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Profoundly
Disturbed on The Fourth of July: God, The Flag, and the
End of America
by
Bob Hyatt
Our
call to worship this 4th of July weekend was This Land
is Your Land, This Land is My Land. After the Color
Guard presented the flag, we stood, said the Pledge of
Allegiance and then sang The Star-Spangled Banner. Our
worship set included The Battle Hymn of the Republic, My
Country T'is of Thee, America the Beautiful and God
Bless America. We even finished the service by asking
the congregation to sing along with Lee Greenwoods God
Bless the USA ("I'm proud to be an American, where
at least I know I'm free").
And
through the whole thing I couldn't help but think how
moving it was with flags draped from the ceiling, how
well-done the music sounded with the drums beating a
military cadence throughout… and how incredibly wrong
that we were doing any of it.
Churches
throughout America this year celebrated the 4th of July
weekend with similar patriotic anthems, displays and
pledges. These services have taken on an increased
importance to many congregations, particularly since
September 11th as we have struggled to make sense of
tragedy as people who believe in a God Who is In
Control. There has been a renewed stirring of national
pride. We have put flags on our bumpers, right between
the little silver fish symbol and the One Nation UNDER
GOD sticker. And if, on the anniversary of our nations
independence, we want to wax a bit patriotic in church,
is there anything wrong with that?
Yes-
there is.
Who
Are You?
The
word that the New Testament uses to describe those of us
who belong to Gods Kingdom, yet still reside here on
earth is strangers. The idea is that our citizenship has
shifted to another country, that we have become aliens-
people who reside in one country, but whose allegiance,
heart and destiny lie with another. Peter addresses his
first epistle to Gods elect, strangers in this world.
More than that, a few verses later he encourages us to
live our lives here in reverent fear as foreigners (NLT).
The
writer of Hebrews says it this way: "For here we do
not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city
which is to come." (Heb. 13:14, NASB). He praised
those who were able to recognize their status here: All
these people were still living by faith when they died.
They did not receive the things promised; they only saw
them and welcomed them from a distance. And they
admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
Other epistles address the church as "the twelve
tribes in the Dispersion" (James 1:1).
Strangers,
citizens of another Kingdom, those whose heart is set on
another place. Yes- we are to pray for our leaders and
seek the peace and welfare of the area where God has
placed us, but we need to be exceedingly careful of
becoming attached to this temporary residence of ours-
even when it comes to its finer qualities. Paul used his
Roman citizenship when the need arose, but it was
certainly among the things that he counted as dung and
rubbish- nothing to be romanticized.
So
You Wanna Go Back To Egypt?
As
I read the Old Testament accounts of exile, particularly
the story of the children of Israel in Egypt, I'm struck
by the picture that God was drawing: His people, under
oppression in a country not their own, longing for the
one who would come and lead them out to the promised
land. I have no doubt, and we can see from their
complaints in the desert that the region of Goshen where
they resided was nice, relatively plague-free, perhaps
less wicked than the areas of Egypt that surrounded, but
it was still Egypt nonetheless. Can you imagine if the
Israelites had become so enamored of Goshen that after
almost 400 years there, they had begun to write songs
about Goshen, pledge their lives, their fortunes and
their sacred honor to Goshen, and had begun to think of
Goshen as being the greatest land on the face of the
earth (God Bless Goshen!, And I'm proud to be a
Goshenite, where at least I'm still lice-free!). I think
an objective observer would have rightly asked,
"You foolish people! Are you forgetting that this
is not your home?"
While
we can appreciate the ways that God has blessed us here
in America, to lose sight of our status as aliens, to
become enamored of this land in which we live, to forget
that someday One will come and lead us out would be
nothing less than foolish. More than just foolish,
I
think some of the ways in which we celebrate our Godly
American Heritage in the context of a worship service
may even be directly contrary to the Gospel. Jesus said,
quoting the prophet Isaiah, "My House will be
called a house of prayer for all nations" as He
rebuked the temple authorities for falling down on the
house of prayer part. I wonder if, by allowing
nationalistic displays into our corporate worship time,
into Gods temple the Church, we are falling down on the
for all nations part.
The
area where I live is being increasingly filled with
people for whom America is not their country of origin.
Whenever I see the huge American flag hanging from our
ceiling as I enter our worship center, I wonder just
what message we are sending to those whose do not share
our earthly citizenship. Imagine if you were an
immigrant or even an illegal alien who was seeking God,
coming into a church where the flag dominated the
worship center, even overshadowing the cross; what would
you think?
But
even more than this, I wonder if we are guilty of a
subtle syncretism- one that has come to equate
patriotism with spirituality. Much of American
Evangelicalism has adopted as a tenet of faith a certain
stance toward Government (in Favor of the Constitution,
the Flag and The Pledge-at least the 1954 version with
under God, and Against when it comes to taxes,
bureaucrats, and local school boards). It has declared
that the American Dream is really right in line with the
Gospel and that Jesus, were He walking around bodily in
America today, would have made a pretty good American,
living in a $250,000 suburban home, driving a Lexus or
BMW, traveling across town to a church that met His
needs What has happened to the radical counter-cultural
nature of our faith?
No,
there's nothing wrong with patriotism in the sense of
rooting for your team and appreciating your country. But
when it becomes more than that For C.S. Lewis both
pacifism and patriotism were dangerous in that they both
serve as a means to wrest mans focus from where it
belongs toward something very temporal indeed.
Let
Him begin by treating Patriotism as a part of his
religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan
spirit, come to regard it as the most important part.
Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at
which the religion becomes merely part of the cause, in
which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the
excellent arguments in can produce (C.S.Lewis, The
Screwtape Letters pg. 42, 1942, Collins
Publishers)
"A
man may have to die for our country: but no man must, in
any exclusive sense, live for his country. He who
surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal
claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering
to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically
belongs to God: himself."
And
there it is What was bothering me so much during our
recent 4th of July service wasn't so much that we were
celebrating America (believe it or not, I actually do
have some warm feelings for my country). It wasn't so
much what we were doing, as what we weren't. We had
taken a time that belonged to the worship of God and
turned it towards the appreciation of a country, a
political system, a flag. We said that we were
worshipping God through the singing of those patriotic
songs, the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance, the
placing of the Christian flag near the American… but in
fact, by the true definition of worship- recognizing
worth- we were worshiping America.
The
End of America
Is
it wrong to love our country? No, its not. We can be
proud of our humanitarian efforts throughout the world.
No one gives more money and other types of aid to
developing nations than the USA. We can be proud that we
are slowly coming to live out our creed: All men are
created equal. But even in our more patriotic moments,
we shouldn't forget some of the painful aspects of our
history such as our treatment of Native Americans, the
damaging effects of which can still be seen today. We shouldn't
whitewash our history of slavery and our support of
dictators around the world when it served our purposes.
And most of all, we mustn't forget what America really
is. Tony Campolo put it this way: America may be the
best Babylon the world has, but it is still Babylon
nonetheless. (Adventures in Missing the Point: How the
Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel, Brian D.
McLaren ,Tony Campolo 2003, Emergent YS)
We
live in Babylon, folks. Its a world system that
transcends borders, is dominated by American-style
consumerism and exploitation, and is fundamentally
opposed to the Kingdom of God. More than that, its a
system which will someday be brought to a terrifying and
glorious end by the coming of Gods Anointed One. Yes,
someday Jesus Himself will sweep America, along with all
the other babelistic towers we have built, into the
dustbin of history. And, the Bible says, at this the
people of God will rejoice. (Revelation 18:20-19:4) So
if we know that someday we as the Church will cheer the
fall of America and the rest of the nations of the
world, what should be our attitude now?
How
Should We Then Celebrate?
Can
we respect the sacred space of our worship gatherings,
stay mindful of our status as aliens and still recognize
national holidays like the 4th of July?
We
can, but it means moving away from the traditional ways
of celebrating: flags, anthems and the like. It means
making sure that the message of our worship environment
(the message people intuit when they walk into our
building or sanctuary) is consistent with our doctrine:
Our allegiance belongs to Christ alone, we are citizens
of another country, and we are looking not to the
country in which we live, but to a heavenly one.
Probably the best way to do this in the context of the
4th of July would be to honor God and worship Him as the
one who brings freedom of all kinds, not the least of
which may be freedom from tyranny.
We
can thank God for His blessings, ask His forgiveness for
our national sins and offer the freedom of Christ to all
who are there, American or not.
Expatriate
or Ex-Patriot?
I
lived for two years in the Netherlands as an expatriate-
someone who lives as a non-citizen in a country not
their own. It was an eye-opening experience. I learned
that the world does not view America the way we think it
does. I learned that other countries have long
traditions of freedom and liberty too. But most of all,
through the homesickness I sometimes felt, even in the
midst of loving my experience of living abroad, I
learned an excellent model for our time here on earth.
We are, all of us who know Christ, expatriates- living
for a time in a foreign country. We can enjoy it, but if
we ever stop feeling homesick, we are in trouble.
So,
next Fourth of July, go ahead and light off some
fireworks, thank God for the freedoms you have, enjoy a
nice parade or picnic but maybe leave the Star-Spangled
Banner out of the worship set, okay?
_____________
Bob
Hyatt is a recovering youth pastor, husband and father-to-be who dreams of a
teaching pastor position in a church that recognizes the spiritual value
inherent in a good cup of coffee
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