Sermon Tone Analysis
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ISAIAH 9:1-7 12-24-14
THE CASE FOR BIGGER GOVERNMENT
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(Isaiah 9) We may be a few minutes before we actually get there to read that.
As promised, my
message this evening qis entitled, The Case for Bigger Government.
You may think that an odd
subject for Christmas eve.
In fact, you may think there is no context appropriate for a political
message in church.
Certainly, an issue like the role and size of government is one bound to create
some friction.
We have a huge divide over this issue in our society.
Some people think that
government expansion is a really wonderful thing and others think it is terrible.
Take a minute with
me to consider the perspectives on both end of the issue, those ends normally referred to in our
society as left wing and right wing.
And, don’t panic, we will bring all this back to Christmas.p
First, there are those who are all in favor of bigger government, of expanding the scope and
reach of the state.
I completely understand where these folks are coming from.
Now mind you, their
aim, as they see it, is not to increase the size of government.
No no.
That is why, if you ask
someone on the left if he or she wants to expand the government, they will likely say, “no.”
Our
current president has done more to increase the size of the federal government than any chief
executive before him except possibly FDR.
His signature legislation swelled the reach of
government into our lives, but President Obama does not see himself as wanting to grow the
government.
In fact, he has said plainly that he does not favor growing the government.
And yet he
does it in record proportions.
Why?
Because he sees government as a tool to do good.
He, like
anyone on the left, believes that there are many problems in our society that government can solve
and should solve.
It just so happens, that in the process of trying to provide governmental solutions
to these problems, you invariably expand the size and reach of that government.
I recently finished
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the qbook about President Harry Truman by David McCullough – almost 1,200 pages.
Truman
comes off in the book as a very practical man.
He was not an ideologue.
He would never have
written a book on political philosophy – but through some fascinating twists of providence, this
relatively uneducated man became our 33rd president.
Now, as a practical man, his approach was to
detect problems and solve them.
As president, his tool for solving problems was the federal
government and so, he followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, Mr. Roosevelt, by expanding
what the federal government did, and how much it spent and how much control it had over the lives
of Americans.
He believed he was doing good through government and so expanding the
government was, for him, a good thing.
p
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But, not everyone agrees.
There are those on what we call the “right wing” who view
government expansion as bad and would claim that an increase in the size and power of
government may do some good but will ultimately lead to more harm than help.
Folks on the right
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love to quoteq Ronald Reagan who said the ten most dangerous words in our language are, “Hi,
I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
They say that a government big enough to give
you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.
pThey quote Jefferson who
said that the natural progression of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
They point us to places like Tucson, Arizona where the county commission is considering a ban on
hiring employees who smoke – even in their own homes.
See, they say, the left wants to help
people quit smoking and they do so by robbing them of freedom.
So there you have it in a nutshell.
This is the major political divide in our republic.
This is the big
question: Does government expansion solve more problems or create more problems?
It is not an
easy question.
Some may answer one way for domestic issues and another for foreign affairs.
Person A wants to expand social programs and cut back the military.
Person B wants to shrink
social programs and expand the military so we can take on ISIS and Iran and Russia.
The
Republican party is generally seen as the party committed to controlling the expanse of government
but that party is hopelessly divided over the reach of government with respect to defense.
In fact,
the Democrats are divided over that too.
These are really tough issues.
What does the Bible say about the expansion of government?
My wife and I recently heard a
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lecture aboutq John Witherspoon who was the only preacher to sign the Declaration of
Independence.
The speaker called him the “grandfather of the constitution” because of his terrific
influence on James Madison who wrote our constitution in the light of what Scripture says about
the depravity of man.
Madison and the founders, because of what they saw in Scripture and in
history wanted to limit the power granted to any single individual.
They designed a government
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