Thoughts on Patriotism and Faith

With our national holiday here in USA - Independence Day - falling on a Sunday this year, I've found myself this week spending a bit of time thinking about the intersection between faith and patriotism, between one's devotion to God and one's devotion to one's country. There is no doubt that they do intersect, they must. The question, then, becomes what that intersection looks like and what it should look like.

I've been helped along in my thinking by Eric Metaxas' mesmerizing biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (aptly titled, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy). The life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for me at least, epitomizes the proper relationship between patriotism and faith. Briefly, I'll summarize his life:

Bonhoeffer was born in pre World War I Germany to a wealthy family of what can only be called the social "upper crust." Throughout his childhood, his parents emphasized the importance of learning and the importance of conviction - of sticking to what one believes. In his late teens, Bonhoeffer decided to study theology and did so in several places. Following his studies, during the buildup to World War II, Bonhoeffer became deeply embroiled in the kirchenkampf, or church struggle in Hitler's Germany. Eventually, Bonhoeffer's convictions led him to participate in an attempt to assassinate Hitler, for which Bonhoeffer would be executed days before the war's end.

I bring up Bonhoeffer because of that thing called the kirchenkampf. The church struggle was between a group that was known as the "Reich Church" or the "German Christians" and a group that would come to be identified as "The Confessing Church," of which Bonhoeffer was a key part. The German Christians were ones who believed that to be a good Christian necessarily meant being a good German. In other words, they looked the other way as Hitler and his cronies defiled the true faith with their anti-semitism and their worship of Hitler as a god. Bonhoeffer saw that this was happening and fought with everything he had against it, but in the end was unable to stop Hitler's destruction of the church and so he became instrumental in the formation of the Confessing Church.

The author of the biography - Eric Metaxas - identifies one of , if not the chief problem that led the "German Christians" - who were, prior to Hitler, orthodox in their beliefs - down the primrose path of heresy. In short, they were incapable of separating their "German-ness" from their Christianity. They were so caught up in the idea that to be a good Christian meant to be a good German that when being a good German meant going along with Hitler's schemes, they did theological backflips to try and justify the most insane of ideas. Jesus became an Aryan, the New Testament a unified attack on Judaism, and on and on it went. For these "German Christians," faith and patriotism had become so intertwined, so comingled, that they could no longer separate them, even when it was obvious that something was dreadfully wrong.

I don't know about anyone else, but I read things like that and I begin to fear for our country. I fear that we are approaching a similar point or, even worse, that we may have arrived there. I fear that there are many, many Christians in America who have wound their "American-ness" and their Christianity so tightly together that they can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins.

To be sure, we do not have a psychotic dictator attempting to destroy the church breathing down our necks as did the church in Bonhoeffer's time. Yet, if anything, that makes our situation as a church even more precarious, even more critical. Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church was responding to an obvious and visible crisis and so were able to clearly demonstrate the dangers and could point to the extreme result of such an irrevocable mixing of faith and patriotism. We, on the other hand, are "safe." There is little obvious danger out there to indicate that we have a serious problem, and there are few extreme examples to which we can point.

Let me be clear, though - the absence of obvious evidence does not mean that there is not a problem. The fact that we don't have a Hitler on our heels does not change the fact that there are many Christians for whom faith in God and belief in the American Dream are nearly synonymous. There are groups that will portray our nations wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as holy wars, thus making supporting those wars the only "Christian" thing to do. There are others who will tell you that being a good American and a good Christian come together in the hatred of Muslims, who all want to kill you. I could give more examples, but I think you get the idea.

I'll say it again - this scares me. Don't get me wrong, I love my country. I consider myself privileged to have been born in America and I don't want to live anywhere else. I recognize that I have been blessed. But I cannot combine my faith in God with my love for my country. They simply do not mix. For one thing, my country routinely acts in ways that fail to live up to the truth of faith in Christ. For another, selling out my faith to patriotism demands that I forfeit my ability to speak out against the evils done by my country and, should a situation similar to that faced by the "German Christians" arise, I would have no credibility with which to speak against the heresies.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not a "German Christian" - he was a Christian who happened to be German. In other words, his faith took absolute and complete priority over his patriotic identity. By his life and through his death, he modeled for the church today what the proper intersection, the right relationship between faith and patriotism should be. This Independence Day, I challenge followers of Christ to follow in his footsteps and to declare that their faith is independent of their patriotism, that the two are not synonymous and that their faith takes absolute priority. I am not an "American Christian." Rather, I am a Christian who was fortunate to be born in America.

Asking the Right Question

Recently, the district on which I pastor held a "Pastor's Forum" meeting with one of the General Superintendents who help lead the entire Wesleyan Church. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the denomination - explore our dreams for its future, the barriers we face and the ways in which it might need to be reshaped and/or reorganized. We spent several hours discussing these things and, for the most part, they were beneficial hours.

There was one comment, though, that threw me for a loop. When the discussion reached the topic of ordination requirements, one of the pastors suggested that there should be a conversion litmus test for ordination - that if a candidate has not personally led at least 10 people to Christ in the last year, he or she cannot be ordained. That way we can prevent the denomination from ordaining "ineffective" leaders.

On the surface, this might seem like a decent idea. After all, isn't the whole point of ministry to convert non-Christians into Christians? That being the case, doesn't it make sense not to ordain people who do not have a track record of success in that area?

At the time the suggestion was made, I was uncomfortable with it. Since I wasn't entirely sure why, though, I kept my mouth shut. I know that I have always had an issue with using statistics as the only measure of a minister's success, as statistics only measure part (and a very small part, at that) of a pastor's vocation. As my second and final ordination interview approaches rapidly, I find myself growing more and more uncomfortable with the idea of an ordination litmus test.

I think that I discovered the reason it makes me so uncomfortable this morning. As I was perusing through my collection of Henri Nouwen books in search of a comment for this week's sermon, I ran across the following statement in Nouwen's book on Christian leadership, In the Name of Jesus:

"The question is not: How many people take you seriously? How much are you going to accomplish? Can you show some results? But: Are you in love with Jesus?"

Are you in love with Jesus? That - in my mind - is a much more important issue for ordination than whether or not a candidate has led "x" number of people to say the Sinner's Prayer. You don't have to love Jesus to use the Evange-cube or to walk someone down the Roman's Road or to give someone a tract. You don't have to love Jesus to call someone a sinner and demand that they repent. You don't have to love Jesus to be a good public speaker. You don't have to love Jesus to grow a "church." All of those things can - and have - been done by people who are not really in love with Jesus.

Being in love with Jesus encompasses all of that and so much more. If you're in love with Jesus, you care for his people. Rather than just giving them a tract, you offer them food, water, a hug, your friendship. Rather than just calling them a sinner and demanding repentance, you show them grace and help them see God's love. Rather than settling for being a good public speaker, you become someone for whom sermons take second place to actions. Rather than worrying only about whether your congregation is larger this year than last, you worry about whether or not your congregation is more in love with Jesus this year than last.

This is why, "Are you in love with Jesus?" is a better question, a better test for Christians than how many people they led to Christ or invited to church or whatever other statistical tool you want to use. I know you can't put a number to "Are you in love with Jesus?" But perhaps that, too, is a strength. Perhaps the time has come for the church to remember that this Jesus thing is not a system which can be measured and analyzed, but a movement that is fluid and constantly changing.

The Bible in 40 Days: Some Final Observations

NOTE: Long post alert. You have been warned.

After spending the last 40 days reading through the entire Bible, I figured I should "debrief" a little bit...take a little time to explore the key things I learned from the exercise.

The "Preferential Option for the Poor" is Real

More than any other, the idea that kept popping up - at least once every day in one form or another - was that God has a special concern for the poor. From the first book to the last, the call of God is for those who seek to follow Him to intentionally act in favor of the poor, the oppressed, the widow, the immigrant, etc. In other words, we have a responsibility to take care of the outcasts and the people that society might ignore.

While this isn't "big" news in and of itself, what was big news for me was the emphasis placed on this care for the outcasts. Much of the Law spoke of it. When the prophets pronounced judgment on the people of Israel, it was often because of their systematic oppression of the poor more even than their other offenses. When you get to the New Testament, Jesus identifies this kind of care as the fruits by which His followers will be known. The sheep are distinguished from the goats based on their actions in favor of the poor.

The way I see it as I read it is that God places more emphasis on our actions in favor of the outcasts than he does on our acts of worship. Feeding the hungry is more important than singing hymns. Standing up for the immigrant is more important than taking communion. Visiting prisoners takes precedence over Bible studies. Do you see where I'm going with this?

I mean, I always knew that taking care of the outcasts was important. But I never realized that their importance is greater even than the ritualized acts of worship that we do every week. It may sound "wrong" to say that God places a higher priority on standing up for the weak and poor than he does on singing, preaching or even taking communion; and certainly there will be those that think I'm wrong or that I'm misreading. I challenge you, if you feel that way to read through the Bible from cover to cover and then tell me I'm wrong.

As for me, I've come to the conclusion that the Catholic theologians were right - God has a preferential option for the poor.

God is a Merciful God

Even in the worst case scenarios presented by the prophets - scenarios of doom and destruction and death - there always seems to be talk of a remnant, of a group of the people of Israel who would be saved. God never seems to completely give up on people. There always seems to be room for one who shows repentance - even to the end of Revelation there will be opportunities for repentance.

What does this mean for the way I live my life as a follower of Christ?

There was a famous theologian (I've always heard Karl Barth, but am not sure if he's the one) who once said that anyone who has not flirted with the idea of universalism (everyone goes to heaven) has never really tried to come to grips with the immensity of God's grace. Now, I am not a universalist. Nor do I believe that the Bible teaches universalism. However, the Bible does clearly teach that God's mercy and grace extends far, far beyond anything our human minds can comprehend.

So I have to live my life looking at other people through the eyes of grace. I cannot look at someone and say, "you are damned." God's grace is greater than my mind can comprehend. I must learn to live under the aegis of a God who is more merciful than judgmental. This is not to say that God will not judge, only that I am unable to determine when or how or the extent of that judgment.

Uncomfortable Atonement

There seems to be a trend among scholars and theologians to distance themselves and Christian thought from the "penal substitution" theory of atonement (that is, that the death of Jesus on the cross was a necessary substitute for the death required for our sins). It makes us uncomfortable to think that way and we don't like to picture God in that way...so we come up with different theories.

Yet when I read through the Bible - especially the book of Hebrews - I cannot escape the idea that Jesus' death was a necessary sacrifice to atone for my sins. There may be more to the atonement than substitution, but I don't see how we can be faithful to Scripture and say that no part of the cross was a blood sacrifice to cover the debt of guilt for our sins.

'Tis a Mystery

The final thing that I learned is that there is a lot of Scripture that I do not understand. And perhaps I am not meant to. One of the primary downsides of "modernity" was the assumption that humans are intended to understand anything and everything about the world. If we didn't understand it now, progress would inevitably lead us to the place where we would grasp it. It was the mantra of modernity - progress, progress, progress.

The joy of postmodernity - to me - is that there has been a recapturing of mystery. The Bible is not a science book or a history book. It is a story of God and his relationship with humans - and as there is in any story, it is full of mystery. Which is a good thing.

Day 22: Isaiah 1-39

I wanted to post today so as to not miss a post. However, that being said, I feel like crap today thanks to my allergies. As a result, even though I most certainly did read Isaiah 1-39, my mind wasn't sharp enough to come up with something witty, profound or even worth commenting on.

Those of you who are following this thing will hopefully forgive me one day without a "substantive" post.

See you Monday.

Day 21: Ecclesiastes & Song of Songs

Two of the stranger books of the Old Testament...on the same day! Yippee!

The Straw Man

The book of Ecclesiastes has long been a source of confusion and even conflict in the church. When you read the book, much of what you hear seems to contradict what you know to be true from other places in the Bible. It is difficult to reconcile "eat, drink and be merry" with the narrow gate Jesus talks about, for example.

What is happening in Ecclesiastes, though, is a satirical "spoof" of the worldly view of things. The writer of Ecclesiastes caricatures the perspective of the god-less and writes as if he shares that perspective. The whole book, then, can be seen as sort of a straw man argument. The key verse in the whole book is Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 -

"That's the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty. God will judge us for everything we do including every secret thing, whether good or bad."

The point of knowledge is to point us to God. When we let knowledge draw us away from God, we lose our way and everything becomes "utterly meaningless."

Love is Good

Song of Songs is enough to make you blush. It is the ultimate song in praise of love. It tells the story of two lovers and all the stuff that goes along with their love. Over the course of history, people have attempted to explain away the erotic nature of the Song by saying that it is really not the story of two human lovers but the story of God's love for humans or the story of salvation history.

Such attempts diminish the significance of the Song. The Song is a beautiful poem that reminds us that love is good. Love is created by God and given as a gift to us. In our world in which sex is casual and "I love you" is thrown around without a thought, the words of the Song are a welcome reminder that love is more than all of that.

Day 20: Proverbs

There is so much going on in the book of Proverbs that it is impossible to even begin trying to distill it all into one thing. The book is so full of pithy and profound sayings that it can quickly become overwhelming. That said, I did find several threads that seemed to run throughout the book.

Wisdom

Throughout the entire book, time and time again there are proverbs that refer to wisdom. Wisdom is praised over wealth, over possessions, over land, over nearly everything else. Wisdom is the ultimate gift of God. It is what true followers of God are meant to seek, to go after with all of our heart.

The question that must be answered, then, is "What is wisdom?" That's a question with a thousand answers - wisdom is defined as knowledge, sanity, good sense, judgment, and a plethora of other things. The challenge is to determine which of these fits what Proverbs says we should seek. I won't pretend to have all the answers, but I will say that it seems to me that the kind of wisdom Proverbs talks about includes all of the above.

Discipline

Aside from wisdom, the topic of discipline seems to be the most mentioned theme in Proverbs. Multiple times the writer says something like "a wise man enjoys discipline but a fool spurns it." It seems as if the writer of Proverbs wants us to be sure to embrace constructive criticism. It's not our first reaction to accept it when people criticize us...but wisdom would tell us that we should be more open to rebuke and correction.

That's all for today - I could write more, but my Dad's in town for a visit, so I think I'll sign off for now. More tomorrow on Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

Day 19: Psalms 101-150

Three days in the Psalms - longer than it will take me to read any other book of the Bible - draw to a close today.

You Wrote a Love Song for What?

Imagine if, on around April 15, while you were scrambling to finish your tax return, you ran across a friend who looked right at you and said, "I love the IRS." You'd think they were crazy. Then imagine if that same friend brought out a copy of a poem s/he had written titled "Ode to the Tax Code" - and insisted on reading all five pages of it to you. At that point, you would probably start becoming seriously concerned for your friend's mental well-being, right?

As absurd as that circumstance might be, it is rather close to what happens when one starts reading Psalm 119. It is a Psalm dedicated completely to the Law of God. For 172 verses (far and away the longest single chapter in the entire Bible), the psalm goes on and on about how wonderful God's laws are and how fun it is to meditate on them and so forth. It's almost enough to make you question the sanity of the author.

Yet there is something about the psalms unwavering dedication to obedience that is quite moving. Something about a no holds barred approach to God's commands seems attractive. Perhaps it is not the author of Psalm 119 who is crazy or who is going a little overboard or who is taking things too seriously. Perhaps I am not taking things seriously enough.

Pilgrimage Songs

In the latter part of the book, there is a whole group of psalms that fall under the heading, "Song(s) of Ascent." These were songs that the people would sing while they were on their annual trip to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and celebrate feasts. I can only imagine how awesome it must have been to be a witness to the singing of these songs - thousands of Jews traveling toward Jerusalem, each family singing one of these songs, their voices mingling together in a joyous cacophany of praise and worship to the God who had rescued them from all kinds of disasters.

Maybe that's what Heaven is going to be like - millions of people singing "songs of ascent" in praise to Jesus.

A Fixed Law

I am generally loathe to enter into the evolution v. creation debate. It's not because I do not have an opinion (anyone who knows me knows that I have an opinion on everything, even if I know absolutely nothing about it). Neither is it because I am afraid to engage in debate. Mostly, I stay out of it because I think it is a largely unimportant issue that has become too divisive.

However, there are times when I find myself drawn into thought about the early days of the world. Whenever I read Psalm 148, I experience one of those times. Verses 5-6 say this:

"Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created.

He set them in place forever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away."

I see those words and the former physics student in me smiles. I see in those words a confirmation that the natural order of things was ordained by God - that all the laws of physics and chemistry are a part of God's creation. As strange as it may sound, I see in Psalm 148 a song in praise of the laws of nature and the God who established them. It was not Newton that caused gravity to be, it was God. We can debate until we are blue in the face about how exactly God did it, but we can no longer throw out the sciences and discard the input of physics and chemistry and geology and so forth. God set things in place and gave a natural law that will never pass away, and we have to incorporate that natural law into our way of understanding both God and the world.