Jeremy L. Berg

Our MainStreet Covenant community just wrapped up a six-week teaching and discussion series called The After Party: Toward a Better Christian Politics. We want to be part of healing our toxic divisions as a nation as we strive to become more HOPEFUL and HUMBLE followers of Jesus who put his love, grace and truth on display in our interactions with others.

We all fall short of Jesus’ standard. We confess our need for forgiveness. We pledge to do better.

The course helped us self-identify as one of four different types of people in our posture and attitude toward politics: Combatant, Cynic, Exhausted and Disciple. These four types fall on a spectrum based on how much HOPE and HUMILITY we currently experience and express in the arena of politics:

The Combatant Profile is high in hope and low in humility. They are fighting political battles because they believe their side can win. However, their fighting spirit is untempered by the possibility that “they do not know what they are asking.ˮ They believe confidently that their side is right, and thatʼs that.

The Exhausted Profile is the mirror image of the Combatant. The Exhausted is low in hope and high in humility. This profile is essentially humble: they do not claim to have all the answers. In fact, they fear that no one can figure a way out of the current conflict, and so have given up on politics entirely.

The Cynic Profile is low in both humility and hope. Like the Combatant, Cynics believe they are right, and are not really open to learning otherwise; itʼs just that unlike the Combatant, the Cynic is especially self-convinced about one particular truth: that things are hopeless. Like the Exhausted, the Cynics have given up — itʼs just that unlike the Exhausted, the Cynics are so self-certain that they influence others with their deep seated pessimism.

The Disciple Profile is the one who is high in Humility and Hope because they have submitted their political lives to Jesus. The Disciple is humble: they recognize that the political world is defined by complexity, and this means that there are rarely obvious and easy answers. The Disciple believes firmly in objective truth, but is much less firm that they themselves have complete ownership of truth. The Disciple thus is willing — indeed eager — to listen and learn from others, including others who might hold different views.

Here’s a final follow-up word from Curtis Chang, a fellow Covenant pastor and one of the creators and moderators of the course:

As we explored in the final session of The After Party, we can understand Jesus death on the cross as the decisive event when Jesus absorbs all of the world’s political and spiritual enmity into himself. By doing this, by suffering it in his body, Jesus transforms enmity into God’s mercy, forgiveness, and ultimate peace. Passages like Ephesians 2:13–16 describe this congruence:

Note how the blood overcomes the division between you and God and the division between “us” and “them”. One leads to the other. The crucifixion of Jesus “has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” such that personal reconciliation with God leads to sociopolitical reconciliation with others. In the blood of Christ, we become one blood. In the body of Christ, we become one body.

The peace of the cross is meant to keep rippling out, as sign after sign pointing to God’s final future, which the Old Testament calls the “latter days.” This is when the Lord returns to earth and all the nations will learn from the Lord to “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isa. 2:4 ESV).

This final fulfillment will be a glorious and festive day, a true “after party”. Isaiah describes it like this: 

If you missed out on all or part of this course with us, you can explore it on your own for free by visiting Redeeming Babel here.

Let me leave you with this aspirational Scripture, a North Star to guide us forward in his light and hope up until the election and beyond.

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of sound mind.ˮ 2 Timothy 1:17