July 4th is the USA’s Independence Day, and this year it lands on a Sunday.
You might not be a U.S. resident, but you probably face the same questions in whichever country you call home.
People around the world blur the lines between national observances and Christian holidays, making preaching on or around those days tricky.
It’s tricky because of differences in expectations and the role of preaching and the Church.
For instance, some listeners take offense when the national observance is preached about, and others take offense when it’s not.
Some insist that a nation’s ills be called to account, while others are offended by the suggestion that there are any ills to account for.
Still others have drawn such a thick, rigid line between religion and the state that even standing to preach three feet back from that line is suspiciously too close.
Below is an approach to preaching and patriotism to help you preach the gospel so people can hear it.
IT’S A WORK IN PROGRESS
Whether you prefer to call it God’s reign, fulfillment, kingdom, or kin-dom, it hasn’t happened yet.
God’s reign is very much a work in progress, and yet curiously, I’ve never met anyone who feels offended when that’s stated. When we preach that we see signs of God’s reign but it has a long way to go, it’s generally met with shrugs and blank faces that indicate “Yeah, so?”
Yet many preachers experience that when it’s suggested that our nation shows some signs of living up to ideals but has a long way to go, the reaction is tensed shoulders and furrowed brows that indicate “How dare you?”
How can it be that we are not only in agreement—but complacent—that God’s reign is a work in progress, yet many feel affronted when we say one’s nation is also a work in progress and that is has yet to achieve its founding ideals?
It can be a stretch for many, and terrifying to some, to admit that one’s beloved country isn’t perfect just the way it is.
Because if we admit that we’ve given more loyalty to an imperfect entity than we have given to God, it might indicate something about us that we don’t want to see.
The felt-more-than-articulated inner monologue might go something like this:
What’s wrong with my country? Did I contribute to its flaws? If I did, what does that say about me as a “good person?” If I’m not as “good” as I thought, then how will I face God again? If I really blew it, will I getting into heaven after all? Am I safe? Do I still belong?
And there’s the root theological issue: Do we truly believe that if our loyalties and actions were applied more to nation than to God that there’s hope? Or do we fear we’re doomed? Do we believe in the Easter promise that we can admit our mistakes, repent, amend our lives to repair the damage done—and trust that God never quits us?
If you serve a congregation who readily trumpets a country’s ills, they aren’t necessarily off the hook: In what ways are they actively seeking out and loving their neighbors who see only the country’s brilliance and not its tarnish?
These congregations can struggle just as much when prayers are offered for those on the “other side.” They, too, can feel affronted and frightened by the idea that they are also falling short of their ideals.
A PREACHING STRATEGY: Start at the End
Start at the End: God’s reign on Earth
Go at this from the back end.
Remind listeners that the reign of God is a “now but not yet,” unfolding work-in-progress, and when God’s reign is completed…
everyone will know they’re cherished by God and each other
no one will question whether they or anyone else belongs
and everyone spends their days exercising their God-given gifts in service of others, wholeheartedly and without reservation.
Wouldn’t that be a great way to live?
Take One Step Back: Jesus demonstrated that in real life
Remind people that Jesus cherished and respected those who weren’t cherished or respected (in “real life,” aka, his own country and those he visited). For instance:
women, children, and immigrants; the demon possessed, the mentally ill, and those whose misfortune were (wrongfully) blamed on them (the man born blind)
the families of the enemy (the Roman centurion’s daughter), nations deemed “lesser than” (Samaria), and turncoats (tax collectors like Matthew)
those who don’t “get it” (Peter); the holier-than-thou (Scribes and Pharisees, including Nicodemus); and those who make people recoil in disgust and say, “Oh, ick!” (prostitutes, tax collectors, those with communicable diseases like leprosy).
In the future, if we were to cherish and respect like Jesus did, then the problems we face together now will have been solved by then.
Take One More Step Back: Jesus Demonstrates This in Our Real Life Life Too
What are the ways you see God’s reign already happening? What’s the “now” part (before we get to the “not yet” part)?
The more concrete with examples that your listeners would applaud, the better.
As these examples are context-specific, I don’t offer examples here.
One More
Real life examples give us hope and reason to trust Jesus really is involved and making things happen. They demonstrate some problems were or are being solved.
Now, imagine with them what “24-Hours in the Life of God’s Kin-dom” would look like if we went “all the way.” For example:
What would the tone and conversation of social media be used for if no longer used for vitriol and disseminating misinformation?
What laws would have been taken off the books because there was simply no need of them? For example, isn’t God’s reign going to be a place when there are no laws about guns because there are no guns because no one is afraid enough to want one?
Where would charitable donations be sent if food banks and soup kitchens were dismantled for lack of hungry bellies?
What would the tone of Thanksgiving dinners be like if people felt curious and interested in others’ viewpoints instead of threatened by them? And who would be invited?
One final step back
If that’s what God reign will look like here (aka, in our country), what do we need to be doing to make “then” become “now”?
What’s a work in progress?
What needs to be a work in progress?
In sum: How will building God’s reign serve the dual purpose of building on the ideals of one’s country?
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