Sebelum kita memulai belajar dan berdiskusi tentang sesuatu topik, ada baiknya kita mencari tahu dulu definisi dari topik itu.  Saat ini, seperti kita semua tahu, topiknya adalah "Etika Bernegara".  Menurut kamus Inggris-Inggris Collins, "Etika" itu adalah sesuatu yang berhubungan dengan prinsip-prinsip moral (moral principles/rules of behavior).  Dan "Bernegara", kalau dilihat dari kata "Kenegaraan", artinya adalah proses atau tindakan yang berhubungan dengan hal-hal yang menyangkut negara atau pemerintah.
Jadi, kalau digabungkan, "Etika Bernegara" artinya adalah "prinsip-prinsip moral yang berhubungan dengan hal-hal yang menyangkut negara atau pemerintah."

Bagaimana dengan definisi "Etika Bernegara" menurut keKristenan sendiri?  Dilihat dari Roma 13:1, Paulus mengatakan bahwa "tidak ada pemerintah yang tidak berasal dari Allah; dan pemerintah yang ada, ditetapkan oleh Allah."  Oleh karena itu etika bernegara kita sebagai anak Tuhan harus ada kaitannya dengan kehendak Allah atau peraturan-peraturan Allah.

Why This Subject?
Pada dasarnya ada tiga kejadian besar di dalam kehidupan manusia, yaitu (menurut mini lecture dari Pa’ Yo):

1. THE CREATION
Saat ini bumi dan segala isinya dan juga manusia diciptakan oleh Tuhan.  Sebetulnya manusia tidak hanya diciptakan, tetapi juga diberi mandat yang disebut "cultural mandate".  Cultural mandate tercantum di dalam kitab Kejadian 1:28 (Allah memberkati mereka, lalu Allah berfirman kepada mereka: "Beranakcuculah dan bertambah banyak; penuhilah bumi dan taklukkanlah itu, berkuasalah atas ikan-ikan di laut dan burung-burung di udara dan atas segala binatang yang merayap di bumi.").

Elemen-elemen dari cultural mandate adalah:
 -to rule
 -to cultivate                   dua hal ini adalah bagian dari tanggung jawab a
 -to preserve                   ruler, yang harus juga manage/control

 Selain itu, manusia tidak hanya diberi mandat, tetapi juga di beri kuasa untuk melaksanakannya.

2. THE FALL
Pada saat ini, manusia jatuh ke dalam dosa dan pada saat ini jugalah kuasa manusia untuk melakukan mandat dari Tuhan itu jatuh ("fallen power").

3. THE REDEMPTION
Karena kasih Tuhan yang sungguh besar kepada manusia ciptaanNya, Ia memberikan jalan keluar untuk manusia atas maut yang adalah upah dari dosa-dosa manusia.  Jalan keluar itu adalah keselamatan melalui Yesus Kristus.  Saat ini, Tuhan memberikan kembali kuasa yang telah hilang kepada manusia yang mau menerima Kristus sebagai juru selamat pribadinya.  Kuasa ini diberikan untuk membangun Kerajaan Allah (as a redeeming act) dengan bantuan Roh Kudus.

Selain dari pada cultural mandate, Tuhan Yesus juga memberikan kepada kita "gospel mandate".  Mandat ini dapat dilihat dari Matius 28:19-20 ("Karena itu pergilah, jadikanlah semua bangsa murid-Ku dan baptislah mereka dalam nama Bapa dan Anak dan Roh Kudus, dan ajarlah mereka melakukan segala sesuatu yang telah Kuperintahkan kepadamu. Dan ketahuilah, Aku menyertai kamu senantiasa sampai kepada akhir zaman.").  Kalau digabungkan, panggilan orang Kristen di dunia ini adalah menyatakan (gospel mandate) dan berusaha menghadirkan (cultural mandate) Kerajaan Allah dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat, berbangsa dan bernegara.

Melalui survey yang diadakan diantara kita (beberapa SGPA members), hampir semua menyatakan tahu bahwa sebagai warga negara partisipasi adalah penting.  Kita mempunyai tanggung jawab sebagai warga negara untuk ambil bagian atau berpartisipasi dalam pemerintahan.  Akan tetapi, sebagian besar juga mengatakan tidak akan berpartisipasi secara langsung di dalam kepemerintahan, seperti menjadi presiden, menteri, dsb (mungkin jadi lurah, RT, atau RW saja…).  Secara tidak langsung partisipasi kita di dalam pemerintahan adalah pasif, padahal sudah kita ketahui tadi bahwa kita punya gospel dan cultural mandate yang memerlukan partisipasi yang aktif dari kita.
 

How Should Christians Respond? (The importance of Cultural Mandate)
The cultural mandate is given on the 6th day and is presented as the climax of the story of creation itself.
Cultural mandate is given:
· As a task; it’s what we are made for. After God has shown His purpose in creating the world, He
  rest. Unlike the creation of other things, God planned prior to creating man. (Gen. 1: 26, 28)
· As part of His plan of world creation.
· As our identity; to tell us who we are and why God made us.
  We are to be like God:
      · To have dominion over the earth
      · To be stewards of creation
      · To be fruitful

As Christians, we need to realize that we are not a set of apprentice angels who are only suited to existence on another spiritual plane.
Hebrew 2:5-9
     5  It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.
     6  But there is a place where someone has testified: "What is man that you are mindful of him, the
         son of man that you care for him?
     7 You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor
     8 and put everything under his feet." In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not
        subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.
     9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and
       honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for
       everyone.

What does it mean that as God’s people, kita harus menghadirkan the Kingdom of God dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat, berbangsa, dan bernegara ?
The elements of the Kingdom of God:
    -Love (kasih)
    -Justice
    -Shalom (damai sejahtera)

1.  LOVE (kasih)
     John 13:34
    "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one
     another…"
Our lives should be based on love because we are God’s children and we are created in His loving image.

Characteristics of God’s love that should be dwelling in our lives are:
· Love which values the lives of every person
Why did Jesus Christ die on the cross? Surely because He considers us valuable and precious. Therefore, we should view others as valuable, too.  Tanpa memandang jasa, kedudukan, sifat baik atau buruk, cara kerja orang itu, bahkan tanpa memandang apa yang dapat dibalas oleh orang itu kepada kita. Look closely to the Scripture and learn how He loves all of us just the same, the righteous, the unrighteous…all are the same.
Luke 14:12-14
    12 Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your
        friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you
        back and so you will be repaid.
    13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,
    14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the
        resurrection of the righteous."
Matthew 5:45
    ...that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the
    good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

· Love which is concrete, bukan hanya merupakan sikap batin
We can’t help others without having love. Neither can we love only merely as lip service. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan indeed show that he loves his neighbour by his deeds.

· Love which is sensitive to the need and suffering of others
Romans 12:15
    Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. (NASB)

· Love that goes beyond relatives and friends, etc
Our neighbours are not people whom we choose to be our neighbour, yet they are the people that God has given to us. For example: the ones who stand with us while we wait for CABS or COTA bus, those who are in the same group project as us, our employeers, and others who often times we think that we meet  them just by coincidence.

2. JUSTICE (keadilan)
Psalm 103:6
    The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
Psalm 99:4
    The King is mighty, he loves justice-- you have established equity; in Jacob you have done what
    is just and right.
In our society, often times it is understood that everyone gets what they deserve. Yet it is not so in the Kingdom of God. Our God is a God of justice, and it is shown in His Creation, our redemption, and His love.

What is justice according to the Scripture?
· Pada dasarnya semua orang (presiden, petani, anak SMA, yang lagi co-op, buruh, etc, with no exceptions) we are all created based on the image of God and we are all valuable in the eyes of God. If the profit for the rich costs misery for the poor then this is condemn by God.
Tuhan mengutuk orang yang meninjak-injak orang miskin dan yang membinasakan orang sengsara.

· Make effort to try improving the imbalances found in society. (i.e. in the ownership of land, the practice of justice, etc)

Love should be the base of justice, otherwise it’d be a heartless act of justice.

3. SHALOM/Damai Sejahtera
Shalom berarti:
· kedamaian, persatuan, keselamatan, kesejahteraan, kesehatan, keadilan dan persekutuan.
· kenikmatan dalam pelayanan kepada Tuhan
· kepercayaan disandarkan kepada Allah saja
· hubungan-hubungan baik dengan sesama
· ada persatuan di antara kalangan-kalangan yang terpisah (kaya, miskin, hamba, tuan, dll)
· ketidakadilan, perang dam penindasan ditiadakan
· hubungan baik dengan lingkungan hidup
· hubungan baik dengan diri sendiri (kepuasan dan ketenangan batin)
· kesejahteraan dan berkat yang dialami oleh semua orang
· kedamaian dan kestabilan (yang didapat melalui keadilan)
In short, Shalom means : not to give in to any kinds of abuse and exploitation (this implies that we need to fight against them)

Right through the Scriptures God keeps calling people back to their task. As a new person restored in Christ, a Christian is to work in God’s world, to supply the needs of others, to shape the development of human life.
Acts 20:35
    In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak,
    remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Paul did not regard religion as a ‘spiritual’ activity separate from work. He regarded all aspects of life as equally religious when done in service to God. He called Christians to manifest the image of God through their day to day work.
Precisely because we are the ones who are to steward the earth, our sin has effects throughout the whole of the earth. Every relationship becomes corrupted. As humans are to fill the earth, then no part of the earth remains immune from the effects of our sin. We are separated from God and from one another.
Yet the fall does not end the cultural mandate. Even though we are fallen, we do not cease to work, or play, or pray, or bring up children, or make political decisions. We have to do these things; this is how and why God has made us. This task is an aspect of our imaging God and we cannot even survive if we do not fulfill it.

From Gary DeLashmutt’s sermon at Xenos, it can be summarized that as Christians we should:
· Pray for the government
1 Timothy 2 :1-2
    1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for
       everyone--
    2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and
       holiness.
Often times, we pray for our fellowship, for our church, families, friends, yet we neglect our government. They too are part of the Kingdom of God. Praying is the least that we can do to take part in politics.

· Respect and honor them
We need to do so because God has positioned them there.
Romans 13:7
    Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue;
    if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
1 Peter 2:17 (New International Version)
    Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king
(World English)
    Servants, respect and obey your masters in all things. Obey not only those who are good to you.
    But also obey those who are hard on you.
From the World English version it is pretty clear that we need to obey the government even though sometimes they are hard on us or others.  We need to obey their laws not because we fear the punishments for not doing so, but primarily because we respect our God who put them there.
Romans 13:1, 5
    1  Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that
       which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
    5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment
       but also because of conscience.
1 Peter 2:13
Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority,

· Call the civil government to its proper role
Nevertheless our role is not only to obey, but also to serve as the civil government’s conscience. One of the elements of Kingdom of God is justice. If justice is no longer present in the government, we should have the courage to resist and disobey its commands.
When it commands us to do what God forbids or when it forbids us to do what God commands; not just for ourselves, but also on behalf of others.
Acts 5:29
Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!
 

Conclusion
Tugas manusia adalah untuk me-redeem orang-orang non-Kristen untuk memberi impact di dunia dan untuk menghadirkan Kingdom of God dalam aspek spiritual, sosial, keluarga, politik, etc.  Dalam ini semua, kita memakai kuasa yang diberikan dan bimbingan Roh Kudus.

Discussion
Problem: ignorance, "takut menderita" and low level of involvement.

Suggested Discussion Topics:
· Bagaimana seharusnya kita menyikapi government yang menyimpang dari the commands of God ?
  Bagaimanakah sikap kita pada saat ini?

· Case study:
Tetangga kita yang termasuk dalam golongan ekonomi lemah, sedang sakit dan tidak bisa membeli obat.  We are aware that he is being underpaid by the factory he works with. We know that by only giving him food and medicine is not sufficient. What should we do?

· Keterlibatan kita yang konkrit sebagai (calon) alumni di dalam bernegara; di mana kita memiliki
  "power"; uang, dan posisi.

· Satu lagi …
        Pemilihan Umum telah memanggil kita
        Sluruh rakyat menyambut gembira
        Hak demokrasi Pancasila
        Citra Indonesia merdeka
        Pilihlah wakilmu yang dapat dipercaya
        Pengemban Ampera yang setia
        Di bawah Undang-Undang Dasar empat lima
        Kita menuju ke Pemilihan Umum
 

REFERENCE:

1. Malcolm Brownlee, Tugas Manusia Dalam Dunia Milik Tuhan, BPK Gunung Mulia

2. Paul Marshall, Thine is the kingdom : a biblical perspective on the nature of
    government and politics today, Grand Rapids, Mich. : W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1986, c1984

3. Richard J. Mouw, Politics and the Biblical drama, Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, c1976