God and Country? (2)

While there are followers of Jesus Christ who strive to speak above the political chaos in the United States, and speak with the voice of eternity, the media has focused on those who have wrapped the Cross of Christ with a political agenda.

As I have written before, all history ought to be read through the lens of Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Just as we can delude ourselves into thinking that we have individual histories without sin, so we can delude ourselves that our nation has a history without sin.

Nations often think that God is on their side and God is a helpful propaganda tool for governments. One can be patriotic and recognize this. One can also be patriotic and fear the power of the delusion that God and country are inseparable. Patriotic fervor is religious fervor, and it is usually a fervor which allows no criticism. When patriotic fervor is christened with God it explodes in a flame that devours critique – it is a flame and heat akin to the fiery furnace of Daniel Chapter Three.

Singing “God Bless America” has become popular at sporting events. What does this have to do with a baseball game? Are we baptizing ourselves with holy water that is meant to ensure our military and economic superiority and which deludes us into ignoring our rebellion against a holy God? Those who love this country will weep for this country, they will not cover its sins, they will not dilute the Gospel, and they will not preach “peace, peace” when there is no peace. Christians who love their land will clearly articulate the Gospel of Jesus Christ as citizens of His kingdom.

Followers of Jesus Christ ought not to be endorsing a national delusion of righteousness – either present or historical. Our nation has done much good, we have also done much evil – all have sinned. This delusion of national righteousness is not patriotism, it is idolatry.

The church of Jesus Christ cannot serve the world, or the nations of the world, if it is of the world. 

The Wheelbarrow

It is black with rust spots on a wooden frame. I’ve scrapped and painted it more than once, but it looks as if the rust is winning…rust can be relentless. An engineer once told me how much stronger rust is than concrete, I don’t recall what the factor was, but it got my attention as we were inspecting balconies on a high-rise building in Richmond. If you have metal railings attached to concrete it is wise to keep the metal painted and not to allow water to pocket where the railings go into the concrete – the rust will always win. I once had a high-rise property in Baltimore on which the concrete balconies were spalling and falling onto the street below – that’s what we call liability in the property management business.

I realize that rust on the bucket of a wheelbarrow is rather mundane, but it isn’t just any wheelbarrow, it’s our wheelbarrow with a history. A wheelbarrow with a history is something to pay attention to; if I had a museum I’d have a conservator preserve it and put it on display and have a nice narrative printed on plaques in front of it – I might even have some retrospective photos of places it’s been.

Wheelbarrows are not something you purchase every year – a good wheelbarrow ought to last for years, even decades. I’ve seen some old wheelbarrows that were likely used to haul dirt around Richmond for entrenchments during the Civil War.

When we first moved to Chesterfield County in 1989 we didn’t have a wheelbarrow. We had lived in a townhouse with virtually no front or back yard and whatever earth we needed to move could be moved in a child’s beach bucket. Of course Vickie planted flowers and plants in our little yard, she is always planting, but there was no need for a wheelbarrow.

Our first home in Chesterfield was begging to be beautified with flowers, perennials, and trees. It didn’t have to beg long before Vickie went into action. She went into action so quickly that we needed a wheelbarrow before we had a wheelbarrow. I had dirt to move that wouldn’t wait for me to go to the hardware store and purchase a wheelbarrow. What to do?

I went to our neighbors Bill and Gayle, two doors down, and borrowed a wheelbarrow for that first project. It was a wheelbarrow with a shallow bucket, but it did the job. You may recall from a previous post that we met Bill and Gayle shortly after we moved to Chesterfield through our “rescue” dog Mitzi – or “the Mitz” as she was also known. Vickie rescued her from the streets of Richmond and whenever we’d let her out of the house she’d run through our backyard, then through Doug’s backyard, and then to Bill and Gayle’s house – so we got to know Bill and Gayle because of our numerous trips to their home to retrieve Mitzi. It’s good to have neighbors who have wheelbarrows to lend.

Since I’ve had a lot of demand to write about my wheelbarrow I’ll continue this…

Revive Us?

Some friends are talking about an event/movie by Kirk Cameron called “Revive Us”. One of my friends, who hasn’t gone to see it but apparently is going, has a friend who had a powerful spiritual experience at the event/movie (it was originally simulcast but is now being shown as a movie). This should be frightening – this is strange fire.

Below is my email response to an invitation to attend. I am not attending. This is exactly why we need to distinguish between the Cross of Christ and a national flag and agenda and a whitewashed view of history.

Hi Everyone:

Well here is the thing about the movie; what looks nice and feels nice may not be nice and as nice as it might feel it might not be the truth.

Eric Metaxas has written some books that feel nice but are not well founded, his most recent one about America is a case in point, and his one about Bonhoeffer is another. He has also disparaged academic critics of his books rather than provide reasoned responses to them.

Kirk Cameron has a pretty naive perspective on US history - a number of people do.

And Ben Carson? He might be a great surgeon, but his defense of the indefensible words and actions of one of the presidential candidates is, to me, beyond words.  Carson's words and actions betray the absence of a well-thought-out philosophy - he is navigating by a weather vane rather than a compass.

Anytime people wrap the flag, any flag, around the Cross of Christ there is a problem, and when it is in the context of a highly-charged environment with music and appeals to revival and patriotism and Jesus - that is dangerous. 

So my advice is that if folks go to go with a critical mindset and then do follow up homework - because if what Cameron and Carson and Metaxas have to say is based on what they've already said and already written then much of it isn't going to be true...and the premise will unlikely be untrue. 

Frankly they are using the Cross and (sadly) Christianity to promote a political agenda - Metaxas and Carson are strong supporters of Mr. Trump. I don't know about the other folks. I think this is dangerous - regardless of the candidate. 

The very fact that people are saying they're having a spiritual experience at the movie underscores my point - if we can't distinguish between the Kingdom of God and a nation, any nation; if we wrap the flag around the Cross...we are on dangerous ground.

Here is a professor of history at Wheaton - if you go to this and search for Cameron and Metaxas you'll get some hits.

https://faithandamericanhistory.wordpress.com

Here is a professor of history at Messiah.

https://thewayofimprovement.com/?s=Metaxas

And here is a post I did on my blog this past Monday that better expresses my own thinking:

http://robertlwithers.blogspot.com/2016/10/which-kingdom-what-voice.html

Much, much love,

Bob