Last year, still feeling relatively new at my church, I experienced our service for Memorial Day. I have to admit, I thought it was pretty messed up. I didn’t say anything, but seriously singing God Bless America and the Star Spangled Banner, saying the Pledge of Allegiance in church? Think about that, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.” Really? Isn’t Christian’s pledging their allegiance to a flag a little out of sink with the mission of the church? What ever happened to the whole ‘God is King’, or ‘Jesus is Lord’ thing? I for one felt like something was wrong with that service.
At the same time because of those critiques I had of the service and the church, I started feeling a little anti-American. I love my country. I feel truly blessed to be an American citizen. More importantly I want to be known as someone who supports our troops. Those who have sacrificed and those who currently are sacrificing their bodies, minds and even lives for me to experience the blessing of living in the United States. So to have a problem with patriotism in church made me feel a little conflicted.
Well, of course this year I find myself preparing to be the preacher in a week and a half; yes the day before Memorial Day! When I realized this had happened I tried to get out of it, but my pastor would have none of it. I told the pastor we couldn’t do any patriotic songs if I am going to preach, which he said he disagreed with but would support what I had asked. But now I am struggling. When I preach I can’t ignore the significance of Memorial Day, I can’t miss the opportunity to support those who have died for our country. But I also can’t ignore that Jesus tells us to love our enemies! I can’t ignore those who have died for our faith! I can’t ignore the fact that God is tugging at my heart to preach about peace, love, mercy, justice, devotion to God’s Kingdom and most importantly pledging our allegiance to Him alone!
I could slam the Bible down and tell the congregation that war is evil and God calls us to stand up against evil. I could point at the congregation and accusing them of loving their country more then they love Jesus. But as soon as I do that no one will be able to hear the message God has for them. They will stop listening. But I cannot pander to what people want to hear either. I have to do my best to preach the message God has for everyone to hear. That is a fine line that I must walk and it would be far easier to just not show up! But I am going to do my best to walk that line. I pray God gives me the right words to speak; and I pray he opens the ears and hearts of the congregation for them to receive the message God has for them.
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9 comments:
Well doesn't God only bless America? And, isn't it our job as Americans to "save" other countries? Maybe... I thought we had to worship the American Flag since God created this Nation for the Chosen. Well good luck to ya!
Well, at least as a nation we realize we are "one nation, under God"! But those crazy liberals want to take that away from us too!
I dig your musings, Paul. I've felt the same internal conflict many a day. I'll be praying for your sermon!
Sara Rust
Thank you Sara, I need that prayer! During a bible study this morning (It's me and 6 guys from the WWII generation) I mentioned that I was feeling conflicted about preaching the day before Memorial Day. No one responded and their faces said all that was needed for them to say!
I am a proud American. I know that I am blessed to live in the United States. I understand your conflict. Imagine if you will, being born and raised somewhere else. Someone like Hitler comes and starts killing your countrymen, your friends, your family. You are forced into slave labor. Would you pray to God that someone try to stop him? Would you pray that someone kill him? What about those soldiers fighting that war? Would you pray for them? Do you think they joined the military hoping to go to war? When I joined the army, I did so because I needed a way to support my newborn daughter, and I was hoping to use the GI bill to go to college when I got out. While I was in the service I had to ask myself, "would you kill another person?" To save the lives of my fellow soldiers? To protect my family, friends, and country? To protect myself? The answer....yes. Every time I think about this choice, tears come to my eyes. Yes, I would do my job as a soldier for all of these reasons, and I hope the good Lord would understand, and forgive me. I would hope that my family, friends, countrymen and the people that I was fighting to help would support and pray for me. Memorial day is about remembering those people that gave up everything they had, so we can have everything we have. God Bless. David Rush
hahahah yes tough subject.
i have been in church services where there were us flags hanging right by the pulpit.
Is God really blessing America? Last time I check it is pretty bad out there.
by the way I am adding you on the blog roll.
Well, still struggling about this sermon and it is a few days away. I think Tavik's post shows how difficult of a subject it is for Christians who live in the U.S.A. I think the biggest struggle has to do with the last thing Tavik said, "Memorial day is about remembering those people that gave up everything they had, so we can have everything we have." But in the church it is about remembering the Freedom Jesus gave us. I would also add what other Christians have sacrificed throughout history must be remembered. These are the things we must remember on Memorial Day in the church. I suggest everyone take a look at "Myth of a Christian Nation". Author Greg Boyd does a fantastic job of tackling these issues.
Paul, I am really excited that you and the others are dialogging about this. As you saw from my post on my page, I take a non-violence only approach. However, the issue is so complicated and I feel deeply conflicted over it. What I don't feel as conflicted about is patriotism. I'm not a patriotic person because I can't see how borders that humans have created artificially on land that doesn't really belong to anyone ultimately is worth dying for. The book of Revelation talks about how there will be a community made up of people from every nation, people group, ethnicity, gender, etc. at the end of time. I don't see how I can justify violence or exclusion of these people now (in order to protect my comforts and pass them to my children) when we are of the same family. My loyalty is to the family of Jesus always above any lingering loyalty to my nation.
But maybe I'm missing something... :)
"Jesus for president" by shane claiborne touches on this, and i loved the examples it gave, and the stories it shared. I'd also recommend "myth of a christian nation" by boyd like paul said
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