I just cast my vote for the second time in a presidential election. The event was rather mundane up to the front door and then indubitably thrilling as I walked in to hand my ID. No one harassed me; there were no police guards looking at me with threatening eyes and everyone around me acted and enjoyed their 30-minute walk to the front of the line with enthusiasm and enjoyment. We are unbearably unique in this respect.

Perhaps it takes a perspective from an outsider to appreciate the validity of voting in the United States. A quick drive in most roads in South America and voting booths across the world will give you a sense of the vast chasm between order and chaos when it comes to this American social practice.

But I have addressed this too often before, and now I am here only to state what a profound joy it is to vote in this country; to be able to live a life where religion is practiced freely without hindrance and where the inferno of idiocy is not always at the door as it is in Chile, Venezuela, and other nations.

In the early days of Puritan Massachusetts, voting was a fairly restrictive right. It was reserved for those considered “freemen.” The freemen were those who were invested in the financial well-being of the colonies. Eventually, the only voting members were those who possessed membership in a local church. You could have a general agreement with Christian principles, but yet not join a local church because one feared the commitments of a local body. In short, voting was a process left to those who treasured the local church and membership provided one the right to have a voice in the local decisions affecting everyone. If one was lucid enough to be joined to the local body of Christ, and assume those responsibilities, he had the right to speak into civic matters as well with his vote.

In our own day, voting is often mocked as if it is the new sacrament of the polis. In reality, it is merely an extension of the humanity of every being who is placed in a particular place (Acts 17:26) to live by God. The position that voting is too imposing is rather extreme seeing that even advocates of two-kingdom theology perceive an ordinary secular (saecularia) function for voting as legitimate. The farthest from Puritan political theory find voting compelling. Politics may not be within the sphere of the holy for them, but it is still a function of ordinary pilgrims in a pagan and disposable world.

Thus, to turn voting into a waste or an inadequate principle for citizens is to be contra those who spiritualize the church and those who see the Church as the pre-requisite of orderly citizenry. To refuse to vote is by all accounts an easy way out of the complexity of life. By Puritan standards, it would be to despise the citizenship of redeemed humanity placed within a sphere and called to express that dominion in the most local and tangible way.

But finally, it is also to despise the benefits of living in a free country. How many around the world would cherish a glimpse into an overall orderly structure (few exceptions aside) where voting is counted and where free citizens participate–in however a small fashion–in the process of seeing trajectories change both locally and nationally.

We must have a healthy realism about the fallen world we live in, but we should not assume that because of flawed candidates we are called to simply give up voting and pursue something more noble. We have been called to express our authority over all things, and if relinquish voting to a lesser and unnecessary sphere, we are abdicating our authority.

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There was a great debate in the year of our Lord, Twenty-twenty. Many of you may not remember, but the esteemed John F. MacArthur stood tall among detractors for wishing to worship the Lord unhindered by meticulous pharisaical regulations seeking to strain out a gnat but swallowing camels in the process.

As of now, MacArthur’s congregation continues to meet despite the infelicities of Los Angeles County’s attempt for a restraining order against Grace Community Church. The city lost to an evangelical church not historically known for its Kuyperian zeal. But as I have said many times now, evangelicals can no longer remain luke-warm in these times. They either capitulate to distinct forms of weak pietism or they take to the halls and the streets to exercise that violent form of protest called singing. And while we are at it, we commend the saints in Moscow, ID for setting a healthy standard of the “NO MAS” rule. I am not talking about a “NO MASK” rule, but a “NO MAS” rule as a way of thinking. No more will we take the shenanigans and sophistry of local rulers who are generally barely more intellectual than my pipe tobacco. No more will the church think she cannot speak, even in places that mirror the Lower Abyss (L.A.). I pray we have learned enough lessons to stimulate our inner theonomist to action.

One of the encouraging signs also is to see churches that were adamantly closed during this season and whose voices said nothing in defense of the MacArthurs’ of this world, now saying, “Wait, what happened to civility, common sense, and the city’s cooperation with the church?” Even as Mark Dever realized, D.C. is on a selective war against churches banning even outdoor religious gatherings of more than a 100 people. The answer, of course, is to say that the city is being an equal opportunity offender. They are also not allowing other businesses to stay open. True enough, but according to an ancient prophet, the only true essential business is that holy city, Zion city of our God. Grateful to see Dever and others put the “No Mas” sign out!

What this has done is to force local pastors to consider whether permanently living in a state of purgatory is essential or not. If it is, we can live in this limbo happily and clappily, but if it isn’t, then we need to do something about it. Let’s sue the city, shall we? And behold, they did! Remember that these are the most lenient and patient of the evangelical class who eventually also said, “No mas.” We are not talking rabid postmillennialists who put vodka in their morning coffee; these are run-of-the-mill Calvinists and they are moving happily in our direction and we give thanks to God for their witness.

We should also pause our local broadcast to give thanks for all the local pastors who don’t have the luxury of a nation-wide platform to share their stories of blessings and faithfulness through this season. They have been steadfast, and I, as a fellow small-church pastor, have heard from many of them. God has blessed their flocks with growth and energy to persevere in this season. They are not seeking rebellious causes to pursue, but were simply early on (whether they closed down or not) ready to turn their “No Mas” signs on at the first sign of governmental disorientation. And boy, their signs blink 24 hours a day now.

If this blessed year of our Lord, twenty-twenty, has not taught us thankfulness for the local church, you have had blinders and powerful ear coverings for the last eight months. You are missing the revival of worship taking place in our day; you are missing the longing that children have to sing and play with one another; you are missing the holiness of saints telling jokes and stories and sitting around one another enjoying the freeing breeze. If you have not increased in gratitude in this year, pray that your misery increases so you can join in the “No Mas” choir mighty soon.

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My area of focus is theology and to be even more precise, pastoral theology, which makes my assessment of political debates infinitely less interesting. But since there are at least two witnesses eager to hear my thoughts, here it goes with all the zeal I can muster:

As far as the debate, it was a hopeless display of testicular dis-fortitude. And that’s all I have to say about it. Thanks for listening.

Now, what I really wish to communicate since I have you captive is that we are functioning in a priestly phase of history. While I don’t subscribe to the particularities of all Dreher’s proposals, I do subscribe and have for a long time to the idea that postmillennially speaking, we are young in our history, and somewhere between 5-10,000 years from the age of wisdom of history where Christendom will enfold civilization into one happy kumbaya experience. Until then, we will function in a priestly format with glimpses of prophets and kings around us, but by and large we will breathe priestly air for a long time.

And by the priestly phase of history, I mean the phase of history where we inculcate biblical grammar into the programming system of every little child. Adults also carry this task of reading big books, familiarizing oneself with big ideas of historical tradition, and seeing the Bible through new eyes. But it’s not the economy, it’s the children, stupid! It seems crazy to think about this, but the finest thing your children can aim for is the task of a loyal churchman: one faithful to his vocation and tribe. That’s it. If he is not a faithful church member, his ambitions are filthy rags.

So, to begin this indoctrination, we really need to think deeply about the education of our children and what worship they will subscribe to in coming years. Big people need to think about ours as well, but some of us are already forming and reforming our strategies and depending how old we are, we are having either a hell of a time doing it, or struggling our way to the throne each Lord’s Day. If you don’t want your children and their conversations to remind you of last night’s episode of “Dumb and Dumber,” choose the nobler things; or as the ancients would say, “the permanent things.”

Practically, every time your son writes some jumbled sentence on a text message, tell him that he knows better. If your 16-year old daughter puts a picture of herself on Instagram showing over 70% of her body, tell her that her body belongs to Jesus and not to the overly energized teens staring at her skin on-line. If your college son decides to sleep-in on a Sunday because he had a late night at a friend’s house, teach him the lesson of the gods who thought they could get away with murder. Just don’t let these things happen. While they may appear minor, these are habits that endanger the soul of future priests.

Begin young and begin big. Be a happy tyrant when they are little so that you can be a fuzzy-bear libertarian when they grow up. But do not wait to inculcate ideas. Begin the conversations early and often. The priestly stage of history compels us to memorize facts and ideas, which will come in quite handy when we transition to prophetic and kingly phases of history. The priests shall inherit the earth, the prophets shall proclaim the king’s message, and the kings will speak wisdom to the nations. While we are living in this priestly domain, study to show yourself approved. Get up each morning with your prayer book ready to go and a psalm to sing. Priests love heavenly grammar.

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One of the most remarkable facts of the American system is that a person with barely any formal education (let’s say only a high school degree) can thrive in this culture and actually save enough wealth to pass on to his children. You have to have lived in other countries to realize how powerful that fact truly is.

The economic freedoms in this country allows someone with a creative or entrepreneurial mind to succeed in his sphere. If that is coupled with healthy savings and a basic view of wealth, that individual has a great possibility of making a decent salary while still being home for dinner at 6.

The entire premise, of course, entails that such individual follows the ethic of the ant. The ant knows his task and he is not hindered by supposed societal oppositions to his vocational aspirations. He establishes his vision early on and moves with intentionality.

The sluggard, on the other hand, views work as a necessary evil. He wakes up only to fulfill his duties, not to convert his duties into offerings of thanks to God. The sluggard quickly succumbs to leftists ideologies which promise equal share in profit and property. American universities are filled with sluggards applying for humanity classes which condemn business owners (often that ambitious young person with no college degree) taught by teachers who grew up resenting the ants among them. But philosophies of resentment is what the sluggard wants. He can get a degree and feel supported by a group of tenured professors who encourage his resentment towards the successful.

It’s indeed the great sign of the American experiment that a high-school graduate develops a sense of self-worth, respectfully views the process of labor, makes a fruitful living, treasures the ant, while the university grad is left with 20 years of loans with a degree in a limited market. But at least, he resents the bourgeois with great stamina; at least he was taught that success is a sign of oppression; at least he can take pride in reading Engels.

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