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Print this page A sermon by Pastor Mary Harris-Koth We are on the developmental task of your identity. I think I will do a series on church identity subjects offering up choices one might claim. One makes chooses when there is a menu and an appropriate menu for the 4th of July is how do you individually and as a collective body of the church relate you Religion to your Country? To state it differently how do you relate your faith to your citizenship in America? Or yet another way to pose the question How does your Christ relate to your Culture? I will present five models and no model is wrong. They are just different ways people perceive God's Spirit calling them to practice their faith and their citizenship. In the first model one's faith is antagonistic to one's citizenship. Your first thought is probably Jehovah Witness. Faith against politics might also be found with the Amish who live in colonies unto themselves and do not participate in the political process. The first Christians were indeed citizens of a country that was against them. There are Christians today living in countries where their faith and their country are antagonist to one another. You might choose to be a person who practices a faith but does not participate in the political system because politicians and the political system are corrupt and evil. Thus you as a Christian would not want your church to speak to any bill that is before the legislature. Yet another model would be to practice a religion above Country, or a faith above politics. It is said by some that a faith focused only on heaven is of no earthly good. In this model religion is about spiritual things and politics is about earthly things. One's faith does not speak to politics because the two worlds are different and do not relate to each other. Salvation is for the spiritual self. God does not participate in politics so why should you? Some of the writers of the Declaration of Independence held that God created the world and set certain natural laws in motion and like a clock let the world tick. The Deist's God is above humans and does not interfere with the work of humans but has in place natural laws for the humans to follow. Mystics also practice an avoidance of politics choosing to live only a spiritual life. Yet, Thomas Merton and my saint Hildegard of Bingen both avoided politics only to find that persons of politics coming to them for wisdom. In this model your church would choose to not participate in civil events because church is only for matters of the soul. Church is for the life yet to come. Secular matters are of no concern to the sacred God in heaven or your calling is to not concern yourself with secular matter but only spiritual matters. Another model is to synthesize God and Country. This is the nationalism of faith that was accomplished by Constantine in the forth century when he made Christianity the national religion. Our forefather protested the Church of England as the national religion and thus wrote in the first amendment that the new government will never establish a state religion. The Hebrew people of the Old Testament practiced a religion at times that metamorphosed into nationalism. Our passage read this morning, Isaiah 66:10 "Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad with her" for centuries was heard by Jews to mean God would literally restore Jerusalem like the good old days when King David ruled. The rule of King David was a time when God and Country were synthesized. Many expected a messiah that would collect them into a faith nation. Several Muslim countries today practice the unity of faith and country. In this model it is difficult to have critical debate for the one who descends is both heretic and traitor. You might choose that your church will synthesize its identity with the identity of the country and never question what the government does. Your motto might be "a good citizen is a good Christian". The next model is a practice of Religion and Country in Paradox; or Faith and politics are Paradoxical to one another. Martin Luther from the reformation practiced this model and wrote best concerning it value. He spoke of two kingdoms. The Christian is in paradox because he/she lives in both kingdoms at the same time. There is the spiritual kingdom and the civil kingdom which have different functions, and modes of operation. The civil kingdom is temporal and rules by laws for earthly events. The spiritual kingdom is eternal and rules by grace. The two kingdoms are like our human identity in that we are a soul within a temporal body. The church is the institutional for the spiritual kingdom and the magistrate is the institution for the civil kingdom. God rules over both. The tension is unavoidable but the scripture that supports this behavior is Romans 13:1-2 "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment." This was quoted to me as proof text that I was wrong by participating in the civil right movement. This leads me to the last model titled faith transforms politics. Religion transforms Country. The presupposition is that Christ came to transform the culture and as disciples we are partners with God to work towards the betterment of our culture. I share the second reading for the day with a personal story. Galatians 6:1, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness;" I was conducting a Bible study in my church to homeless men and this passage was our study. Gentrification had come to their neighborhood and they were about to lose their neighborhood. The men decided that they would visit the mayor to let him know that they were human beings in need of shelter. We visited the mayor. They were the body of Christ speaking truth to power. They presented their faith as a transformer to the major of Chicago. They attempted to restore the major in the spirit of meekness. Their action did not assume the major to be evil rather that he was like them a human overtaken in a fault. Faith transforms politics The history of the UCC is representative of this model. UCC heritage on American Independence is rich with faith transforming the American story. In 1776 when the British wanted to take the Liberty Bell and melt it into cannons the Old Zion Reform Church of Allentown hid it under the church floor. The Pilgrims Press is the oldest publishing house in the USA formed in 1640 and it was the first to publish an African American writer, Phyllis Wheatley who was a member of the Old South congregational Church. He was a freed slave. Rev John Robinson told the pilgrims stepping off the boat; "God has yet more light and truth to break forth out of his Hold Word." They came to explore a new just society experiment called democracy. The church would self govern itself and elect its own pastor. Can you imagine! These were revolutionary ideas. Dr Martin Luther King said; "Church is not meant to be the master of the state, nor the servant on the state but the conscience of the state." Every model needs believers who know that they are humble human beings who know in part and are optimistic about their God but should not be totally optimistic that they are equal to God in knowing the truth of God for any situation at any particular time. We act by and through God's Spirit in faith that we are doing God's will. I want to offer a postscript that every model can impacts the world with the message of God's love and God's Spirit that continues to renew the face of the earth. Model one Religion against the country. Immediately I am reminded of the Christian martyrs of the early Church history and might I add Christian martyrs of this century who live in countries hostel to Christianity. I remember the Amish story of Oct 2, 2006 where a gunman killed five Amish girls in a one room school house. What we remember about the shooting is the forgiveness and compassion shown to the shooters family and a book and a movie were made. Model two Religion above country. Mystics practice a faith that is above the politics of their country and they avoid politics. Yet, Thomas Merton and my saint Hildegard of Bingen both found themselves visited by persons involved in politics seeking from them for wisdom and guidance as to where is God in the midst of their messy lives. The Declaration of Independence had writers who where, I believe, creating God's new reign on earth, even though they believed in a God that did not have intervene in human affairs. Model three Religion and country as one. The church of England, the rule of King David, and the theistic rules of Muslim states all had and have within their culture the Spirit of a Living God that seeks to renew the culture with the believe in a God that is good, charitable, and forgiving. I refer you to readings of the Afghanistan man Rumi and to your Psalms. Model four Religion and country in paradox. Martin Luther with a proclamation of a God of Grace founded a reformation. He helped the people of his day to understand Grace when he developed the two kingdom theses. Paul in his writing to the people of Rome accomplished a similar task. Neither Paul or Martin wanted the wars that followed their teachings. Model five Religion transforms country. I have already spoken much as to how persons who choose this model participate with the Spirit of the living God works to renew the face of the earth. God has called me to this model. I come to it by choose not because God is not present in other models but because by prayer and study this is where I am called to reside. We live in a world where there is a Cosmic War between good and evil. We participate in that war as disciples of Jesus, and as witness to the work of the Spirit to change the face of the earth. The Spirit works through each model and God is not a Republican or Democrat. In our efforts to transform culture or to live above, with, or against or in paradox with our country and culture all of us we rely on God's grace that just might change our minds and work through our human limitations. |