What might we expect from a new Prime Minister?

Since David Cameron resigned in 2016, we’ve had six prime ministers. Now that we have Andy Burnham as Prime Minister, do you feel a sense of optimism or have you lost faith in government?

Writing in the second half of the 19^th century, Liverpool’s Bishop J.C. Ryle told voters, ‘We must each do our duty conscientiously, and learn to expect little from any political party. If those we support succeed, we must not think that all they do will be right. If those we oppose succeed, we must not think that all they do will be wrong. To expect little from any earthly ruler is one great secret of contentment.’

 A Christian’s responsibility

Christian teaching instructs believers to pray for, ‘all kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour.’

In the middle of the first century, the message of the death of Jesus and his rising to life soon spread right across the Mediterranean. The followers of ‘the Way’, i.e. Christians,  had little interest in trying to change the governing political authority, namely Rome. Neither did they wish to exercise any violence against some Jewish groups, which vehemently opposed them and their teaching. The Christians simply wanted to speak about Jesus and what his life, death and resurrection meant for all people: Jews, Gentiles, slave, free, rich, poor, men and women, whether powerful or of little influence.

A Ruler par excellence

In those days, one Jew named Paul, who’d converted, becoming a follower of Jesus, spoke to people in Athens at what was the equivalent of Hyde Park’s Speakers’ Corner. He said that he recognised their understandable ignorance about the true God, his ways and the ultimate plan for a Ruler who would surpass all earthly governance: A King who would wisely administer justice and mercy, right all wrongs and so silence all critics.

He said, ‘In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.’

Whilst we await this Ruler par excellence, that is Jesus, I thank God that we don’t live in a land of anarchy or under a dictatorship.