Sermon July 3, 2011  “What and Who we are For” 

Scriptures: Matthew 6:9-13

So here we are today.  It is Sunday.  We are gathered here out of respect for our Creator, desiring that what we experience today will give honor to God and have an effect on us.  My specific hope today is that each of us present here together acknowledges that we are not a finished product, acknowledge that we each have much to learn, that we have not “arrived” as followers of Jesus.  The apostle Paul is proclaims clearly to the church in Rome, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

The word Paul used here is deeply important.  He said, be “transformed,” which is a very different thing than “be affected” or “be influenced by.”  I was reminded by a wise leader over a year ago that we being “transformed” is a very messy process.  It means being changed from one thing into another completely different thing.  Who here are Calvin and Hobbes fans?  There was a collection of Calvin and Hobbes comics called “Scientific Progress goes Boink,” and the focus of those comics was an “invention” of Calvin.  It was a cardboard box that he made into a “transmogrifier.”  You could enter into the box, have someone set the box to what you wanted to change into, then you would come out of the box as that thing.    It was a fundamental change that took place there.  And this is precisely what Paul is talking about.  What that means, practically, is the willingness at any point to blow the whole project up, to strip our lives down to nothing, in order to build on a more firm foundation again.  This is one of the most essential truths of Christianity. 

Becoming a Christian is not an add-on thing where we get to keep who we are, what we desire, how we spend our time, how we handle relationships, and then add a little Jesus in where he fits.  Following Jesus is a full-time, whole life transformation process that never ends; and it starts with confessing that Jesus knows better than we do what we are created for, and we fall down at his feet, and we say, “I am confused.  Guide me, lead me.  I want to be healthy, I want to be good again.”  And we cling to him.  We pledge our central allegiance to him and to God’s kingdom first and primary.

I say all of this because we are on the eve of a High American holiday that takes place tomorrow, Independence Day.  And wherever we may end up in our perspectives on the relationship between Christianity and the nation, High American holidays give an opportunity to slow down and to reflect on these themes of allegiance, commitment, and awareness of who we are.

You see, we don’t have the luxury like other American citizens of the specific kind of patriotism that tomorrow often brings.  There’s a certain simplicity to always going with the crowd and obediently following what others do, but becoming Christian means entering into a more complex relationship with our society.  Around days like tomorrow, words like patriotism, allegiance, commitment, and freedom often come up.  And these are words that happen to be deeply essential for Christians too.  In a number of ways, however, an assumption is made by many that there is no conflict between allegiance to Jesus and allegiance to America.  My hope this morning is to spend some time stepping back and reflecting on our relationship to our society as Christians.

And an excellent place to start is with the words of John Kline, as close to a superstar as we allow fellow Brethren to get.  This is how Kline described patriotism: 

“My highest conception of patriotism is found in the man who loves the Lord his God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself. Out of these affections spring the subordinate love for one’s country; love truly virtuous for one’s companion and children, relatives and friends; and in its most comprehensive sense takes in the whole human family. Were this love universal, the word patriotism, in its specific sense, meaning such a love for one’s country as makes its possessors ready and willing to take up arms in its defense, might be appropriately expunged from every national vocabulary.”

So, according to John Kline, the highest form of patriotism is found in loving the Lord our God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourself.  With this commitment being properly first, out of these affections springs what Kline calls the “subordinate love for one’s country.”  So Kline identifies love of country as subordinate to love for God and our neighbor, but subordinate certainly does not mean unimportant, does it?  It just means what it means.  Less important, less central.  And Kline very specifically talks about what love of God and neighbor looks like, saying that this love in its most comprehensive sense “takes in the whole human family.”    John takes the teaching of Jesus very seriously that love of neighbor means a deep sacrificial love and care that has no borders, knows no bounds.

So this is the stated ideal in John Kline’s perspective of the relationship of a Christian to our society and world.  If we left it there, however, we could fit Kline maybe very nicely and easily into our worldview without any trouble or discomfort.  We could make John Kline into our own image. 

But there was a larger context to this quote: John Kline’s life, and if we knew his life well, we would be less likely to make Kline into our own image.  You see, if we were to sum up John Kline’s life and relationship with society with two words, we might say; uncomfortable, and complicated.

Kline’s story began in Broadway, VA and was shaped profoundly by Linville Creek Church there, where he lived a life of radical love and discipleship; when you consider the lives of folks who emerged as leaders from there (M.R. Zigler and others), the place was a seedbed in the 19th and early 20th centuries for leaders with a faithful commitment to Jesus that impacted our society.

When the North and South entered into the Civil War, Kline worked to get permission from each side to cross military lines. He did not allow the fighting to prevent him from his work. During his multiple horseback rides across Virginia he participated as moderator in the Brethren's Annual Meetings to discuss life and faith during the War.  He continued to move between the North and South during the Civil War, each time putting more and more of a threat to his own life. On May 29, 1864 at his last annual meeting in Hagerstown, Indiana he spoke, "Possibly you may never see my face or hear my voice again. I am now on my way back to Virginia., not knowing the things that shall befall me there. It may be that bonds and afflictions abide me. But I feel that I have done nothing worthy of bonds or of death; and none of these things move me; neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God." 

There in Virginia, Kline was assassinated by a Confederate hit squad several miles from his home.  What can we learn from Kline’s example of this relationship between the central love of God and love of neighbor and the subordinate love for one’s country?

John Kline gave his life and paid the ultimate sacrifice because he believed in a love that was big enough to include both the Union AND the Confederacy; the huge political topic of his day.  John was set free to love in this way because the Lord he followed and the kingdom he was a part of had a deeper grip on him than being accepted by society.  On the major issues of his day, like other Brethren, John was often vilified.  The Brethren took a stand as early as 1797 to call slavery a sin, and John led the movement against slavery in the 18^th century.  For this they were considered liberal.  They refused to pick up arms against Union or Confederacy, and for that they were considered liberal and a most dangerous breed of folk who could not be trusted.  In their views on marriage and sexuality, they were considered deeply conservative.  In their commitment to simplicity in dress and way of life, they were considered deeply conservative.  They didn’t fit the categories of their day; precisely because they had so deeply gazed upon, reflected upon, shared about the ministry of Jesus, who was vilified in his own society by those at the political extremes.  Jesus’ commitment to his Father and the kingdom of God earned him all kinds of labels from those he made uncomfortable; eventually earning the label enemy of the people and false Messiah, for which he was executed.

Kline lived a costly, Jesus-centered kind of love not as a lukewarm fence-sitter kind of guy, mushy moderate kind of guy.  Instead, he chose a “third way” of living with conflict–not fleeing or separating his faith from the realities of his world, and not picking up arms, but courageously choosing to wade into the pain with God’s vulnerable love.  John’s life was beautiful, real, and truthful, and it looked a lot like Jesus.

Just a week ago last Sunday, a Mennonite pastor named Mark Schloneger in a town 20 minutes east of where I great up in Virginia provided an important moment of clarity about what it means to know who and what we are for as Christians.   Mark wrote an opinion editorial that was picked up by CNN.  Mark is a graduate of Goshen College, a Mennonite college in Indiana some of you may be familiar with.  In June, Goshen made national news when its Board of Directors decided the “Star-Spangled Banner” would not be played before athletic events.  Schloneger wrote,

“As could be expected, the decision was met with confusion and contempt. Wasn’t this just another example of our traditional values being trampled by the unrelenting march of political correctness? What sort of ingrates object to our nation’s anthem, anyway? Fluffy-headed campus philosophers? Lazy latte-sipping liberals?”

See the liberal/conservative thing coming up again? Fox News in particular railed against Goshen as unpatriotic liberals.  Yet the media failed to account for the fact that Goshen College only the year before had decided to play the Anthem after 116 years of not playing it.  There was a massive outcry of alumni, supporters, and students, many of whom felt like playing the anthem compromised the college’s Christian values.

Mark led his readers into a short history of the Anabaptist movement, which the Church of the Brethren identifies with, and how a deeply conservative religious commitment can lead to you being called politically liberal and an enemy of the state.

“A living faith in Jesus means faithfully living the way of Jesus. Jesus called his disciples to love their enemies and he loved his enemies all the way to the cross and beyond. Following Jesus and the martyrs before us, we testify with our lives that freedom is not a right that is granted or defended with rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air. True freedom is given by God, and it is indeed not free. It comes with a cost, and it looks like a cross.

It’s a strange tribe to which I belong, and sometimes it’s hard to be strange. We struggle to be inclusive in our welcome yet passionate in our identity. Our desire for acceptance, for approval, is strong, and we don’t always live up to the convictions that we set before us. 

We must repent of that, for the world cannot know of its brokenness and hopelessness without a people who show a holistic way of life. The world cannot know that there is an alternative to violence and war without a people of peace making peace. The world cannot know that the weak and the vulnerable are cared for by God without a people practicing an economy centered on sharing and mutual aid.

The world cannot know the unsurpassable worth of human life without a people who consistently work to protect it - in the fetus, in the convict, in the immigrant, in the soldier, and in the enemy.

These convictions do not reflect ingratitude or hatred for our country. Rather, they reflect a deep love for the church and a passionate desire for the church to be the church… I love my country, but I sing my loyalty and pledge my allegiance to Jesus alone.”

Mark’s column, as of last night’s count, got 4,327 comments, and he was interviewed by CNN on Friday morning.  Many of the commenters and the CNN anchor tried to shove Mark into a corner, but he consistently reminded the anchor that he wasn’t speaking as a American liberal or conservative, but as a Christian.

So wherever we may come out in our perspective of the relationship of the church and our society, John Kline and Mark Schloneger both appeal to us, as followers of Jesus our King, to define our lives by who and what we are for.  We are for the way of Jesus and we are for the kingdom of God.  May we have the courage to stand up and be counted as passionate and faithful people in this cause.