Musings of an Anxious Patriot

This weekend is the annual celebration of the day the American colonists' Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence—July 4, 1776.

We’ll fly our flag proudly at home. Actually, we’ll fly three flags: one will fly on a staff over our curbside mailbox, and two smaller ones will be on display in the flower beds. We’ll grill hot dogs and possibly watch the movie version of the Broadway show, “1776.” We missed the show last year, but it’s become something of a 4^th of July tradition at our house since we first watched it with part of our extended family when we were vacationing in Fairbanks, Alaska eight years ago.

I am a veteran. I’m no hero. I was in the Marine Band at Quantico, Virginia until August, 1967, when I left for Vietnam. Before the Tet Operation in early 1968 I was primarily a trombone player in the 3^rd Marine Division Band in Phu Bai (about 14 miles south of the ancient citadel of Hue). When the Tet Operation erupted, the division moved to Quang Tri (just south of the DMZ), where we put our instruments away and served in various combat operations until I rotated out and came home. We rarely engaged the enemy.

I stand for the National Anthem. I place my right hand over my heart and frequently get misty; although, I bear no disrespect or ill will toward those who exercise their first amendment rights to kneel in protest of injustices that scarcely can be denied.

Occasionally I go online and watch a video of some Marine band on parade, and I get teary-eyed and experience a thrill when they hit those opening notes of the Marine Hymn.

I vote in every election, and frequently contact the legislators who represent my area. And I have served in public office.

So, I consider myself a patriot, and will celebrate the birth of our nation on Saturday.

But on Sunday, I will be in church to worship God and to give thanks for God’s grace. And in God’s sanctuary my patriotism will not express itself in celebration, but in repentance and prayers for forgiveness and healing. As the hymn says, “America! America! God mend thine every flaw.” And flaws abound. Nothing positive or constructive ever has emerged in the history of humanity from any mixture of patriotism and religion.

On Sunday I will pray that God will forgive the divisive, intolerant hatred that has infected the country I am proud to have served, and I will pray that God will heal our land. And no matter how passionately it is denied, hatred—some directed at specific people and some just ambiguous and generalized—is the root sin of our nation. It manifests itself most destructively in what has been called religious nationalism.

So, I’ll fly the flag on Saturday, and celebrate the nation that was “…conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”[1] I’ll celebrate the great vision that propelled our forebears: the vision articulated on our Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

But on Sunday I’ll pray for forgiveness for what America instead has become and for the people destroyed in process of becoming what we are. And I will pray for reconciliation among the diverse peoples still at enmity within our borders, so that the vision in which America was conceived actually might be realized someday.

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14 NRSV)

That’s the way it looks through the Flawed Glass that is my world view.

Together in the Walk,

Jim

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[1] From Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

On Choosing to Be a Part of the Solution

It’s time for confession and repentance. I am under conviction from a new reading of Ephesians 4:29 (RSV) “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear.”

I enjoy my Facebook friends; but I am perhaps too vulnerable to being drawn into the negativity to which a few of them seem passionately committed.

While I still refuse to “unfriend” anyone on Facebook (anti-censorship is a personal core value), I have started blocking (hiding) all websites that promote negative, blaming or scapegoating messages emerging from either side of the conservative/liberal spectrum.

I further have decided (and I hope I can stick with the decision) not to respond to posts from any Facebook friend that promotes negative, blaming or scapegoating messages or perspectives on any subject.

One reason for my decision is that posts on Facebook, if intended to persuade or change anybody's mind on controversial political, moral or religious topics, are exercises in futility and are totally ineffectual. For the most part they do nothing but drive the wedge of division deeper, precisely at a time when our nation needs healing.

But a more important motivation is my recognition that, to the extent that I have not contributed to the solutions, I have been part of the problem; therefore, the conversations I enter in the future regarding any of the controversial issues will be restricted (1) to responding affirmatively to any effort to promote healing, restoration and respectful collaboration toward a solution, or (2) making statements that hopefully will lead to healing, restoration and respectful collaboration toward a solution.

I pray that my Facebook friends and blog readers will affirm and support my pledge to try to become a positive influence, and that my words will be “good for edifying, as fits the occasion, (and) may impart grace to those who hear.” And I pray for endurance, so that I may not “backslide” once again into the negativity that overwhelms our nation.

Together in the Walk,

Jim

On Course

In summarizing the overall theme of Derek Flood’s work[1] we have noted that in the most ancient culture reflected in Scripture the ethic was one of conquest and violent retribution, all sanctioned by God; indeed, often commanded by God. In later eras a counter-testimony was added, calling for a more compassionate ethic. The Hebrew Scriptures are characterized by a testimony/counter-testimony debate, with each side of the debate lifting up justifications for its perspective.

Jesus moved the debate to a new level, siding totally with the compassionate counter-testimony and advocating non-violence and enemy love. But if we read the New Testament’s message as an ultimate ethic, frozen in time for all time, we fall into the same trap as the Pharisees, whether those of Jesus’ time or the variety from our time. It is that way of reading Scripture that justified all kinds of human oppression and suffering, including slavery.

As I read Flood’s comments I keep remembering the quote from Revelation 21:5, “Behold I am always making all things new.” Nothing about God or God’s creation, and therefore nothing about human life or history is static. Nothing stays the same, and that flies in the face of much of what we long to achieve and experience. Spiritual life is a journey that frequently leads through a wilderness, but our culture is destination-oriented, and we much prefer a settled life of comfort: "Let's get this over so we can go home."

If we are to be true followers of Jesus and read the Scriptures as he read them, instead of reading Scripture as a static ethic, frozen in time for all time, we will read it recognizing the redemptive trajectory it establishes.

From the earliest disputations in the Hebrew Scriptures through the interpretations of Jesus and Paul, the writings we hold as Holy have pointed us along the path from religious violence and toward love and compassion, restoration and harmony. “In other words, we cannot stop at the place the New Testament got to, but must recognize where it was headed,”[2] and we must continue on that trajectory.

William Webb reinforces Flood's comments by proposing that we learn to recognize the redemptive direction in which Scripture is moving, and differentiate that movement from the cultural assumptions of the time.[3] He calls upon us to move from the concrete words on the pages of Scripture, frozen in time, toward a Redemptive Spirit indicated by the trajectory of those words.

The question for us, then, is how to recognize the redemptive trajectory of the New Testament—to find the path Jesus plotted that leads us away from justifying violence and oppression and toward compassion, grace and enemy love.

“A trajectory reading results in a forward-moving, growing, progressing ethic at the cutting edge of moral advance, rather than one that is tethered to the past, often found on the side of fighting against moral progress in human and civil rights, being the very last to change, pulled kicking and screaming and dragging its feet into the future.

“There are indeed enduring eternal principles found in Scripture, such as love, grace and compassion. However, we do not maintain those by standing still, but by ever seeking to grow and advance in them.”[4]

Surely Jesus rejoiced at the non-violent strategies employed against evil by the likes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King, Jr. Surely he rejoiced at the path taken by South African President, Nelson Mandela, viz, healing and reconciliation instead of the bloody vengeance that could so easily have been justified by the cultural assumptions held by most of the world. Surely Jesus is pleased when organizations like Bread for the World and Compassion International care for the poor.

Jesus would smile as he recognizes the fulfillment of his own words: “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these” (John 14:12, emphasis added.)

My thanks to Derek Flood for being my guide through this Lenten Pilgrimage, and for the growth in understanding and faith that have resulted.

That’s the way I see it through the flawed glass that is my world view.

Together in the Walk,

Jim

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[1] Derek Flood, Disarming Scripture: Cherry-Picking Liberals, Violence-Loving Conservatives and Why We All Need to Learn to Read the Bible Like Jesus Did (San Francisco: Metanoia Press, 2014) Kindle edition, Location 1590.

[2] Ibid., Location 1685.

[3] William Webb, Corporal Punishment in the Bible: A Redemptive Movement-Hermeneutic for Troubling Texts (Downers Grove, IVP Academic, 2011), page 59.

[4] Derek Flood, op. cit., Location 1729.