Last week, Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela’s opposition leader presented Donald Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize. This caused a lot of outrage. It was very clear that she could do what she pleased with the medal but this would make Donald Trump no more the winner of the Prize than my dad is a boxing champion because he inherited my grandad’s trophies. For what it is worth, I’m relaxed about someone choosing individually to honour another providing it is recognised as personal. Personally, I wonder too about the value of a peace prize that isn’t just offered to people for getting lasting peace deals in place but to politicians working for humanitarian rights and even those who are yet to achieve as a symbol of hope (think Barak Obama). I wonder if it is time to retire the prize.
This week, the news emerged that Donald Trump had written this letter to the Norwegian Prime Minister
At first I wasn’t convinced when I saw this in the Daily Telegraph. Surely it was a parody, a hoax. Yet, the consensus seems to be that it is genuine. If a parody then it reflects too closely what we think of the leader of the free world. These are not the words though that we expect of a senior statesman or even successful business man.
Yet, if we smuggly judge the president, then perhaps there should be space too for self reflection and examination. Trump’s mechanistic attitude of doing things in order for honours and prizes may be particularly overt, crude even but surely reflects human nature
I am reminded of the joke where the British, French and German ambassadors are asked what they are hoping for at Christmas. The Frenchman says “World peace”, the German “an end to poverty” and the Englishman responds “oh nothing too much, a box of After Eights will be fine ”
There is of course a code to how we are meant to behave, what we are meant to expect and it’s awkward when the code is broken. However underlying it is the human desire for prizes. Those prizes reflect our craving for identity or status, comfort and security.
And as Christians we can still carry those desires with us. We see them crudely and overtly in the prosperity Gospel, Seven Mountain Mandate and Christian Nationalism. However, we can find more subtle ways of seeking prizes. The risk then is that if we do not get what we want, then like Trump, we sulk. That might mean quitting on the church altogether or switching to somewhere we will be better treated or just withdrawing to the sidelines.
For the president, we want to say that peace itself should be the prize and we find it very unnerving to see him drawing such a direct link between what prizes and his priorities. For us we need to remember that Christ himself is the prize. Christ is enough for me.
Faithroots 