Serving Jesus in America I. Prayer II. Introduction A. Acts 22:23-29, Romans 13:1-7, Philippians 3:20-21, Revelation 13:1-19:21 1. Paul appeals to his citizenship as a Roman to obtain privileges 2. Paul expected Christians to respect and honor the Roman authority 3. Yet Paul also said that our citizenship is in heaven, from which we await Jesus our Savior 4. The same Roman authority which Paul and Peter expected Christians to honor was portrayed by John as a beast, as Babylon, a persecutor of the saints, whom God would sharply judge B. These passages exemplify the tension and challenges inherent for the Christian regarding their relationship to the nation-state C. ...and these passages are about Rome, an imperial power; how much more tension, challenge, and difficulty do we experience as citizens of the United States of America, a representative republic? D. We do well to explore how we are to serve Jesus in America 1. What do the Scriptures teach regarding the relationship between the Christian and the nation-state? 2. How are Christians to display their loyalty to Jesus in a representative republic? 3. How does American civic religion and American ideology and propaganda deceive many and complicate our attempts to serve Jesus in America? 4. What, therefore, does serving Jesus in America look like? II. The Christian and the Nation-State A. Christians are to embody Jesus to the world and among one another (1 John 2:6); Jesus can teach us much based on how He related to the nation-state 1. Luke 4:5-8: Satan offered Jesus control of all the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down to him; Jesus refused, declaring that only God is to be worshipped; Jesus never denied Satan’s ability to offer the kingdoms of the world, and the theme returns in Revelation 2. Luke 13:1-5: when told about the most recent outrage of Pilate against Jewish people, Jesus warned the crowd that all will perish if they do not repent 3. Luke 13:31-35: Pharisees warned Jesus about Herod’s desire to seize Him; Jesus told them to tell “that fox” that He would soon meet His fate, and lamented over Jerusalem: Jesus’ terminology here a rebuke of the idea that Herod would kill Him before His time 4. Luke 20:19-26: the question of paying taxes is a trap; Jesus did not encourage revolution or complicity, but suggested Caesar should get what is Caesar’s, but to God goes what is God’s, which is all of our loyalty, love, and strength 5. Luke 22:63-23:25: Jesus stood before authorities and submitted to their authority 6. Luke 23:26-31: Jesus tells the daughters of Jerusalem to weep for themselves, for they have chosen Barabbas the insurrectionist as their ‘Messiah’ while the wood is “green,” and it would be much worse when it would become “dry”: Israel was heading down the path of insurrection against Rome, and that was not the path God wished for them to trod 7. John 18:33-38: Pilate questions Jesus, who establishes that His Kingdom is from above, and is not of the world, for His disciples are not fighting; Pilate finds this convincing to some degree 8. In His life and death Jesus submitted to authority figures, provided them proper honor and respect, but did not justify, countenance, or quarter the propagandistic pretentions of Rome or the naïve insurrectionist zealotry of His fellow Israelites 9. Matthew 20:25-28 should ring in the ears of all who would serve Jesus: the ways of power used in the nation-state are not the ways Christians will live! B. The Apostles expected Christians to respect and honor earthly authorities, proved willing to leverage the benefits offered by the nation-state to advance the Gospel, yet recognized the Satanic powers behind the nation-state and its pretenses 1. Acts 4:1-5:42: Peter and the Apostles submitted to the punishments of the Sanhedrin even when they could not in good conscience obey their dictates 2. Acts 22:23-29, 25:10-12: Paul leverages his Roman citizenship to evade painful punishments, speak before the Israelites, the Sanhedrin, and local and Roman authorities in Judea; he receives military escort for protection, and in appealing to Caesar is given a state-sponsored trip to Rome to bear witness about Jesus before Caesar himself 3. Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:11-18: Christians are to honor earthly authorities whom God has empowered; Christians are not to use their freedom to cover up evil or to give reason for reviling; Christians are to pay taxes and honor to whom taxes and honor are due 4. Revelation 13:1-19:21: the Roman power embodied in the Emperor is envisioned as a beast conjured out of the water by the power of Satan and empowered by Satan; Roman pagan religion, particularly the worship of the Emperor’s genius, envisioned as a second beast/false prophet used to prop up the claims and pretense of the great beast; Rome itself envisioned as Babylon the whore, making the nations of the earth drunk on her sexual immorality, idolatry, and persecution of the saints; God would thoroughly judge all of them, and they all would be destroyed or cast into the lake of fire C. The Apostles expected Christians to live in the world and its nation-states, do good for people and seek the welfare of the place in which they live, and yet always remember their greater citizenship and loyalty to God’s Kingdom in Christ, and that they are truly exiles and sojourners in the world 1. 1 Corinthians 5:9-10, Galatians 6:10: expectation that Christians would have some kind of association with pagans in their midst, and the imperative to do good to all 2. Philippians 3:20-21: Christians are to consider their citizenship to be in heaven; their primary loyalty is to the Kingdom of God (cf. Matthew 6:33) 3. 1 Timothy 2:1-4: Paul would have Christians pray, give thanks, and intercede for all men, but especially those in authority, so Christians can live quietly and at peace 4. The entire letter of 1 Peter embodies this tension: Christians are to see themselves as exiles and sojourners like Israel in Babylon, yet they are to do good even to those persecuting them D. This is the heritage from Jesus and the Apostles with which we will wrestle as we consider how we can serve Jesus in America III. Christianity in a Representative Republic A. We have seen what Jesus and the Apostles embodied and taught Christians regarding submitting to imperial authorities B. But we today live in the United States of America, a representative republic, in which the power is invested in the people, and there are many expectations of the citizenry to take an active role in civic affairs for the health of the republic C. How can we serve Jesus and honor the authorities of the United States? D. Christians must always maintain a fundamental posture of obedience 1. Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:11-18, the example of Jesus and the Apostles 2. Yes, Acts 5:29: we must obey God rather than man; nevertheless, Christians still submitted to the consequences of their actions, and never justified a spirit of rebellion or disobedience 3. This posture is maintained independent of the virtue or vice of our leaders or the nation; it is not about the nation, but about our dedication to God’s purposes in Christ, in whom no spirit of rebellion or disobedience is justified E. Christians must pay taxes (Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:11-18): what good does complaining about them do? F. Christians obey the human authorities: the persons in power in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government; persons in power in state and local government; police forces 1. Neither Paul nor Peter stuttered in Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:11-18: authorities were to be honored, no matter how good or unjust they were 2. Too many try to argue that our obedience should be to documents like the Constitution: the problem is that the Constitution is an interpreted document, and we are nowhere justified in presuming our interpretation is to be the one to be followed 3. Rome had the Twelve Tables; Paul and Peter still said to honor Caesar G. In all things our loyalty to the Kingdom of God in Christ and His purposes is to be primary (Matthew 6:33, Philippians 3:20): it is not ultimately about what is good for America, but what is good for God’s purposes in Christ, that we should pursue 1. Americans are all about preserving freedom and independence; in Christ we are called to renounce our liberties for the sake of one another if need be (Romans 14:1-23) 2. Americans maintain a pretense of equality of all, and expect to defer to no one; in Christ we recognize some have more authority than others, and Christians are to respect and honor authority figures (1 Peter 2:11-18) 3. Americans infamously do not want to be told what to do and bristle at anything they imagine to be oppression; in Christ we are under the authority of Jesus and are thus constrained, and worldly oppression is to be expected (1 Peter 2:18-25, 4:19) 4. In all these and many other ways we must repent and learn how to think first as Christians subject to Jesus and His Kingdom and then, and only then, as Americans (Philippians 3:20)! H. As Paul leveraged his citizenship to obtain access to proclaim the Gospel, we can use our freedoms and benefits of citizenship to advance God’s purposes 1. To vote or not to vote? A matter of liberty; Christians should keep 1 Timothy 2:1-3 in mind in terms of voting choice, and be careful to not allow themselves to vote based on fear, nationalistic jingoism, partisanship, or to justify carnal ends 2. Christians can send correspondence to their earthly authorities to commend or encourage them to uphold righteousness and justice, to make known to them God’s purposes in Christ, etc. 3. There may be opportunities when Christians could advocate for others to authorities, be it directly and personally, perhaps through creative non-resistance which humiliates the powers that be and exposes injustice without lawbreaking I. Above all things our fellow Americans should see us bring the Lordship of Jesus to bear on our participation in American civic life; woe to us if our fellow Americans see us compromise our faith to uphold a particular ideology! IV. The Allure of American “Christianish” Civic Religion A. Serving Jesus in any nation-state, as we have seen, can be a challenge: we must prioritize our commitment to the Kingdom of God in Christ while seeking to live in ways which honor the nation-state even though the nation-state may be ambivalent or even hostile toward us B. This challenge is made even greater in the United States of America, since it has developed a “Christianish” civic religion which has great allure and has deceived many 1. Civic religion is a prevalent theme in almost every nation-state; it works just like the false prophet in Revelation 13-19, leveraging the influence of spirituality to promote and advance the power of the beast, the nation-state 2. We easily see it for what it is in Rome, with the expected worship of the Emperor and his genius; we can see it today in places like North Korea and their cult worship of their Dear Leader or in theocracies like Iran 3. Yet America has its own form of civic religion, and it is designed to look like Christianity C. What constitutes American “Christianish” civic religion? 1. The view of America as a Christian nation, the "Promised Land"/"God's People" a. Even now there is still a prevalent view, sometimes more unconscious than conscious, but prevalent nonetheless that America is the "promised land" and its people are "God's people" b. This goes back to the founding of America, and especially the Puritan colonies in Massachusetts, where there were many internal debates regarding whether anyone present was in the covenant group or only those who had a religious experience c. In the end, the idea that all people could be a part of the covenant group, and the path was made toward looking at all people in America as God's chosen people d. Likewise, all of these very religious people seeing the land of America as a land of bounty and a land in which they can observe their religion led them to see America as a promised land of sorts e. After all, since we have so many "religious" people in America, do we not have any right to say that we have an "in" with God? 2. The belief in American exceptionalism: God has specially blessed America a. Prevalent for generations: a marriage of Christian hope and Enlightenment thinking b. America as a “city on a hill”, a “force for good” in the world c. American prosperity and success is thus justified as God’s provision; America’s actions baptized as God’s purposes in the world d. This goes along with a naïve innocence, as if because we are a representative republic we can do no wrong 3. In the late 1930s through the 1950s, a movement seeking to marry political conservatism and confidence in “free enterprise” against the New Deal state with Evangelical Christianity gained influence, eventually leading to a general movement to enshrining “Judeo-Christian values” as essential to America’s establishment: “in God we trust” added to money; “under God” added to the pledge of allegiance, etc. a. This association would eventually lead to the situation we find today in which many who profess Christ see no difference between their faith in Christ and a politically conservative platform b. These appeals did not seem to be required beforehand, not because America was so pagan, but because the nation was more confident in its belief; nevertheless, these acts of the 1950s are being appealed to as evidence of America as a “Christian nation” 4. Service to America is conflated with service to God a. Notice the sanctity accorded to the military: emphasis is made on those who served, and those who “died so we could enjoy our freedoms” b. Take a hallowed military and add in the “Christian nation” dogma, and it’s not hard to see why many think military service for America is a form of service to God! c. Never mind that under any sober consideration of “just war” premises, World War II would be the only truly “just” war in which the United States has fought (with perhaps the Afghan War, at least at its beginning); all others involved rebellion, projection of power elsewhere, or involvement in the affairs of other nations 5. Veneration of the United States flag to the point of idolatry 6. The continual justification not only of capitalism, but the expression of capitalism in our nation over the past few decades a. You would be forgiven if you thought Jesus was a full-throated capitalist based on what you hear in much of American, and even Christian, discourse b. Jesus is not a capitalist, socialist, or any other kind of later “-ist”; He has critiques for any kind of economic system, particularly in how it would treat the poor and marginalized (cf. Matthew 25:31-36) 7. The Constitution, designed to be a living and amended document, is often interpreted as if it is the Bible, and as if it is divinely inspired D. These, and many other factors, all work together and get mixed together to create this “Christianish” civic religion in America, and its pull has been potent 1. A true mix of Biblical thoughts and concepts with nationalism and patriotism 2. It has a lot of power in its working: consider the societal pressure in many places for years to attend a church, participate in Christian and civic rituals, etc. 3. The propaganda of the state has used Christianity to glorify and justify itself E. Our challenge, as Christians, is to resist the pull of America’s “Christianish” civic religion 1. Are we willing to explore the assumptions on which we have built our conceptions of ourselves and our faith? 2. Are we willing to see how much of our attitudes and ideology have really been shaped by American values as opposed to the values of Jesus’ Kingdom? 3. Can we perceive the distinction between God’s work in the Kingdom of Christ and the ways of the United States of America? 4. Do we recognize that Jesus’ Kingdom transcends nation-states, and that no earthly nation-state can recognizably manifest His Kingdom (John 18:36)? F. We should expect resistance from all sides when we resist the “Christianish” civic religion of the land 1. Even to discuss such matters is to be seen as less than patriotic, anti-American 2. Default response to such conversations: “you must hate America”; “go somewhere else if it is so bad here” 3. The reality is that every nation-state does this to a degree or another; other nations are far less pleasant places in which to live; we are certainly Americans 4. For similar reasons Christians were looked upon with suspicion in Roman times: they upheld Jesus as Lord, Savior, and King, which implicitly means Caesar is not what he claims to be (cf. Acts 17:7) 5. In similar ways proving critical of the United States and its claims is seen as suspicious; and yet we must not fall for the conceit and propaganda of the nation! V. Serving Jesus in America A. What, then, shall we say to these things? B. We can certainly serve Jesus in America! 1. We can live as obedient servants of Jesus in America, seeking to live quiet and peaceful lives 2. We can freely assemble, raise our voice to advocate for Jesus’ purposes, and leverage the benefits of American citizenship to proclaim the Gospel 3. We can live as free men while not using that freedom to cover up sin or to give reason for Gentiles to blaspheme C. Yet America has its temptations 1. We are tempted to confuse American civic principles for Gospel truth 2. We are tempted toward rebellion, disobedience, and appeals to fear based on potential oppression 3. We are tempted to wrap the cross in the flag, and equate aspects of the American nation-state with the purposes of God in the Kingdom of Christ 4. We are tempted to live as “ugly Americans,” and that does not honor Christ! D. We do well to serve Jesus as Lord, honor authorities in America, seek to live as good citizens of the United States of America, yet always cognizant of the limitations of America, and glorify God in Christ! E. Invitation Scripture, Meditation, and Application 1: Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether to the king, as supreme (1 Peter 2:13). Christians living in America do well to be subject to its rulers and authorities: federal, state, and local. Our posture ought always to be in obedience and deference; if we must obey God rather than man, we do so out of greater loyalty to God and His purposes. A spirit of rebellion and disobedience is never justified in the Christian. May we submit to authority properly and honor God in Christ! 2: Wherefore let them also that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:19). Christians who live in America do well to participate in the civic life of their community. They ought to seek the welfare of the place in which they live. They ought to do good for people around them. They should advocate for those who are oppressed and disadvantaged. Americans should see Jesus reflected in His people. May we live as salt and light in our nation, and glorify God in Christ! 3: For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20). Christians in America do not experience the opposition or hostility experienced by their brethren under the Roman Empire. Christians are easily tempted to compromise or assimilate their faith and their ideologies as Americans. The Kingdom of God does not function like a representative republic. American liberties are held onto tightly; Christian liberty is to be renounced easily. In all things we must diligently strive to have our faith inform our earthly citizenship, and not the other way around. May we maintain our primary loyalty to the Kingdom of God in Christ and share in eternity with Him! 4: And they worshipped the dragon, because he gave his authority unto the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying, “Who is like unto the beast? And, who is able to war with him?” (Revelation 13:4) The United States of America is a nation-state among nation-states. America maintains its own form of civil religion that looks very “Christianish” but draws devotion away from God in Christ and toward the advancement of American purposes and principles. If the “Christianish” part of that civic religion becomes more a hindrance than a help, America will quickly and easily jettison it. As Christians we must be on guard against being deceived into thinking that American civic religion is the same as the faith revealed in Christ. We must ground ourselves in what God has made known in Jesus, not what is popular or common in culture. May we affirm Christ as King, serve Him in America, and obtain the resurrection of life in Him!