Jeremiah 31:31-34
Luke 20:19-26

People of every religious persuasion must deal with what it means to be a citizen of a nation and what it means to be a worshiper and servant of God.  In this sense people of every faith persuasion hold dual citizenship.  They are citizens of the reign of God and citizens of their nations.  With patriotic fervor running high, and our nation celebrating its independence today, this is an appropriate time for us to examine worship of God, citizenship, and patriotism.  One of the old dictionaries defines patriotism as "the spirit of acting like a parent to one's country."   Part of that spirit is to help the nation grow up.  I offer this sermon as one who strives to worship and serve God, who holds dual citizenship, and who seeks to be patriotic and help his nation to grow.  I offer this sermon as one person’s struggle with the challenge to give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to give to God what is God's.
           
Throughout the centuries people of faith have struggled with loyalties of faithfulness to God and allegiance to their country.  How do service to God and loyalty to country work in the lives of citizens?  Within our own country there have been two simplistic responses.  At one extreme are those who decide they will have nothing to do with government.  Brooks Hays, former Congressman from Arkansas, told about a political pollster who went to the hill country of Arkansas.  He asked a woman about her preference in the upcoming election.  She responded, "Son, I'm a Christian.  I've never voted in all my life and never intend to.  It might encourage them."  This view casts God and government as mortal enemies.  It suggests that while saints are engaged in pious introspection, burly sinners run the world. 
           
The other extreme response is for a person to give complete, uncritical loyalty to the "political powers that be."  This view is based on a chain of command mentality that states that whoever has decision-making authority in a nation has been placed there by God and is to be obeyed no matter what!  Disagreement with the leader is seen as unpatriotic, bordering on treason.   
           
These two extremes have existed in every age and were evident during Jesus' ministry.  The Zealots and the Pharisees were religious folk who advocated non-participation with and even violent opposition to the Roman Empire.  The Sadducees on the other hand had concluded that to get along they had to go along.  They blended their civil responsibilities and their devotion to God in such a way that both were blemished and neither was distinguishable. 
           
Luke wrote about an event in Jesus' ministry that illustrates an attempt to get him to choose one of these two extremes.  Some Pharisees and some supporters of Herod approached Jesus with flattery.  Listen to their comments:  "Teacher, we know that what you say and teach is right.  We know that you pay no attention to anyone’s status, but teach the truth about God’s will for people.  Tell us is it against our Law to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor, or not?" (Luke 20:21-22)   Isn’t that a suspicious sounding question?  Why is all the ground being made smooth and neat?  Maybe a trap is being set. What they wanted was a simple yes or no answer.  If Jesus responded with a yes, then the Sadducees would turn on him.  If he answered no, then the Pharisees would be after him.  Jesus' response was to ask for a coin and inquire whose inscription was on the coin.  "Caesar's."  "Then give Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give God what belongs to God" (Matt. 22:21).  Jesus was a master at giving an alternative answer that was not the either/or response anticipated by his questioners.  
           
Frankly, I have a lot of sympathy for the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  I really could cope with a lot less struggle as a citizen if Jesus had answered yes or no to the question.  I take seriously what Jesus said.  That creates struggle and difficulty for me.  Were I not committed to a lifestyle that I learn from Jesus, I could take a position like the Pharisees and withdraw from any concern or involvement with government as being useless or worthless or both.  Or I could take the position of the Sadducees who concluded that the best way to get along is to go along.  Then, I could just go along with the flow of whatever direction and decisions that those in leadership positions make.  If I could just take either of these positions, I would not have struggled to prepare this sermon, and my stomach wouldn't be turning flip-flops while I deliver it.  Dealing with this issue would be easier if I didn’t have to consider my relationship and responsibility to God.  
           
Jesus clearly stated that people have responsibilities both to government and to God.  The tendency is present in many to assume that loyalty to God also means loyalty to the nation and its leadership.  To blend these loyalties is to make faith in God indistinguishable from patriotic fervor.  The result is a religion that is courteous, polite, non-disturbing, non-threatening, and placidly civil.  This tendency seems to have been more evident since September 11, 2001.
           
One of the principles of the United Church of Christ that resonated with me as I was moving to the UCC from a Baptist denomination was its strong support of the separation of church and state and how vital this is to religious liberty.  This principle strengthens the concept of holding dual citizenship.  We are citizens of the rule of God and citizens of a nation. Most of us are citizens of the United States, but everyone who worships here may not be a citizen of this country. Always our citizenship in the rule of God should inform and influence our citizenship in our country, whatever country that is. The realm of God’s rule is not synonymous with any nation.  National policy is not to be interpreted as the civil expression of God's will.  Yet, the two are not completely divorced from each other.  God can be served and good can be done through participation in the political process.  The Christian must maintain identity as both a loyal citizen of the nation and an authentic servant of God.   Jesus’ instruction is to render to Caesar, that is the national government, only what belongs to the government.  It is a sin to render to the government the things that properly belong to God alone.  Worship, absolute obedience, and faith belong to God and not to government. 
           
Our citizenship in the reign and rule of God ought always enlarge and expand our view, vision, and understanding of life in the world and in our country.  We often are tempted to permit our citizenship in the nation to restrict and limit our view of what it means to be a citizen of God’s rule.   
           
Often the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures were a minority of one speaking concern and challenge to the king.  At least as early as the kings mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures, national leaders have had court chaplains.  Since the chaplains were on the payroll of the king or national leader, it is not surprising that the chaplains tended to interpret the word of God to be what the king or national leader wanted to hear.  Most often in the biblical material the court chaplains were referred to as the false prophets.  When clergy begin espousing policy that excludes segments of the human race, we have become court chaplains and false prophets. 
           
In 1991 the week after the Persian Gulf War began, I received the newsletter from a congregation in Ft. Worth, Texas.  The pastor, Cecil Sherman, wrote these words.  "Sunday I heard that some of you wanted to bring the American flag into our sanctuary because of this war.  I hope you will not press that.  We are people of two loyalties.  We belong to the kingdom of God.  We belong to the government of the United States of America.  These two loyalties are not one and the same.  To be a good Christian and to be a good American often mean the same thing, but sometimes they clash.  Let's remember what we are about at church. The message of God’s love demonstrated in the life of Jesus is for all people of all nations. Let's keep some detachment and some rationality about our commitments.  Sometimes a good Christian has to stand in judgment on United States’ policy.  Keep room for that judgment.  Blending our loyalties is convenient and in the present popular.  But remember who we are and what we are about."
           
Our sanctuary represents the rule of God.  It is a safe place for all people and has no national boundaries. Symbols in the sanctuary are to depict some attribute of God and guide our focus toward God. With this understanding patriotic songs are about our nation and not about God, they focus worshipers’ attention toward the nation rather than toward God whom we worship. They are appropriate for civic and community gatherings but not for worship services.
           
Having our nation’s flag in the narthex is an important visible reminder.  Having gathered to worship God, we open the doors of sanctuary to go out into the world to serve God.  And that service begins in our own nation. An important part of our service to God is to be the best citizens we can be.  Part of serving God and being the best citizens we can be is to challenge our government to be a government of justice and equality where all people are treated equally and fairly. Having the United States flag in the narthex also communicates that the government is to have no control over religion and religion is to have no control over the government.    
           
Often civil celebrations are given the status of holy days.  Too often they are incorporated into church programs and observed with the faithfulness given to Christmas, Easter, and other significant dates on the calendar of the Christian year.  Missing from these civil celebrations, however, are confessions of sins and requests for forgiveness.     
           
Sometimes the attitude is expressed that our country has exclusive rights on the favor of God.  The result is that national piety tends to divide the world into "us--the good guys" and "them--the bad guys."  Such is the mentality which suspicions those who fail to fit into "the American way" of life, resists international cooperation, stereotypes entire nations as "the enemy," and, in times of war, evaluates victory by comparing body counts.  The teachings of the gospel regarding the universal love of God and Jesus' admonition to deal redemptively with one's enemies seriously challenge such secular thought and make it unacceptable for the Christian.
            Throughout the history of the United States, liberty-secular and religious-has soldiered on until it is now basic in our society.  The sense of greatness which such liberty has bestowed on this country may tempt us as citizens with a feeling of superiority and “speciality,” which may be a danger we now face as a society.   
           
Gardner Taylor, one of the leading preachers of the latter half of the 20th century, observed that the graveyard of nations is filled with once great powers who strutted across the stage of history.  Their sin was the fatal one of feeling that they were beyond judgment and beyond question. The temptation is to speak and act with arrogance toward other national communities. 
           
You and I hold dual citizenship.  Alcibiades of Greece understood critique of country when he said, "The true lover of his country is not he who consents to lose it unjustly rather than attack it, but he who longs for it so much that he will go to all lengths to recover it."   We must keep room for discernment of our nation, its policies and activities.  We need to be patriotic in the sense of helping our country mature. Part of our responsibility as patriots is to acknowledge and confess when our nation has been wrong and done wrong.  Such patriotism helps our nation to grow up.        
           
The life of Senator Robert Byrd serves as a snapshot of how our nation grew over the last sixty years. The way that occurred in Senator Byrd’s life related to racism parallels how our country has grown. The fact that some of his racist statements made earlier in his career sound so shocking to us today is evidence that we have grown. Are we racially mature yet? By no means! Racial slurs and racist posters illustrate we have a lot more growing to do as a nation. One contribution responsible citizens can make is to continue to help our country grow up racially.
           
Often citizens from other nations who very much appreciate this country have enough emotional distance and detachment from our nation that they are able to offer us insight about ourselves.   A letter by Peter Storey, a professor at Duke Divinity School, who on September 11, 2001 was on leave for the fall semester in his homeland of South Africa offers insight.  He wrote the letter on September 13, 2001.  In the following passage of the letter he is discussing the task of preaching: “When I preach in the United States, I feel as I imagine the Apostle Paul did, when he first passed through the gates of Rome-admiration for its people, awe at its manifest virtues, and resentment of its careless power.  American preachers have a task more difficult, perhaps, than those faced by us under South Africa’s apartheid.  We had obvious evils to engage; you have to unwrap your culture from years of red, white, and blue myth.  You have to expose, and confront, the great disconnect between the kindness, compassion and caring of most American people, and the ruthless way American power is experienced, directly and indirectly, by the poor of the earth…All around the world there are those who believe in the basic goodness of the American people, who agonize with you in your pain, but also long to see your human goodness translated into a different, more compassionate way of relating with the rest of this bleeding planet.”  (Quoted by Steve Hyde, “From Your Pastor,” Regarding Ravensworth, November 27, 2001.
           
In Revelation, John of Patmos suggested that the decision to sacrifice human life reveals the true character of those in power.  The "four horsemen" represent different faces of the same scourge:  conquest, the sword, profiteering, and death. 
           
In wartime this revelation is quickly suppressed, the conflicts dressed up in far nobler garb by both sides.  Things are never more muddled.  Hence the dictum, "In war, truth is the first casualty."  As German Christians during the Third Reich discovered so painfully, how the church responds in wartime is crucial to the very future of faith.  It finally dawned upon the German Christians that the national will and God's will were not the same.  As Robin Meyers observes, “One can only wonder how the world would have been different if Constantine had painted a mother hen on the helmets of his soldiers, wings spread to protect a brood of helpless chicks, instead of the cross.  How strange that a symbol of nonviolent resistance and redemption ends up becoming part of a military uniform or is worn around the neck of inquisitors.  Today the cross is quite literally wrapped in the American flag, as if there were no contradictions between the world’s only superpower and the symbol of God’s power made perfect in weakness.” (Robin R. Myers Saving Jesus from the Church, Location 1885-1900, Kindle)    
           
Just as it is essential for us as individuals to continue growing so it is that our nation needs to keep growing.  To cease to grow is to begin to die.  One major task our dual citizenship calls for is to help our nation grow up.  One way we help the country grow up is to see that minority voices are heard and respected.  In times like these there is lots of pressure on people to conform to what is the popular opinion related to war or immigration or oil drilling.   
           
We will not do our nation any good if we try to render to the nation what belongs to God; namely, worship and absolute, complete, total loyalty and devotion.  We must accept where our nation is, help our nation admit and confess its sins, and help the country to grow up.   To give complete, ultimate devotion to our nation rather than to God will spoil and ruin our nation.  Our country needs to be loved in the way that anything not yet full grown needs to be loved and nurtured and helped to mature. 
           
 I am neither an uncritical lover nor an unloving critic of my country.  I hold dual citizenship in the reign of God and in the United States of America.  That means I must be a loving critic of my country to help nudge and nurture us as servants of God and citizens of our nation to grow and move and develop toward maturity. It is in this way that I can nudge our country to grow and move and develop toward maturity.  This is how I can give to my country what belongs to my country and to God what belongs to God. 
                                                                                                 Notes