But, as a Christian, we should be proud of our country for providing that kind of protection for all and that kind of process for determining “truth” amidst conflict.\u00a0 Even so, I would still recommend some contemplation on the words from the Apostle Paul:<\/p>\n
“Each of you should look not only to your own interests but to the interests of others.”<\/p>\n
A great proverb I learned from my days at a Christian youth camp:<\/p>\n
- \n
- God is first.<\/li>\n
- The other person is second.<\/li>\n
- I am third.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Let’s be sure we, as Christians, take the high ground to apply that when someone asks us about things that aren’t really threats to our life, liberty or property – like graciously:<\/p>\n
- \n
- calling a person by the pronoun they would like to be called by,<\/li>\n
- wearing a mask when a store owner \/ person in authority asks you to<\/li>\n
- getting a vaccine \/ submitting to testing (assuming there’s no physical or religious limitation) if it’s required for travel, work or school<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
This doesn’t mean we roll over and die on the things that really matter (for the most part, the above situations really do NOT matter) but that we are, in good faith, doing our best to be “salt and light” in the eyes of most reasonable people!<\/p>\n
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No, this isn\u2019t the kind of inflammatory, fear-fueled threat that lots of Evangelical pastors prefer to major in these days.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s not some doom and gloom, sky-is-falling, bullhorn warning that God is ticked-off at this country and is doing terrible things to us because of it.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
This is not a dire, brimstone chastising about God abandoning us for our growing wickedness, removing the specific good fortune we once deserved and received.<\/strong><\/p>\n
It\u2019s simply a reminder that God doesn\u2019t bless America and\u00a0has never blessed America,\u00a0<\/strong>for the same reason that God doesn\u2019t curse America\u2014God doesn\u2019t see<\/em> America.<\/strong><\/p>\n
The heart of our Christian story is that God is not in a nation-maker or an empire-builder. God is a soul-lover.<\/strong><\/p>\n
The first few words of one of the most universally known passages of Scripture: For God so loved the world\u00a0that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life<\/em>,\u00a0reveal something powerfully beautiful about the massive scope and yet the startling intimacy of the love of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n
It is universe-sized, and yet it is individually delivered.<\/strong><\/p>\n
It is bigger than continent or nation or government, of border or land or country.\u00a0It is more than a place or a regime or a power.<\/strong><\/p>\n
It turns out that God has been creating, speaking to, and blessing people long before America was even a gleam in mother England\u2019s eye.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
The lazy phrase\u00a0God Bless America<\/i>\u00a0has saturated our Christian culture and flooded our churches and pulpits; and yet beyond an easy high, beyond a feel-good phrase to fuel our nationalistic and religious fervor\u2014it doesn\u2019t really mean all that much.<\/strong><\/p>\n
God\u2019s agenda is not America\u2019s prosperity or dominance or success, and God\u2019s reach is not confined within our\u00a0borders either.
\nGod isn\u2019t interested with making it great, or great again.
\nTo say that God blesses America, is to claim that we have the market cornered on\u00a0reflecting the image of the Divine, and that all of our\u00a0citizens would even care to make such a claim for themselves. It is to assume we all act as a monolith.<\/strong><\/p>\nI understand patriotism.\u00a0I get loving where you come from.\u00a0I understand how proximity naturally breeds affinity.\u00a0It\u2019s when these ideas of nationalism and home and country begin to define\u00a0our theology or create our religious worldview that we fashion ourselves into an idol. We begin to actually renovate God in our own opulent, aggressive, capitalistic image and ask that the world\u00a0bow down to it. <\/strong><\/p>\n
When we imagine America as specifically blessed, we replace God\u2019s will with our national desires.\u00a0We make our country God\u2019s agenda.\u00a0We act as if Divinity\u00a0is on our payroll. We can then easily justify seeing those beyond our borders as inferior or dangerous or even evil. <\/strong><\/p>\n
We begin to think we can legislate out the love and wrath of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n
The simplified story of the Christian faith is:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u2013 God uses a people, the Israelites, to be a model for the world; a way to reveal to them God\u2019s character.<\/strong>
\n\u2013 God makes a covenant with Abraham to be the \u201cfather of many nations\u201d. In this first covenant, God is reached through following rules\u00a0and\u00a0laws.<\/strong>
\n\u2013 When the Israelites prove to be unable to represent God and to follow the rules to perfection, God sends Jesus and he makes a second covenant. This time, God is not reached through rules, but by faith. God creates a new people<\/em>; one not marked by government or borders or geography, but by belief and because of their belovedness.<\/strong><\/p>\nIn other words, God is not about the franchising out of the American Dream and we should never operate under that assumption.<\/strong><\/p>\n
In a letter to a church in Colossae\u00a0(Col. 3:11-12) a pastor named Paul is writing to an early Christian faith community, and he gives them these words: Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God\u2019s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
Paul reminds his listener that all barriers and divisions, all designations, labels, borders and bloodlines are now inferior. They are man-made and they are all rendered meaningless. This is not just semantics; not merely a trivial word choice revision we need to make as we live in the world. This is a life-altering truth that can change how we see everything.<\/strong><\/p>\n
As a Christian, when I begin to live bigger than God Bless America:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
God gets right-sized.<\/em>\u00a0Instead of being an employee of my country, God again becomes the eternal, perfect, unfathomable Creator of the world whose name or likeness or will aren\u2019t up for sale.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Compassion widens.<\/em> A child\u00a0in the suburbs of Detroit or in the slums of Africa becomes just as important to me as one in my own playroom. I will advocate, grieve, work and sacrifice for all of them equally.<\/strong><\/p>\n
My purpose\u00a0changes.<\/em> My goal will no\u00a0longer\u00a0be to get everyone to live like America or to emulate America. I won\u2019t look to franchise out my culture or my lifestyle. My individual calling as a believer, will be to tell every person I meet of God\u2019s love for them.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Justice goes viral.<\/em> I\u2019ll no longer deem suffering outside my country as more tolerable as that which happens within it. I will become a citizen of the world and a lover of Humanity.<\/strong><\/p>\n
American Christian:<\/strong><\/p>\n
Love your country.<\/strong>
\nTreasure your home land.<\/strong>
\nBe proud of where you come from.<\/strong>
\nCelebrate this nation.<\/strong><\/p>\nBut never believe that God blesses America.<\/strong><\/p>\n
That is even greater news.<\/strong><\/p>\n