Subverting Political Powers through the Power of Advent

Christianity has always been an act of translation. So argued the Gambian missiologist, Lamin Sanneh, who spent many of his years at Yale University. The tradition of advent, celebrated in many western Christian traditions, has travelled a long distance from medieval Europe to the urban towns and villages of the global South. Here in Africa, Christmas trees litter selfies on Instagram profiles. Christmas lights adorn various buildings in a way that enlightens the complicated courtship between faith and consumeristic ideals. Advent hymns ring through songs and prayers in liturgies across various churches in the city of Nairobi. What this act of translation has potential to do is to speak to the underlying power of waiting, especially within states that have protracted realities of political authoritarianism and marginalizations across different fronts. The Christmas season and its rituals have penetrated popular culture, revealing the dynamism of the church-state relationship.

In Kenya, where I live, minister and teach, we are in a political transition. The 9^th August 2022 elections, were relatively peaceful and procured a new political regime for a country which is rather diverse – diverse in ethnicities, cultures, religions and economic disparities. Political analysts have approached the winning strategy of the current political office from two fronts. The first is that the current president offered a political agenda that spoke to the greater masses of the Kenyan citizenship. His “hustler versus dynasty” diatribe spoke to many Kenyans who experience the crushing realities of the economic situation, aggravated by the COVID pandemic. To these “hustlers,” that is the everyday common Kenyan, this political vision offered a new vista as the country negotiated the post-COVID socio-economic context.

The second is that the current president spoke to the deep seated religiosity that defines Kenya, the country nestled in the Eastern corner of the continent of Africa. Following a famed philosopher of religion, John Mbiti who proclaimed that “Africans are religious,” the current president and the new leadership have played into this common ethos, by wedding their political agenda with religion, particularly Christianity. What has been “politically correct” is President William Ruto’s relationship building with the Pentecostal stripe of Christianity in the country. For a long time, it is the so-called “mainstream churches,” particularly the Anglicans in the form of Bishops Muge and Gitari, and Presbyterians in the form of Rev. Dr. Timothy Njoya, who led the way in the democratization reforms in the 1990s. In an article in the African Journal of History and Culture, I observed the role of political theology for Kenyan public life by noting the theologies of Augustine and Aquinas in the classical tradition, as well as the emerging political theologies of Emmanuel Katongole and the religious scholarship of Damaris Parsitau within the wider African context.[1]

The current President’s move to court Pentecostal and Charismatic Christian contingents points to a strategic widening of the net to further politically engage the country along religious lines, given the fact that they make up a huge chunk of the Christian population nationally. In this Church-State relationship, traditional and new media have vitally played the role of mid-wife. The First Lady’s timeline reveals this close linkage between the politics of the day and the Christian faith, shared among 80% of the Kenyan population according to some estimates, when she quotes biblical verses and posts photos of various apostles. Nairobi’s county governor makes the rounds in several churches every Sunday, where he is often photographed playing a guitar and participating in worship leadership. For a Christian believer, former youth pastor and current theological educator, such an intimate relationship between the Christian faith with the politics of the day should be a good thing, right?

Well, given the long standing history of the Christian faith, every time political powers domicile Christian faith, what is sure to happen is the forceful implementation of human agenda rather than divine subversion of oppressive powers. The Kenyan context finds parallels with the Trumpist Christian nationalism in the North American context. It also finds interesting parallels in the Russian-Ukraine context where religion is used in the name of political unrest. Cushioning Christianity as a political agenda usually has in its view conquest and power, rather than the human flourishing of all people, especially those who sit in the margins of society. This remains a considerable stumbling block for Africans who try to grapple with the colonial and missionary history in many African states. Yet following Jesus Christ not only has personal consequences, but in essence, political and public consequences, that reorient our relationship with God, but also our relationship with others and the world around us, shaping how we respond to the daily realities we meet.  

As we immerse ourselves in this season of advent, beyond the sweet smelling cuisines, the bells of Christmas carols, and the bright colors of the season, lies the potential of advent being a waiting in hope for the Consolation of Israel, and together with them by faith, the whole world. It reminds me of Matthew’s telling of the birth of the Savior and the various characters we find in his 2^nd chapter. In this narrative, we find King Herod, the ultimate politician. King Herod is known for his shrewd diplomacy, funding strategy that improved the public delivery of goods and services in Judea, and a long dynasty of descendants in the seat of political power. Luke’s account captures the birth of the Savior within the context of worship – Everyone who comes into contact with this special child, ends up in a creative response of praise, worship and song (Luke 2:1-38). This is not only limited to the various characters – the young, poor couple, Joseph and Mary, the Magi from the East, whose astrological practices end up in a subverted divine encounter, to ordinary shepherds, whose farming odors are replaced by the sweet smells of Frankincense and Myrrh and finally, to the angelic choir, now singing their heavenly songs inside this Middle-Eastern barn.

Cushioned in this mood of praise, is an unexpected voice – King Herod’s. Through an unexpected summon, wise men, chief priests and scribes are gathered together so as to investigate the rising star of the new King. We find here Herod’s hidden motive to participate in this global liturgy, in the name of writing his own song – in fact, this one eventually takes the form of funeral dirges for martyred children, those truly on the margins of the society of the day (Matthew 2:16-18). However, King Herod’s political actions were predicted by the Prophet Jeremiah, we learn, and are part and parcel of the cosmic King’s peaceful reign. The world’s cosmic King, Jesus Christ, leads a life that oscillates in and out of kingly courts, often critiquing the political overtones that leave people in darkness rather than bringing them into the freedom of the Light. This journey leads all the way to the cross, where peace comes through the way of pain, life through the way of death, and reconciliation coming through the cost of enemy strife. The cosmic King has the final say over all the powers, especially the powers of darkness, often hidden behind the veils of political regimes, presidencies and justice systems.

Advent, rather than offering an immediate solution to the unique challenges of our day, invites us to a faith-filled act of waiting for the consolation of Israel. The Christian faith is neither forceful nor is it utopian in its promise for a better future. Yet through an invitation to follow the Suffering-Servant, we tread the well-worn path of faith that looks forward in hope. This path avoids the power wielding, ear-splitting of enemies, while also being weary of an other-worldly, merely heavenly minded faith that is of no earthly good. Through patient endurance, courageous public engagement, love-of-enemies, and fruit-bearing lives, we bring the realities of the kingdom into war-tone areas, corrupt political regimes, and ecological crises. Rather than an idealistic season of rituals, the advent season offers meaningful hope to face life with all its realities.

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References

[1] Kevin Muriithi Ndereba, “Towards a Kenyan political theology: The importance of Church history for contemporary public life,” African Journal of History and Culture 13, no. 2 (2021): 102-109.

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© Kevin Muriithi Ndereba, 2022.

This work is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Cover Image: “Navidad 2016” by Walter Chávez is licensed under the Unsplash License.