I sometimes listen to Catholic radio on my commutes from the West Side to the church. Its
programming tends to stir within me reactions ranging from, “Yeah! You got it!” to “Ay caramba!”
(That’s Spanish for ‘oy vey’.) I guess no one can blame my seminary training for leaving me without
opinions.
What caught my ear a couple of weeks ago was an interview with a Catholic bishop who described
the state of Christianity in the world as desperate and teetering on the brink of collapse. I mean, this
man sounded depressed. Now, for those of us who grew up in a time during which the reverence for
God and country was a bit higher than now, this may not seem so unreasonable. We’ve witnessed a
decline in the Christian faith not only in North America, but in Western culture in general, and this is
cause for no little concern.
But to describe global Christianity in such dire terms seemed a little over the top to me, especially
when the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been enthusiastically received by hundreds of millions of new
converts, especially in Asia and in the southern hemisphere. It’s easy to conclude, since things are
kind of tough here, that the sky is falling everywhere. But I think it’s safe to say that the Christian
faith is alive and well in the world.
This got me to thinking about how we tend to see our own nation as a Christian country, and how
patriotism and spirituality often get kind of enmeshed with each other in our hearts and minds. So on
this Independence Day morning I’d like to spend a few minutes with you trying to untangle a few
‘tendrils in the mesh,’ or at least to suggest a few thoughts to consider about this whole issue.
I’d like to begin by respectfully cautioning us against something psychologists call “euphoric recall.”
Euphoric recall is when we look back through rose-colored glasses at a time when it seemed that the
sun was shining, the birds were singing in the trees, and all was right with the world. I personally find
it very easy to lapse into this way of remembering when we’re faced with the kinds of problems we
now face as a nation.
But the reality is that Americans have always been a people in some degree of creative friction with
each other. We’ve never been of a single mind. Even at the founding of our country we weren’t all
on exactly the same religious wavelength. We had people who were devout believers in Jesus and
others who acknowledged vaguely that there may well be such a thing as God, although knowing
Him personally and believing in miracles would be considered naive and primitive ideas. Thomas
Jefferson comes to mind. He’s well known for having taken scissors to his own Bible to excise those
things he thought were unlikely or objectionable. Yet he was part of a group of people who brought
something immensely liberating and godly into the world at the founding of our country. More on
that in a few moments.
We’re fond of thinking of ourselves as a Christian nation. But something I think that needs to be
stressed is that nations are composed of individuals and subgroups of people. And in a democracy
it’s the people who are primarily responsible for the direction of our country through our elected
leaders and the decisions they make. As such we’re as fallible or as potentially fallible as anyone
else on earth. On top of that, we don’t really see any reference to anything like a Christian nation in
Scripture. Instead we hear Jesus saying things like, “My kingdom is not of this world.” And “Give to
the emperor those things that are the emperor’s, and to God those things that are God’s.” He’s
saying that there’s a gap between the earthly kingdom and the heavenly kingdom. One day the two
will come together, but this won’t be fully realized until Jesus returns.
St. Paul says that our citizenship is in heaven, and it’s from there that we’re expecting a Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And in today’s epistle reading Paul makes this priority clear. We’re not to
venerate anyone or anything else, including our wonderful country, the way we venerate the Lord.
He says, “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the
world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” We must keep love of Jesus and love of country
clear and distinct from each other.
Now, does this mean that we can just live in our Christian ghetto and give up the idea of promoting
the Lord’s ways in our country? Not at all! In Romans 13 Paul encourages the Christians of Rome to
be good, responsible citizens. Against the backdrop of being winsome witnesses for the gospel,
Paul tells them to pay their taxes and submit themselves to the authorities God has allowed to be in
charge. And it seems to work out best if we remember our citizenship in heaven as we discharge
our earthly commitments.
In fact, the great Anglican theologian John Stott recommends three ways in which citizens of the
kingdom of heaven can be good citizens of their own nations. The first is to do exactly what Paul is
telling us to do—to recognize and submit to the authority of the people entrusted with governing us.
Not to be troublemakers, but cooperative citizens. But it must be said here that there are limits to this
submission. The scriptures touch on this as well. Because our primary allegiance must be to God
and His kingdom, and whenever there’s a conflict between God’s ways and our government’s ways,
we have not only the option, but the responsibility to disobey our government and obey God.
When the apostles preached the gospel of Jesus in Jerusalem, they were commanded by the temple
authorities to stop. But Peter responded by saying, “We must obey God rather than any human
authority.” It was an early instance of civil disobedience. If ever there comes a time in this country
when we’re repressed from openly proclaiming the gospel and supporting its outworkings, we’re
going to be faced with a new and costly decision. And I’m sad to report that this isn’t as far fetched
an eventuality as it once may have seemed. There’s increasing concern in the United States about
infringements on freedom of speech and freedom of religion. But I’ll leave that for another time.
Stott’s second recommendation for good citizenship is that we persuade others toward the making
and upholding of godly laws. You’ll note that he uses the word “persuade.” This is a carefully chosen
word. Because it’s intended to encourage us to avoid two equal and opposite mistakes. The first is
to fail in our Christian responsibility to be salt and light to the world—that is, to make a godly
contribution to the society in which we live. And the second mistake is to coerce or force feed our
friends and neighbors to accept our ideas. Neither of these things helps us to promote God’s ways
in a winsome fashion to the world.
The third way we can be good citizens is to recognize that church and state should be in a
complementary relationship. We’ve seen in history the problems that happen when the church and
state get too tangled up with each other. It was the British historian Lord Acton who said, “Power
corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We have sad evidence of that in church history.
But if the kingdom of heaven is supreme yet earthly kingdoms are under the sovereignty of God, the
ideal relationship between the two is one of partnership, in which each encourages the other to
responsibly fulfill its role. This may be one roundabout way of affirming how wise and inspired our
founding fathers were to insist on the separation of church and state. The state needs the church
for guidance and accountability, and the church needs the state for an orderly society that
protects its freedoms. But mixing their essences together can sometimes result in a kind of spiritual
poison, and frankly has all too often, in the past.
Having touched on our civic responsibilities as Christians, I’d like now to turn our attention to what
we celebrate today. This is the fun part. Because I think it’s undeniable that, for an inspired moment
234 years ago today, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth converged on a beautiful
truth that has shone a new light in the world ever since. At that time God gave our forefathers the
wisdom to recognize a world-changing truth. And that is that freedom of religion is a fundamental
human right, and this gives glory to God. Not only does this glorify God by ensuring that we’re free
to worship him, but it glorifies God by recognizing who he made us to be.
I think this is key to it all, because who He made us to be is people created in his own image, and
therefore worthy of the dignity that freedom promotes. God made us to be free. And of course in the
ultimate sense, Jesus set us free. “Who the Son sets free is free indeed.” The Declaration of
Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
Rarely in human history, I think, has there been a document that so beautifully and eloquently
captures the God-given priority of freedom, and for the idea that we have the right to choose those
with the responsibility for governing us. God wants to afford us the dignity that comes from being
made in his image. And it’s our response to this, our active participation in our government through
voting, volunteering, serving, and persuading, that, in turn, secures the very rights that make these
things possible in the first place. All good things come from God, I believe our form of government is
one of them, and I thank Him for it from the depths of my heart.
When I was a young boy back in Iowa, something happened on one Independence Day that really
brought this home for me. After a fun evening of sparklers, snakes and other fireworks, my brother
and I had boldly decided to sleep in the family tent in the back yard. It had been one of those warm,
humid nights some of you who’ve lived in the Midwest, or the East, or the South, might recall. I
remember the smell of the canvas tent and the sound of birds singing shortly after dawn. But then
came a sound that I found, and still find magical. It was the sound of church bells from all over town,
welcoming the first light of Independence Day. To this day, rarely does July 4th come around when I
don’t drift back to that morning in Decorah, Iowa. It’s a reminder of a simpler time, but more
importantly it’s a reminder that the inspiration for our freedom came from God Himself.
That’s one reason the Tutons have an American flag hanging outside our front door today. And it’s
the reason we’re going to listen to John Philip Sousa marches and watch fireworks this evening. Our
freedom as Americans is a good and godly thing, and something to be celebrated lustily and desired
for all people. May we never forget to pray for those who don’t have the joy of sharing in that
freedom. And may the bells of freedom ring for a long, long time to come in our beloved homeland.
Amen.
programming tends to stir within me reactions ranging from, “Yeah! You got it!” to “Ay caramba!”
(That’s Spanish for ‘oy vey’.) I guess no one can blame my seminary training for leaving me without
opinions.
What caught my ear a couple of weeks ago was an interview with a Catholic bishop who described
the state of Christianity in the world as desperate and teetering on the brink of collapse. I mean, this
man sounded depressed. Now, for those of us who grew up in a time during which the reverence for
God and country was a bit higher than now, this may not seem so unreasonable. We’ve witnessed a
decline in the Christian faith not only in North America, but in Western culture in general, and this is
cause for no little concern.
But to describe global Christianity in such dire terms seemed a little over the top to me, especially
when the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been enthusiastically received by hundreds of millions of new
converts, especially in Asia and in the southern hemisphere. It’s easy to conclude, since things are
kind of tough here, that the sky is falling everywhere. But I think it’s safe to say that the Christian
faith is alive and well in the world.
This got me to thinking about how we tend to see our own nation as a Christian country, and how
patriotism and spirituality often get kind of enmeshed with each other in our hearts and minds. So on
this Independence Day morning I’d like to spend a few minutes with you trying to untangle a few
‘tendrils in the mesh,’ or at least to suggest a few thoughts to consider about this whole issue.
I’d like to begin by respectfully cautioning us against something psychologists call “euphoric recall.”
Euphoric recall is when we look back through rose-colored glasses at a time when it seemed that the
sun was shining, the birds were singing in the trees, and all was right with the world. I personally find
it very easy to lapse into this way of remembering when we’re faced with the kinds of problems we
now face as a nation.
But the reality is that Americans have always been a people in some degree of creative friction with
each other. We’ve never been of a single mind. Even at the founding of our country we weren’t all
on exactly the same religious wavelength. We had people who were devout believers in Jesus and
others who acknowledged vaguely that there may well be such a thing as God, although knowing
Him personally and believing in miracles would be considered naive and primitive ideas. Thomas
Jefferson comes to mind. He’s well known for having taken scissors to his own Bible to excise those
things he thought were unlikely or objectionable. Yet he was part of a group of people who brought
something immensely liberating and godly into the world at the founding of our country. More on
that in a few moments.
We’re fond of thinking of ourselves as a Christian nation. But something I think that needs to be
stressed is that nations are composed of individuals and subgroups of people. And in a democracy
it’s the people who are primarily responsible for the direction of our country through our elected
leaders and the decisions they make. As such we’re as fallible or as potentially fallible as anyone
else on earth. On top of that, we don’t really see any reference to anything like a Christian nation in
Scripture. Instead we hear Jesus saying things like, “My kingdom is not of this world.” And “Give to
the emperor those things that are the emperor’s, and to God those things that are God’s.” He’s
saying that there’s a gap between the earthly kingdom and the heavenly kingdom. One day the two
will come together, but this won’t be fully realized until Jesus returns.
St. Paul says that our citizenship is in heaven, and it’s from there that we’re expecting a Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And in today’s epistle reading Paul makes this priority clear. We’re not to
venerate anyone or anything else, including our wonderful country, the way we venerate the Lord.
He says, “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the
world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” We must keep love of Jesus and love of country
clear and distinct from each other.
Now, does this mean that we can just live in our Christian ghetto and give up the idea of promoting
the Lord’s ways in our country? Not at all! In Romans 13 Paul encourages the Christians of Rome to
be good, responsible citizens. Against the backdrop of being winsome witnesses for the gospel,
Paul tells them to pay their taxes and submit themselves to the authorities God has allowed to be in
charge. And it seems to work out best if we remember our citizenship in heaven as we discharge
our earthly commitments.
In fact, the great Anglican theologian John Stott recommends three ways in which citizens of the
kingdom of heaven can be good citizens of their own nations. The first is to do exactly what Paul is
telling us to do—to recognize and submit to the authority of the people entrusted with governing us.
Not to be troublemakers, but cooperative citizens. But it must be said here that there are limits to this
submission. The scriptures touch on this as well. Because our primary allegiance must be to God
and His kingdom, and whenever there’s a conflict between God’s ways and our government’s ways,
we have not only the option, but the responsibility to disobey our government and obey God.
When the apostles preached the gospel of Jesus in Jerusalem, they were commanded by the temple
authorities to stop. But Peter responded by saying, “We must obey God rather than any human
authority.” It was an early instance of civil disobedience. If ever there comes a time in this country
when we’re repressed from openly proclaiming the gospel and supporting its outworkings, we’re
going to be faced with a new and costly decision. And I’m sad to report that this isn’t as far fetched
an eventuality as it once may have seemed. There’s increasing concern in the United States about
infringements on freedom of speech and freedom of religion. But I’ll leave that for another time.
Stott’s second recommendation for good citizenship is that we persuade others toward the making
and upholding of godly laws. You’ll note that he uses the word “persuade.” This is a carefully chosen
word. Because it’s intended to encourage us to avoid two equal and opposite mistakes. The first is
to fail in our Christian responsibility to be salt and light to the world—that is, to make a godly
contribution to the society in which we live. And the second mistake is to coerce or force feed our
friends and neighbors to accept our ideas. Neither of these things helps us to promote God’s ways
in a winsome fashion to the world.
The third way we can be good citizens is to recognize that church and state should be in a
complementary relationship. We’ve seen in history the problems that happen when the church and
state get too tangled up with each other. It was the British historian Lord Acton who said, “Power
corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We have sad evidence of that in church history.
But if the kingdom of heaven is supreme yet earthly kingdoms are under the sovereignty of God, the
ideal relationship between the two is one of partnership, in which each encourages the other to
responsibly fulfill its role. This may be one roundabout way of affirming how wise and inspired our
founding fathers were to insist on the separation of church and state. The state needs the church
for guidance and accountability, and the church needs the state for an orderly society that
protects its freedoms. But mixing their essences together can sometimes result in a kind of spiritual
poison, and frankly has all too often, in the past.
Having touched on our civic responsibilities as Christians, I’d like now to turn our attention to what
we celebrate today. This is the fun part. Because I think it’s undeniable that, for an inspired moment
234 years ago today, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth converged on a beautiful
truth that has shone a new light in the world ever since. At that time God gave our forefathers the
wisdom to recognize a world-changing truth. And that is that freedom of religion is a fundamental
human right, and this gives glory to God. Not only does this glorify God by ensuring that we’re free
to worship him, but it glorifies God by recognizing who he made us to be.
I think this is key to it all, because who He made us to be is people created in his own image, and
therefore worthy of the dignity that freedom promotes. God made us to be free. And of course in the
ultimate sense, Jesus set us free. “Who the Son sets free is free indeed.” The Declaration of
Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
Rarely in human history, I think, has there been a document that so beautifully and eloquently
captures the God-given priority of freedom, and for the idea that we have the right to choose those
with the responsibility for governing us. God wants to afford us the dignity that comes from being
made in his image. And it’s our response to this, our active participation in our government through
voting, volunteering, serving, and persuading, that, in turn, secures the very rights that make these
things possible in the first place. All good things come from God, I believe our form of government is
one of them, and I thank Him for it from the depths of my heart.
When I was a young boy back in Iowa, something happened on one Independence Day that really
brought this home for me. After a fun evening of sparklers, snakes and other fireworks, my brother
and I had boldly decided to sleep in the family tent in the back yard. It had been one of those warm,
humid nights some of you who’ve lived in the Midwest, or the East, or the South, might recall. I
remember the smell of the canvas tent and the sound of birds singing shortly after dawn. But then
came a sound that I found, and still find magical. It was the sound of church bells from all over town,
welcoming the first light of Independence Day. To this day, rarely does July 4th come around when I
don’t drift back to that morning in Decorah, Iowa. It’s a reminder of a simpler time, but more
importantly it’s a reminder that the inspiration for our freedom came from God Himself.
That’s one reason the Tutons have an American flag hanging outside our front door today. And it’s
the reason we’re going to listen to John Philip Sousa marches and watch fireworks this evening. Our
freedom as Americans is a good and godly thing, and something to be celebrated lustily and desired
for all people. May we never forget to pray for those who don’t have the joy of sharing in that
freedom. And may the bells of freedom ring for a long, long time to come in our beloved homeland.
Amen.
God and Country
July 4, 2010
July 4, 2010
July 4, 2010
The Rev. Dan Tuton
The Rev. Dan Tuton
 |
| |
 |