Introduction Question - Get to know the people around you and ask, peanut butter - chunky or smooth?

Transcription

1 Beverages and Bibles Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance. Theodore Roosevelt Introduction Question - Get to know the people around you and ask, peanut butter - chunky or smooth? Question: What does the 4th of July mean to you? America was founded by people who believe that God was their rock of safety. I recognize we must be cautious in claiming that God is on our side, but I think it s all right to keep asking if we re on His side. - Ronald Reagan And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country. - John F. Kennedy I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. - James Baldwin "Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry is own weight, this is a frightening prospect. - Eleanor Roosevelt Patriotism can be good or bad. Knee-jerk patriotism can be very bad. I'm patriotic almost to the point of self-consciousness, but I love my country the way I love a friend or a child who I would correct if she was going the wrong way. Who I expect the very best from. -Emmylou Harris So over the Fourth of July weekend and all year be appreciative of your country. Be patriotic. But make sure your patriotism pales in comparison to your sacrifice, commitment and allegiance to the Kingdom of God. - Greg Boyd 1

2 Question: What is the difference between patriotism and nationalism? There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. - Bill Clinton Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first. - Charles de Gaulle I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. - Albert Camus Extreme nationalism objectifies and dehumanizes those from other countries. - Bryant McGill Question: How do you see the line between church and state? A truly free society protects all faiths, and true faith protects a free society. - Rick Warren I believe a significant segment of American evangelicalism is guilty of nationalistic and political idolatry. To a frightful degree, I think, evangelicals fuse the kingdom of God with a preferred version of the kingdom of the world (whether it s our national interests, a particular form of government, a particular political program, or so on). Rather than focusing our understanding of God s kingdom on the person of Jesus who, incidentally, never allowed himself to get pulled into the political disputes of his day I believe many of us American evangelicals have allowed our understanding of the kingdom of God to be polluted with political ideals, agendas, and issues. - Greg Boyd Question: Someone can kneel during the national anthem, not because they want to offend the military and all those who protect and serve our country, and yet, members of the military and all those who protect and serve our country can still be offended. For those that are offended by kneeling, being offended doesn t change the feelings and reality of personal and systematic oppression and racism that make someone kneel. Can these sides understand each other? Can you understand each side? 2

3 The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to be what God made him, without hindrance. - Henry Ward Beecher There is much more to being a patriot and a citizen than reciting the pledge or raising a flag. - Jesse Ventura More Questions Who gets to decide what forms of protest are valid? Protests are designed, one way or another, to provoke/inspire a response. When you re provoked, how do you respond? When you re inspired, how do you respond? Can important conversations take place on social media? More Quotes To say Jesus is Lord! was testing and provoking the Roman pledge of allegiance that every Roman citizen had to proclaim when they raised their hand to the imperial insignia and shouted, Caesar is Lord! Early Christians were quite aware that their citizenship was in a new universal kingdom, announced by Jesus (Philippians 3:20), and that the kingdoms of this world were not their primary loyalty systems. How did we manage to lose that? And what price have we paid for it? - Richard Rohr One question in my mind, which I hardly dare mention in public, is whether patriotism has, overall, been a force for good or evil in the world. Patriotism is rampant in war and there are some good things about it. Just as self-respect and pride bring out the best in an individual, pride in family, pride in teammates, pride in hometown bring out the best in groups of people. War brings out the kind of pride in country that encourages its citizens in the direction of excellence and it encourages them to be ready to die for it. At no time do people work so well together to achieve the same goal as they do in wartime. Maybe that's enough to make patriotism eligible to be considered a virtue. If only I could get out of my mind the most patriotic people who ever lived, the Nazi Germans. - Andy Rooney 3

4 "America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. - Harry Truman Maybe patriotism is our escape clause, a way to skirt responsibility as Jesus defined it by saying along with the elders of Israel to the prophet Samuel, Give us a king to lead us (1 Sam. 8:6), when we already have one. - Andrew Klager Some well-known figures and voices "The essence of America that which really unites us is not ethnicity, or nationality or religion it is an idea and what an idea it is: That you can come from humble circumstances and do great things." - Condoleezza Rice We identify the flag with almost everything we hold dear on earth, peace, security, liberty, our family, our friends, our home...but when we look at our flag and behold it emblazoned with all our rights we must remember that it is equally a symbol of our duties. Every glory that we associate with it is the result of duty done. - Calvin Coolidge What we need are critical lovers of America patriots who express their faith in their country by working to improve it. - Hubert Humphrey Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it. - Mark Twain A final thought from Greg Boyd I am thankful to live in a country that acknowledges people have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and that empowers citizens to influence how they are governed. I know how rare such freedom has been throughout history, and how costly it has been to acquire and protect. I m also proud of many other ideals America stands for, such as the principle that all people are created equal (though, we re obviously still in the process of living up to this one). So, I see no problem with an American Christian being patriotic. 4

5 At the same time, followers of Jesus need to be very careful. History shows us how easy it is for Christians to forget that the Kingdom Jesus came to establish is not of this world (John 18:36, TNIV). And it s to His Kingdom we are to pledge our sole allegiance. Throughout history we find Christians buying the age-old pagan lie that God uniquely favors their country, and their national enemies are God s enemies. Believing that lie, patriotic Christians have tragically followed the orders of earthly rulers and marched into battle for God and country, rather than following the example of Jesus who gave His life for the people who persecuted Him. Ironically, in some cases the enemies Christians have slaughtered have been other patriotic Christians who happened to be born in other countries, or other parts of the same country. Few things have done more to discredit Christianity than the patriotic zeal with which Christians have participated in violence. Whoever claims to live in him, John teaches us, must live as Jesus did (1 John 2:6). When we compromise our commitment to living and loving like Jesus, we ve crossed the line between healthy and idolatrous patriotism. Jesus and Paul repeatedly command us to love, bless, pray for and do good to our enemies, and to never retaliate or resort to violence. It s healthy to patriotically appreciate the positive aspects of our country and our form of government. But we re putting that patriotism in front of God the moment our allegiance to our country motivates us to kill our enemies rather than to die for them. And anything in our lives that comes before God is idolatry. The danger of idolatrous patriotism is not just about how we compromise our love for enemies. If we become too invested in our nation, we can forget our real citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 1:27) and our job is to live as ambassadors of Christ ( 2 Corinthians 5:20). Rather than manifesting the distinctive values of the Kingdom of God, we can begin to assume the ideals of our culture are Kingdom values. 5

6 I appreciate that America recognizes my rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but there is nothing distinctly Kingdom about these rights. They re nowhere to be found in the Bible. To the contrary, as a follower of Jesus I m called to surrender my rights to life, liberty and happiness, and instead submit to the will of God. These rights are noble on a political level, but they can get in the way of my call to seek first the Kingdom. I m grateful America extends these rights to people, for most countries throughout history have not. But my sole allegiance is to the heavenly Kingdom that calls me to surrender my rights. If I get too concerned with an earthly country that frees me to pursue my rights, my healthy patriotism becomes idolatrous. I ve put my country s ideals before God. Along similar lines, history consistently shows when we forget we re foreigners and exiles in this world, we can begin to associate our preferred form of government or politics too closely with the Kingdom of God. Here, too, it s crucial we follow the example of Jesus. Despite the fact that He lived in an age when plenty of political and nationalistic issues were being hotly debated, Jesus never displayed the slightest interest in such matters. He didn t come to bring us a new and improved version of the Kingdom of the world. He came to inaugurate a Kingdom that is not of this world. It s a Kingdom that is no more Israeli than it is Palestinian; no more American than it is Iraqi; and no more socialist than it is democratic. Instead, it s a Kingdom that encompasses people from every nation and political persuasion, for it puts on display the one new humanity Jesus died to create (Ephesians 2:15). In this Kingdom, Paul declares, there is no longer any Jew or Greek (Galatians 3:27-29). In our Kingdom, all national, tribal, ethnic, gender, social and economic distinctions are insignificant. So over the Fourth of July weekend and all year be appreciative of your country. Be patriotic. But make sure your patriotism pales in comparison to your sacrifice, commitment and allegiance to the Kingdom of God. 6