Contact Magazine - Leading Article

Manifestos for change?

May 2010 will confront us with two significant events, events which have the potential to affect our lives greatly. What are those two events?

The General Election on 6th May, and the Festival of Pentecost on 23rd May. What do these events have in common? Promises and power! Political promises and power on the one hand, and spiritual promises and power on the other.

Both the political and the spiritual aspects of life are important. WHO governs our country is important. The policies pursued by a future government are important locally, nationally and internationally, but HOW we and our elected politicians live our lives and make our decisions is just as important.

Don't worry, I am not going to attempt to tell you how you should vote, but I wonder, if like me, you live in the tension of believing that politics, policies and programmes are important, whilst at the same time being frustrated by the inability of political parties to deliver the change which their various Manifestos promise, and also at their apparent inability to understand that our nation needs, not just higher material standards, but a deeper 'wholeness' of body mind and spirit?

I guess we would be wise to take the promises of the various political Manifestos with 'a pinch of salt', and to look a little deeper into the values those Parties actually stand for.

But, would you be surprised if I told you That Jesus also had a Manifesto, and that it was and is far more radical than any we have heard over the past few weeks?

Where can you read Jesus' Manifesto? Read Matthew 5/7, commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount; it's Jesus' Manifesto for the people of God and the Kingdom of God.

And would you be surprised if I told you that Jesus' Manifesto was a 'Manifesto for Change'! However this Manifesto starts, not with changing Laws and Government Policies, but with changing hearts, minds, and attitudes. Jesus knew that you cannot legislate for holiness and righteousness; such things come from within and are the work of the Holy Spirit of God.

The politicians keep reminding us that we have a choice which we only get to exercise every so often, at a General Election, but Jesus tells us that we have choices to make each and every second of each and every day. Choices which effect ourselves and the people around us every bit as much, and usually much more directly and personally than any political choice we make at a General Election.

A local Church sign, reads: + This is the Cross that matters! I understand what is being said, but I feel that both the Cross of Jesus and the cross on the Ballot Paper are important.

However, it is indeed, only through he Cross of Jesus and through His subsequent resurrection and ascension, that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost became possible.

The promise of God is still that all who believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ receive the Holy Spirit and are empowered to choose to live our lives as citizens of the Kingdom of God whichever Political Party forms our Government.

Bill Forster

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