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There has long
been a tradition of melding and merging religion and the
state. Ancient Egyptians believed the Pharaoh was divine,
and so did the dynasties of China and Japan. In Christian
history, Constantine merged church and empire—the
combination of God’s Kingdom and the emperor’s realm—hence
the “Holy Roman Empire” and the “Roman Catholic Church.” And
today, look at the Islamic states where faith and state are
merged as one.
I am a lover
of things British. I have always wanted to attend the “Last
Night of the Proms,” the conclusion of that wonderful summer
concert series now in its 123rd year. It always
ends with the robust singing of national hymns ringing
through the Royal Albert, all of which assume God’s unique
relationship with the realm. First, “Land of Hope and Glory”
to the tune we know as “Pomp and Circumstance”:
Land of hope and glory, Mother of the free;
How shall we extol thee who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.
Then “Rule, Britannia!”
with the assumption that God and the angels had a hand in
her creation:
When Britain first, at Heaven’s command
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sang this strain:
Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves:
Britons never will be slaves.
And finally,
with gusto, William Blake’s glorious anthem with the
historically and biblically questionable assumption that
Jesus actually walked around the British Isles:
And did those feet of ancient times
walk upon England’s mountains green?
And was the Holy Lamb of God
on England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
among these dark satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariots of Fire!
I will not cease from mental fight;
nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
till we have built Jerusalem
in England’s green and pleasant land.
(Last Night of the Proms CD, BBC,
Sept. 10, 1994)
Though one
can debate whether Jesus’ feet actually roamed England’s
green and pleasant land, it’s stirring indeed to connect the
vision of the nation with God’s vision of the New Jerusalem.
The best example from our own national hymnody would be my
personal preference for a national anthem, Katharine Lee
Bates’ eloquent “O Beautiful for Spacious Skies”:
O beautiful for patriot dreams that see beyond the years,
thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears.
Like
Britisher Blake, her imagery comes from the Book of
Revelation and John’s vision of the New Jerusalem, the “City
of God”—coming down out of heaven with gates of pearl,
streets of gold and cities of gleaming alabaster, undimmed
by human tears.
Of course, we
should be careful about equating God’s “New Jerusalem” with
England’s green and pleasant land…or ours. God’s kingdom is
always larger than any of our earthly kingdoms.
And yet, on this
Fourth of July...
What can we
say about that “patriot dream that sees beyond the years”?
And what about our vision of the nation, and what is the
role of the church in all this? Oh say, can you see—a vision
for Church and State? I certainly don’t think St.
John had 21st century America in mind when he
penned his Revelation, but taken out of context, perhaps his
vision of the “New Jerusalem” can inspire ours.
1. IT IS THE
VISION OF A CITY BUILT “FOUR-SQUARE.”
John writes: “...and he
who talked to me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the
city and its gates and walls. The city lays foursquare, its
length the same as its breadth, and he measured the city
with his rod.”
I went to
Wikipedia to look up the word “four-square” and I got
everything from “Foursquare clothing” and “Foursquare rum”
to the game of “four square” and the “Foursquare Church.”
(Note: After preaching this sermon, I was told that in fact
the city of Birmingham is four square miles.)
It is John’s
vision as the symbol of the perfect city—life redeemed and
renewed as God intended; a community where all was in
balance, a city of equality and wholeness and justice; true,
right, square, four-square. And I suppose it is an image
consistent with Thomas Jefferson’s vision of a land of
“liberty and justice for all,” a land where “...all are
created equal and endowed by their creator with certain
inalienable rights; among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.”
Now let’s be
honest. From the very beginning, we have fallen short of the
vision. When Thomas Jefferson penned the words of the
Declaration, he had no intention of including women, and the
great compromise on slavery was the price for getting it
passed. That, of course, would take a hundred years and
another war to resolve. Today we are still wrestling with
the vision vs. the reality. Like Thomas Jefferson, we still
have blind spots and short-comings.
But, “Oh say, can
you see…”
Can you still see the
vision, the hope, the dream?
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Can we
still envision a nation “e pluribus unum”—of the
many, one; a nation of immigrants which celebrates unity
in diversity?
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Can we
see a nation which regards the rights and dignity of all
persons, foe as well as friend; where we would treat
enemy and enemy combatants the same way we would want to
be treated?
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Can we
still see the vision of a city undimmed by human tears,
no mourning, no crying, no suffering, no hunger, no
poverty, no homelessness, with liberty and justice for
all; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
That would be a city
“four-square,” for sure.
And what is the
role of the church in such a city?
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To hold up the
measuring rod of God, to be the conscience of the nation
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To call for the
nation to be measured by its highest values, not its
lowest expectations
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To point out the
places where the city is crooked, where walls are out of
plumb, out of whack
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To be the measuring
rod for a city “four-square”
This is why I
believe there is a connection between pulpit and politics,
preaching and public life. The church, like the prophets of
old, is called to speak the word of judgment to the nation,
to lift up the vision before the nation and pray that God in
his mercy would “mend our every flaw.”
Oh say, can
you see—the vision of a “city four-square,” and the church
as the measure of the dream?
2. AND JOHN SAYS
IT IS A CITY WITH GOD IN THE MIDST.
He writes,
“The dwelling place of God is with men…I saw no temple in
the city, for its temple is the Lord, God the Almighty was
in the midst of her.”
Now frankly,
this is a tricky one for American Christians. How do we
affirm the place of God in our national life and still
remain a land of religious liberty for all? How do we
proclaim a nation “under God” and still protect the
separation of church and state?
As a kid, I
learned my first bit of trivia, and my guess is those of you
who are my age will remember it too. What is the longest
word in the English language? Today there is another word
which I can’t begin to pronounce, but at that time it was
Antidisestablishmentarianism. I had no idea what it
meant, but I knew it was the longest word. Today, I
understand it describes a political philosophy opposed to
the separation of Church and State, originally in support of
the establishment of the Church of England as the state
church. (www.straightdope.com/mailbag/ mantidis.html)
By contrast,
our founding fathers intentionally chose “DIS-establishmentarianism.”
Colonial America had already seen its share of religious
battles:
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Puritans
who came here in part to get away from established
religion, set about establishing their own, then
banished some of their own members to Rhode Island
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English
and German settlers in Pennsylvania bickered over
language differences, hence the split between
English-speaking Methodists and their German-speaking
brothers and sisters
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While Anglicans were
establishing their claim in Virginia
The founders
had seen the power of an established religion in England
when they opted for Disestablishmentariniasm. They
birthed a nation committed not to one religion, but to the
freedom of religion; the Church free from the control of the
state, and the state free from the control of the Church.
Writer Walter
Isaacson says, “… though Thomas Jefferson’s spiritual
beliefs were vague (he was a deist, not really a
fully-committed Christian), one thing was clear: he wanted
to keep religion and politics separate.” (Time Magazine,
July 5, 2004, page 62)
And
yet, within the American experience there has always been a
deep desire to make a space for faith, for religion, for God
in the midst.
Personally, I
am an evangelical Christian. I hope to see all the peoples
of all the world, including our nation, accept Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior. And there are times I think I would like
to have the nation on my side, to look to city hall to help
promote the Christian message. But in my saner moments, I
know that as an American, the measure of freedom I grant to
other religions is the measure of my freedom as well. All I
ask is that the “city” makes space for God in the midst;
space for other gods, other religions and the freedom to
express them.
And the task of the
church in such a city?
It’s our task
to lift up the message of the cross, to share the power of
the Gospel, to witness to the name of Jesus Christ as Lord,
to speak the prophetic Word of God to the political and
public life as well as the private life of the nation.
Oh say, can
you see—the vision of a city where there is space for God in
the midst, and where the church speaks the Word of God to
the city?
3. AND FINALLY,
IT’S THE VISION OF HEALING FOR THE NATIONS.
John says the
river of life flows through this city, and on the banks of
the river, there is a tree, the tree of life, “...and the
leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
What is the
ultimate goal and vision? It is the healing of the nations.
If God has
blessed America, as I believe He has; if God has shed his
grace on us, which I believe He has; what are we to do with
that blessing? We are to be a channel, a river of wholeness
and life, a blessing and the healing for the nations.
I was in
Europe in 2004 during the celebration of the 60th
anniversary of D-Day, probably the last time we will see a
gathering of D-Day survivors in Normandy, these heroes of
the modern world. That day, the International Herald
Tribune ran a full page article by John S.D. Eisenhower,
the son of Dwight Eisenhower, with a large photo of the
General on D-Day. He said he is often asked what his father
would think if he were alive today. Of course, he is quick
to say he has no way of knowing. But he does know how his
father felt following D-Day and the end of the war. John
Eisenhower wrote:
The most fundamental conviction that the
period in Europe imprinted on his mind was the cruelty,
wastefulness and stupidity of war. He saw first-hand how it
destroyed cities, killed innocent people, wiped out
economies and tore up structures of civilization. He
expressed his feelings eloquently in April 1953 when he
said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every
rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from
those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not
clothed. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half a
million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with
new homes that could have housed 8,000 people.”
The younger Eisenhower goes on:
Not surprisingly, the war that included
D-Day had made a pacifist out of the man who bore the
responsibility, its supreme commander. Throughout his
presidency, he combined a policy of maintaining a military
deterrent to war while at the same time extending the hand
of friendship.
(International Herald Tribune,
June 7, 2004, page 10)
Beyond the
battles of the present moment; beyond the swords and spears
and chariots of fire, Oh say, can you see—the vision of this
great nation as a source of healing for all the nations?
Well, there
you have it. It’s at least one preacher’s vision for church
and state. It’s the vision of:
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A city “four-square,”
and the church as the measuring rod, the conscience of
the nation
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A city where there is
space for God in the midst, where the church is free to
lift up its message
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A city which is the
source of the healing of the nations
I close with
a paragraph from the great Harry Emerson Fosdick, from a
sermon preached at Riverside Church during the Second World
War:
We talk all the time about backing these
boys up, but are we going to back them up in the thing that
the best of them are most hoping for? They will win the
war—at what cost!—but we along with them must win the peace.
We cannot put party first, or economic
self-interest, or absolute national sovereignty, or
imperialistic greed, or racial prejudice. If we do we shall
be rightly damned forever in the estimation of our
offspring. We must put righteousness first.
Ah, America, our loyalty is yours. As in
our father’s days, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred
honor are committed to you. But just because we love you,
God help us to see that all the good fortune we want from
you depends upon a prior condition: Seek ye first the
kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you.
(Fosdick, Great Time to Be Alive,
page 30)
Oh say, can you see?
Amen. |
