"God And Country"
Scripture Reading: Genesis 12:2, II Chronicles 7:14, Micah 6:8
Sermon Transcript for July 3, 2005
By Rev. Mike Beck
The topic I want to address today, “God and Country”, is a kind of a difficult one because there are many different points of view concerning that country within the church. There is one extreme that would say there really is no place for the American flag in the sanctuary for as Christians we are people of God and God really knows no nationality. And then on the other extreme there are persons who are convinced God is an American and all of God’s people ought to be of one political persuasion related to the very complex issues facing our world today. But you have heard me say on many occasions from this pulpit, that I believe one of the most important words in the Christian’s vocabulary is the word “balance”. Both points of view that I just mentioned, I think, are out there on the extreme. And I am hoping in my remarks today that we might be able to find that balance, that via media, that middle way that is such a wonderfully, unique, distinctive for us who call ourselves United Methodist Christians-- where we take rightful pride as citizens of this great nation, and yet at the same time we realize our ultimate allegiance is found as citizens of the Kingdom of God.
Now, if I’m going to do that, I’m going to need a lot of prayer. So in that spirit, would you bow with me before Almighty God, who is the Lord not only of the United States of America but of all nations. Let’s pray: “Father, through these feeble lips of clay, remind us that there is a place for us to take rightful pride in being Americans. But yet also, Lord, help us realize that in a very real sense as you look down upon your world, you don’t see those artificial boundaries that we have created as nations. You see your people—black and white, rich and poor, Christians, Jews, people who you love and care for. Help us to do our part, blessed as we are, to share our blessings with others. This is our prayer, oh Lord. Amen”
I want to use three Old Testament scriptures as a backdrop to today’s message, realizing fully that these scriptures were originally given to the Old Testament nation of Israel. But I think in a very real sense they are applicable to any nation for all of us in a generic sense are the people of God.
Genesis 12:2: God’s words to Abraham—“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.” But there was another part of that verse which says, “and all peoples on the earth will be blessed through you.” And unfortunately, if you know the history of the Hebrew people, they often forgot the last part and instead lived as kind of exclusively, in a superior way, the people of God.
II Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
Micah 6:8: One of, I think, the great versus of Scripture in all of the Bible giving us instructions on how we ought to live. “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
You and I woke up this morning, most of us at least, as citizens of the United States of America—the greatest bastion of freedom and opportunity the world has ever seen. And, better yet, we know the joys of being a Johnson, or a Shelby, or a Marion, or Bartholomew, or a Morgan (I hope I’ve got them all because we are a regional church.) We woke up knowing the joys of being a Hoosier, which I am quite proud of! Friends, we could have awakened from our bed this morning facing starvation and civil war in the country of Sudan. We could have awoken this morning in a refugee camp in Palestine. We could have woken up in numerous countries where we would have worried, if we were a Christian, about the threat of being imprisoned or even executed for our faith. Do you realize there have been more Christian martyrs in the last three decades than in all the years of Christian history? None of us worried about that when we got up this morning. You could have awoke in Iraq or Afghanistan where the birth pangs of freedom and democracy are being felt daily in the insidious attacks of suicide bombers.
It is difficult for us to realize the blessings we enjoy as Americans if you haven’t traveled outside this country. I’m looking down and Keith and Marilyn Hamilton. They know this far better than I. Let me give you some examples. I remember several years ago going with my Dad on a short trip to Haiti. And the day before we flew back we rode in the back of an old beat up Toyota pickup truck through the poverty of the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In less than 24 hours, we landed at the airport in Indianapolis. Mom picked us up. It was the Christmas season and she said, “I need to go by the Greenwood mall on my way home.” And with the time lapse of only 18 hours, I went from the squalor and poverty of Port-au-Prince, Haiti to Greenwood Mall decked out for Christmas.
I remember riding with Bishop Ntambo and he referred to the street that we were on as their “Interstate Highway”. That street we were on, you would have been calling the county commissioner saying, “Would you please get out there. This road is horrible.” Since 9/11 it is a little bit more difficult as we travel from America to Canada or to Mexico, but friends you haven’t seen anything like what I experienced a few years ago when we crossed over from Kenya to the Democratic Republic of Congo. And in this little hut were 16 and 17-year old boys with their machine guns interrogating us to death. And two hours later, they let us travel through. Or I remember the first time I went to the Congo and Dad was giving instructions to the group and he said, “Now make sure when we land that you have your bribe money.” And I said, “What do you mean bribe money? I don’t want to pay any bribe money.” And I’ll never forget how hard he laughed. He said, “Oh yes you do! You make sure you’ve got a ten or a twenty dollar bill in your pocket or you are not going anyplace.”
We were over in England last summer on our renewal leave. You know, I don’t like spending $1.99 a gallon of gasoline anymore than you do. But you know, when we were over there last summer, it was $4.15 a gallon. We as Americans have just been spoiled for decades. We didn’t know it. We complain about the taxes we pay and we think, “Oh, boy it must be so wonderful to live up in Canada.” We haven’t seen anything in America in the way of taxes to our European or Canadian neighbors. And when I was over in England or when I was in Europe several years ago, the churches are beautiful. But you know, for the most part they are museums today. There is very little spiritual life going on.
And sometimes I reflect and wonder if there is a relationship between a country’s embracing Christian values and the corresponding influence of that nation on the world around it. Now like all analogies, this one doesn’t fit perfectly, but friends, contrast the influence of Europe today on the world as compared to the time of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and Wesley. There is no comparison! In many of those countries today, euthanasia, prostitution, gay marriage, drug use are legal. And maybe there is a “wake up” call that we as Americans need to heed from the lessons of history across the sea.
Now do we as America have our faults? Heaven’s yes! But is there any place in the world that you would rather live today? For most of us, I think our answer would probably be “No, I’m proud to be an American.” So in that spirit, we’re going to stand to support our nation and the freedoms we enjoy and so often take for granted on this 4th of July weekend by pledging our allegiance to this great land. Would you stand: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic, for which it stands; one nation, under God; indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” You may be seated. We as Christians, friends, ought to be taking the lead in championing the final words we just said, “with liberty and justice for all”. At times we as Christians have done that admirably. At other times, we have failed miserably.
As I studied Wesley more carefully last summer, I began to realize that Wesley’s message was a two-sided coin. One side of that coin was Wesley’s insistence, not on the formality of religion but on a deep, intimate, personal relationship with Christ that came only through faith in what God had done in his Son, Jesus. But that’s not the only side of the coin for Wesley. There’s another side. He believed that that personal relationship had to lead to an involvement in the social issues of the day. I’m very proud that here at Grace we have created a Church and Society Committee. And this fall I am going to be preaching out of Hamilton’s sermon series “Confronting the Controversies”. Now as I preach those messages, we are not going to lay it out in black and white. For these are issues where we look at what the Bible has to say and then we work out our salvation in fear and trembling. But here are the topics:
Separation of Church and State
Creation and Evolution
The Death Penalty
Euthanasia
Abortion
Homosexuality
Have I gotten anybody’s attention? Friends, the church has got a responsibility to speak to those issues. And it is a responsibility that we have often neglected causing many of our neighbors to feel that the church is irrelevant. Those issues I just mentioned, they are in the pages of the newspaper every day.
What does it mean to look at those issues through the lenses of being a part of the Kingdom of God and through Holy Scripture? There is a wonderful document called the “United Methodist Social Principles”. Now, do I agree with every line in here? I don’t think there is any United Methodist that agrees with every line in this document. But it says what we officially believe and it speaks to this issue of “God and Country” with these words: “As individuals are affirmed by God in their diversity, so are nations and cultures. We recognize that no nation and culture is absolutely just and right in the treatment of its own people nor is any nation totally without regard for the welfare of its citizens. The church must regard nations as accountable for unjust treatment of their citizens and others living within their borders while recognizing valid differences in culture and political philosophy. We stand for justice and peace in every nation.”
So as we approach this issue of “God and Country”, we approach it from the perspective of being a part of what we call the Kingdom of God. For you see, there is a second flag in our chancel—the Christian flag. And, in reality, it is the flag to which we hold our utmost allegiance. There is a pledge to that flag that I learned in Bible school many years ago. The words are there on the screen and I invite you to stand as we pledge our allegiance to this flag. “I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and to the Savior for whose Kingdom it stands. One brotherhood, uniting all Christians, in service and in love.” You may be seated.
Perhaps we could stand a little tune-up in living out the last line of that pledge—“uniting all Christians, (all who name the name of Christ whether they be Pentecostal or liberal, they name Christ as Lord uniting us) “in service and in love.” And as citizens of this Kingdom which Christ came to usher in our full allegiance as expressed in service and love will cause us to ask hard questions about things like—war, reckless consumerism, poverty, injustice, respect for human differences. And in that spirit we will seek, as citizens of America, to bring a spirit of repentance where it is needed. At times, as fateful Americans, we will sometimes disagree with policies that we believe violate Kingdom of God principles. We will challenge ourselves to uphold strong moral values. And we won’t just say, “Boy, isn’t my neighbor’s down the street going to hell in a hand basket.” But instead, we will take a deep look within. “What am I reading? What am I watching? What am I looking at on the Internet?” And we will do our part everyday to make this great land an even stronger bastion of freedom and liberty to a dark world around us.
We are going to close with the singing of “God Bless America”. But as we sing it, remember the Scripture that reminds us “if we are blessed, it is so we can be a blessing to others”. A member of this congregation said to me following our singing of that hymn a few years ago, he said he felt the words were actually backwards. And he said the words really needed to read “America, Bless God,” through the faithful stewardship of those freedoms for which many persons who you know have paid the ultimate price for the freedoms we enjoy today. We sing it with a commitment in our heart proud of our American heritage, but in deep humility, even prouder to be counted as a part of the Kingdom of God. Because, friends, there will come a day that flag and that nation will no longer exist. But there will never be a day when the Kingdom of God is not at hand. Let’s stand together.
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