slave labour and later staffed by slaves as domestic servants ... who would have thought that was possible? Such ascendancy!
It's beyond coincidence, surely. Doesn't it suggest a choice above and beyond that made by human electorate, especially as Obama himself appears to be entirely devoid of self-aggrandisement and personal gain? "Cometh the man" has resonance here.
Choice and religion go together. The ancient pagans believed their gods showed choice: health, wealth, happiness - and particularly power - bestowed upon the individual denoted favour, while not to be chosen suggested displeasure and even punishment.
The monotheism of Judaism and Christianity took choice to the level of obedience and service: for example, Abraham and Moses in the Old Testament, and Mary and Paul in the New. It is God's choice of the person that comes first.
The writers of the Old Testament were utterly convinced that God had chosen Israel rather than that Israel had chosen God. Israel was the race to whom and through whom God had chosen to reveal himself to humanity in world history. And that choice laid upon Israel the most profound responsibilities, not always wanted by them and never easy to accept, let alone fulfil.
Behind this matter of choice there are important considerations. For one thing, there's the belief that everything is under God's control and he is free to act as he pleases. This apparent high-handedness is one of the many difficult aspects of our religion. Many people, committed Christians included, find it hard to take. Yet over and over again it is there in the Bible, wrapped up in various myths and fables, reminding us that God has a purpose for this world.
For another thing, this choice and control demonstrates the concern of God for his created humanity. At the same time it suggests that we are totally undeserving of this concern. Nothing about it can be put down to our credit, especially in the light of seemingly unending conflict - that between Israel and Palestine, for instance.
Humanity has a responsibility in all this. Presumably, God's choice of the race or the individual should act as a spur to holiness and service. Which means we, too, have to choose: free will means we either accept or reject.
We're not very good at accepting, which is why the world is in its present mess.
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