Patriotism

Sometime during the First World War Rev. Herman Hoeksema, an ordained minister in the CRC, got into trouble for not allowing the American national flag in the church’s worship area. Howls of protest ensued. Questions were asked: Was Hoeksema not a patriot? Was he a German sympathizer? It was reported Hoeksema carried a revolver for self-protection.

A visitor from Canada attended a Thanksgiving worship service in an American CRC and was troubled that the service began with the reading of the presidential proclamation. Such state involvement in worship is unknown in the Canadian CRCs. Not so for Anglican churches. An ancient Anglican church downtown Halifax has so many civic features incorporated into its building, it’s difficult to tell whether civic duty or the Christian faith determines its identity. But it is not uncommon to find the American flag in American churches, including in some CRC churches. Some even sing patriotic hymns during or at the end of worship closest to July 4th.

Scripture enjoins Christ’s disciples to be good citizens, but with a difference. The Old Testament church and state were one; the capital of the kingdom of God was also the capital of the state. That is no longer the case. The Christian Church and the state, wherever that may be, are no longer the same. Citizens owe loyalty to their country; the center of their civic life is found in the national capital: Washington, Cairo, Beijing, Ottawa, or Mexico City. The center of the Christian life is the heavenly Jerusalem, where Christ reigns at the right hand of the Father.

In Christian worship we express allegiance to our heavenly citizenship, not to our earthly citizenship. Civic rituals are about our penultimate, earthly responsibilities, and are shaped to reflect that. Citizenship ceremonies, for example, do not end with the doxology and the raising of the Christian flag. In some countries citizenship and church membership, Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Orthodox, are almost identical. In others, churches place the national flag in the worship area to dispel suspicion that Christians are not good citizens.

Civic “holidays” are set aside to honor our earthly citizenship and engage in patriotic exercises. The national hymn is often sung at sports events and during the school year students repeat their pledges of allegiance daily. Christian holy days such as Sundays, Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost, remind believers of the mighty acts of God in Christ. On those days we engage in patriotic exercises that express our loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ who reigns at the right hand of God the Father, almighty. The liturgy that shapes those exercises of Christian loyalty typically end with a doxology that publicly expresses our heavenly patriotism.

ACL

Not of Works but of Grace

Lesslie Newbigin*

“While it is at the heart of true morality that it is aware of an objective moral order to which we ought to conform, yet to achieve that conformity by our own effort corrupts morality. Let us try to make that clear by a simple everyday example. When we have done wrong or failed in respect of some duty, our ordinary natural reaction is to say ‘I will make up for it by being better, kinder, more conscientious next time’ . . . . I think this is a fair description of the way our minds work when we are ‘trying to be good.’ ‘I have done badly today, but I will do better tomorrow’; and the second clause is intended to compensate for the first. In other words, we find compensation for a past fault in a future merit. We have put ourselves in debt, as it were, to the moral order, but tomorrow by an extra effort of goodness we hope to make up the deficit . . . .

“But now let us see what we have done. In the first place we have corrupted moral motives. We are going to do better tomorrow to make up for today; we are going to do good deeds, not because they are good, but to justify ourselves. Our fundamental selfishness has got into the very heart of our motives. We have introduced just that seed of egocentricity which turns free self-forgetting goodness into ‘good works’ done with an ulterior motive–between which two things there is the difference between light and darkness . . . .

“But we have not only corrupted moral motives. We have also lowered moral standards. For if we suppose, as a legalistic morality constantly does, that we can make up for past failure by extra effort in the future, we are acting on the assumption that it is possible to have a sort of credit balance in goodness–in other words, that it is possible to do more than our duty. If I suppose that my goodness today is going to compensate for my failure yesterday, I am really supposing, as far as today is concerned, that I can be better than necessary.”

*Cited by John Baillie, A Diary of Readings (London: Oxford, 1955), 218

Quodlibet

Communities

In an article of the “Cliché Community” (Weekly Standard June 2, 5008), Andrew Ferguson writes, “It’s why every group of individuals, no matter how various or loosely tethered, is suddenly called a community. In the last couple of days I’ve read not only of the vegetarian community, which would include both Gandhi and Hitler, but also of the Catholic community (actually, it’s a church) and the conservative community (which lumps me with Richard Viguerie–no thanks). It goes without saying that the best of these communities are nurturing and sustainable . . . .”

Add to these the internet community, the hair challenged community, and the community of faith (to which belong Hindus, Muslims, animists, and Calvin Seminary [actually a school]). How soon can we look forward to administrative communities (consistory, classis, synod), or the 2850 community?

Confession

Other clichés: you “share” instead of “tell.” Too confrontational; and “doing wrong” too judgmental; please say “behaving inappropriately.” Thus Ferguson. But what about the worshiping community: “sin” too rough, judgmental? Then why not “unfaithful,” “a moment of self-reflection,” “thinking better thoughts”?

Confession has fallen on bad times in churches, especially the sensitive evangelical mega-communities. And who does not fall over their feet to imitate? Reformed churches have not traditionally had confession as a liturgical item. Even so, we've not been afraid to be bold: sin in the sermons, in the long prayers, and at least four times a year a list of “gross sins” was part of preparation from the Lord’s Supper. In those days, if you didn’t come to the Lord’s Supper you had a reason. Reading the list of gross sins before the Lord’s Supper is still encouraged by the official community, but the nurturing and the sensitive think it inappropriate, insensitive to the people’s struggles. Maybe we ought to rethink the Reformation’s doing away with confession, having the opportunity to confess your real sin to an authorized listener, and to hear a word of forgiveness. More believers struggle with being truly forgiven than with saving the environment.

A good beginning for your devotional life is John Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer. Not a word to please the politically correct community, no clichés, only honest confession of real human sin, and petitions to discipline the Christian life as a member of the body of Christ, the church.