Living the Faith
Scripture: Matthew 9:9-13
Preacher: Rev. Beth Neel
Sermon
In the history of Christianity, no event can ever measure up to what happened in the year 323, when the Emperor Constantine declared that Christianity was the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire.
That scrappy little church, once persecuted, once misunderstood as a cult that venerated cannibalism; that ragtag group of people who followed a man who ministered for all of three years, who gave leadership to twelve guys who were not the best and the brightest; that spiritual path once known as The Way became the religion of the most powerful empire on earth at that time. And Christianity has never been the same.
Of course, Emperor Constantine making Christianity legal was a good thing; persecutions would end. The people could worship God in public. Followers could share the good news without fear of arrest or death. But Emperor Constantine making Christianity the religion of the state? That’s a bit trickier. One Reformed pastor asks, “Was the church better off when it was persecuted or when it wielded significant political power and influence? It’s one of history’s bigger questions….
“By worldly standards, we could view such a development as a happy turn-of-events. And in one sense it was. But in another sense the co-mingling of theology and politics, of church and state, had disastrous effects for many centuries to come. Those… familiar with church history are aware of the corrupting influence politics had. Eventually you had emperors who took it upon themselves to appoint their own bishops and pastors. That way if someone in a church opposed the politics of the emperor, the emperor could instruct his hand-picked pastor to excommunicate this nettlesome fellow. Conversely, however, popes tried to gain political leverage by telling government leaders that if they didn’t do the church’s bidding, the pope would excommunicate them. (Scott Hoezee, https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2016-02-15/philippians-317-41/ )
In his lifetime, Jesus took on the power of the state, often subtly, but he did take on those powers. The biggest power was the empire of Rome, headed up by various Caesars. Jesus acknowledged the power of the state when he said things like, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s.” His followers confronted Rome more brashly. When Paul wrote that Jesus is Lord, he was taking on Caesar, who was considered a god and the lord of the Roman empire.
But times change, as the Christians of the fourth century learned. And ever since then, Christianity, or better, Christians, have been trying to figure out their role with regards to the political power of a nation.
In the modern era, we can look to Germany in the 1930s to see how this was playing out. As the National Socialist party came into power, with Adolph Hitler at its head, the state took over the church. As our own Book of Confessions explains, [In the 1930s] “Most Germans took the union of Christianity, nationalism, and militarism for granted, and patriotic sentiments were equated with Christian truth. The German Christians exalted the racially pure nation and the rule of Hitler as God’s will for the German people. Nonetheless, some in the churches resisted.” From that resistance came the Declaration at Barmen, one of the pieces in our Book of Confessions.
Which brings us to our contemporary version of that. You may have heard or read about the rise of Christian nationalism in our country. A recent survey asked questions that flesh out what that means. “Respondents were asked whether they completely agree, mostly agree, mostly disagree, or completely disagree with each of the following statements:
The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation.
U.S. laws should be based on Christian values.
If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore.
Being Christian is an important part of being truly American.
God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.”
How do you feel about those questions? How would you answer them? How do we balance our lives as Christians and our lives as Americans?
Maybe you do not think there is any conflict in living with both identities. That is fine. I’m a big believer in choice, in each of us wrestling with our challenges and determining what we think is the faithful response. We Presbyterians adhere to the belief that God alone is lord of the conscience. You will not be told what to believe by me.
But that doesn’t mean I won’t poke at some things, like suggesting that at times following Jesus comes into direct conflict with being an American. When we look at our nation’s history, we see that at play in many ways. Abolitionists decried the institution of slavery, and Christian sects like the Quakers were leaders in working to end this state-supported evil. Every war has had its share of conscientious objectors, again, many from the so-called peace churches – the church of the Brethren, the Mennonites, Quakers. More recently, some people of faith have objected to the legality of abortion and worked hard in many spheres to overturn the Roe v. Wade.
People of the Christian faith (and other faiths, but let’s keep this in the family for today) have protested the law of the land. But what we’re seeing nowadays is a movement to make our faith the law of the land.
The first problem of that is determining what part of the Christian faith would be the law. Right? Jesus said a lot of things, and said a lot of things that were contradictory. He’s the one who said, “Blessed are the peacemakers” and “I came not to bring peace, but a sword.”
So what are the Christian values that a nation should espouse – peace or sword? That’s a question with some complicated answers. From my point of view – which has been shaped by my family, the church I grew up in, classes I took in college, my seminary education, and maybe most importantly, my three decades in ministry – from my point of view, everything comes through the prism of love. If a value does not reflect love, then it is secondary or tertiary or not worth our time.
My struggle with the current movement of some toward Christian nationalism is this: it is born out of a part of the church that is known for who is excluded. If a church does not value the inherent dignity and worth and leadership of women, people of color, LGBTQ folks, then I will not believe what they say. Maybe that’s hard-lined of me, but allow me to tell you why I’ve come to that conclusion.
Over the past year, I have been learning about some of the tragedies of the contemporary church. I listened to the podcast “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” about the abusive leadership of a megachurch pastor in Seattle and the wreck that leadership made of people’s lives and faith. I read the excellent “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted Faith and Fractured a Nation” by Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a professor of American history at Calvin University. I’ve watched a documentary about Hillsong, a megachurch in New York whose pastor had an Icarus-like fall, a megachurch with its roots in an Australian church with a troubled history of leadership.
I’ve watched fearmongering of trans people, making drag queens reading books at libraries a bigger social danger than assault rifles. I’ve listened to some of our own members who are part of the gay community talk about the hatred they had to endure in our own Presbyterian denomination as we fought our way to full inclusion of LGBTQ people.
Just this week, one of my best friends in the whole world told the story of getting off the airplane in Oslo, being the only person of color on the flight, and being the only person who was pulled aside, asked why he was there, if he had a job back home, and how much money was in his bank account. I have endured my own frustrations as a clergywoman not taken seriously because, I don’t know, I have the wrong body parts, I guess.
If there is one thing Jesus did, it was include those whom the powerful considered wrong. That’s why the Pharisees muttered about his eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners. So when the powerbrokers of church and state exclude those whom they think are wrong, my hackles are raised.
I am reminded of the words of German pastor Martin Niemoller, speaking after World War II. “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
What then shall we say about these things? And maybe more importantly, what shall we do about these things?
Historian Diana Butler Bass, who has written some incredibly helpful things about Christian nationalism [https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/understanding-christian-nationalism], says this about what we might do. “Love must be our answer — loving God, our neighbors, and creation. But love is far more than good feelings or emotions. Love must be organized, active, and committed to the full dignity and worth of everyone. It isn’t enough to preach against hate. Hate is infiltrating our everyday lives — like the poisoned air filtering down from northern wildfires — hardly visible until the air is so thick with toxins that no one will be able to breathe. You can’t get rid of the smoke. You have to put out the fire.” (https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/when-love-isnt-quite-enough )
Putting out the fire of hate will require hard work – hard emotional work, hard spiritual work. Because it means that at the same time we are advocating for the rights of those who are marginalized, at the same time we are claiming the inherent worth of LGBTQ folks, and people of color, and women, and people who aren’t Christian, we must also recognize the inherent worth of those who disagree with us.
At the end of July, my extended family on my mom’s side will gather at the family property near Mt. Rainier to have our annual family meeting about the place. We run the gamut. We have atheists and fundamentalists and everything in between. We have people who are so far to the right and to the left that they find a meeting point. After we meet to talk about what the property needs, we have a potluck lunch. We catch up, share photos, check in on our elders’ health, talk about upcoming weddings, graduations, moves.
We don’t talk about politics. We might say a grace before lunch, and despite some of my family belonging to churches that don’t ordain women, they usually ask me to say the blessing. Because I’m family. Because they’ve known me forever. Because I’m not a category, but a person.
It’s hard when people don’t affirm who you are. It’s hard when people don’t believe in the same things you believe in. When confronted with opposition and even hate, it’s hard to remain true to ourselves.
What we can do is remain true to our God, to rely on those values that Jesus taught – care for neighbor, love for stranger and even for enemy. Mercy. Justice. Grace.
During the Civil War, when our country was perhaps even more divided than it is today, Abraham Lincoln was asked if he thought God was on the side of the Union. He answered, “ …my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side….”
Let us pray.
Lord, I want to be a Christian, in-a my heart, in-a my heart
The Reverend Beth Neel
Westminster Presbyterian Church
June 11, 2023