Should Patriotism Have a Place in Church?
00:00:00.000 | Well, next Tuesday we celebrate July 4th, Independence Day as it's known for us in
00:00:08.600 | the United States here and the day itself raises questions about national loyalty for
00:00:14.120 | those of us who are Christians, who are strangers and exiles, aliens, pilgrims in this earth.
00:00:20.360 | Pilgrims and patriots, that was our topic back in years past, back in episode number
00:00:24.600 | 378 we talked about that.
00:00:26.920 | But this year we want to take a closer look at patriotism in the local church and the
00:00:31.920 | time seems right to pick up this important email from a pastor named Scott who writes
00:00:36.680 | in to ask this, "Pastor John, are there any acceptable displays of patriotism in a
00:00:40.560 | church service?
00:00:42.200 | I was brought up in a very conservative and patriotic background in which every patriotic
00:00:46.840 | holiday was celebrated in a Sunday church service, including 4th of July, Veterans Day,
00:00:52.160 | Memorial Day, the anniversary of 9/11, etc.
00:00:55.880 | Events like pledging the flag and singing patriotic songs were heavily used.
00:01:00.680 | Is this okay?
00:01:01.680 | I pastor a church that has a history of this, but it makes me somewhat uncomfortable.
00:01:07.040 | Pastor John, what would you say to Scott?"
00:01:09.000 | Scott, I've been in several churches recently, not just growing up, especially in the South,
00:01:17.480 | I'm thinking, because that's just my experience, where on the 4th of July the focus on the
00:01:23.720 | branches of the armed forces seemed to me uninformed, unshaped by the radical nature
00:01:31.800 | of the gospel, and out of proportion to the relationship between America and the kingdom
00:01:37.520 | of Christ, and so I share your discomfort.
00:01:40.480 | Indeed, it is more than discomfort, I think.
00:01:44.200 | There are real biblical principles at stake, and so it will be helpful, I think, to face
00:01:53.040 | those principles, and then we'll see if there's time to deal with practical transition issues
00:01:59.720 | in a church.
00:02:01.400 | So let me say a word about principles.
00:02:04.400 | One, when we're born again, we are united to Christ, our King, and we are delivered
00:02:13.320 | from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God so that
00:02:18.520 | now it can be said with glorious and profound reality, our citizenship is in heaven, Philippians
00:02:28.800 | 3.20.
00:02:30.900 | Number two, therefore, wherever we live on earth, whatever country, whatever tribe, whatever
00:02:38.280 | family or clan, we are in all of that pilgrims, sojourners, refugees, exiles.
00:02:49.260 | Our first identity is with the King of the universe, not any country or nationality or
00:02:54.880 | political party or governmental regime.
00:02:58.440 | America is emphatically not our primary home or primary identity.
00:03:06.460 | That should be spoken, it should be felt, and it should be precious.
00:03:13.360 | We should never be ashamed of identifying first and foremost as citizens of the kingdom
00:03:20.760 | of Christ, the kingdom of heaven.
00:03:23.560 | Number three, Jesus Christ, therefore, is our absolute Lord.
00:03:30.420 | We swear absolute allegiance to him and to no one and nothing else.
00:03:38.760 | All other commitments are relativized.
00:03:42.920 | To be sure, citizens should submit to the laws of their government.
00:03:48.440 | Employees should submit to the rules of the employer.
00:03:51.360 | Wives should submit to husbands.
00:03:52.840 | Children should submit to parents.
00:03:54.840 | Church members should submit to the elders of the church.
00:03:58.240 | But none of these commitments of submission is absolute.
00:04:04.480 | All of those authorities are subordinate and secondary to the authority of Christ, and
00:04:10.600 | therefore, all submission is qualified.
00:04:14.160 | Submission over every commitment for the Christian is unless Jesus commands otherwise.
00:04:22.520 | Number four, therefore, there's no unqualified allegiance to any political party, any nationality
00:04:30.320 | or any ethnicity or any tribal identity or any branch of the armed service.
00:04:37.280 | It is all qualified.
00:04:39.520 | It is all secondary.
00:04:42.480 | It is all relative to the will of Christ.
00:04:46.400 | We should not say anything or do anything that looks as though that were not true.
00:04:54.560 | Five, therefore, the question of what to do when the people of God are gathered to worship
00:05:05.560 | Jesus Christ on the Lord's Day is not merely a question of whether a particular act is
00:05:14.360 | permissible in general with all of those qualifications that I just mentioned, but whether it belongs
00:05:22.520 | in a worship service where the focus is on the absolute lordship of Jesus and worshiping
00:05:31.140 | and praising and honoring him.
00:05:34.680 | My own opinion is that any pledge of allegiance, like the one to the American flag, does not
00:05:41.200 | belong in a worship service that's called to the highlighting of the absolute allegiance
00:05:48.940 | that we have to Jesus, even though the pledge says that the nation is under God.
00:05:56.160 | Nevertheless, what is being highlighted and foregrounded is an earthly allegiance, and
00:06:04.240 | the recitation of a pledge to a human authority in the setting of the worship of divine authority
00:06:11.840 | does not provide for the kind of Christian qualifications and nuances that are so necessary
00:06:19.260 | precisely in our day.
00:06:22.680 | Number six, whenever Christians pay tribute to earthly blessings like American freedoms,
00:06:29.840 | which are wonderful, and the sacrifices made to have them, and the people who made those
00:06:35.960 | sacrifices, the emphasis should be on humble thankfulness to God, who is great and in his
00:06:45.860 | great mercy has given us what we don't deserve.
00:06:51.880 | When he gave them, we didn't deserve them.
00:06:54.160 | We don't deserve them at this moment that we're enjoying them, and therefore words
00:06:59.660 | and songs should have no triumphalist or assertive tone, especially not for any military expression,
00:07:09.880 | but rather should have a feel of humility and lowliness and dependence and thankfulness,
00:07:17.080 | along with a suitable call to repentance and need for ongoing mercy.
00:07:24.880 | And the last thing I would say, number seven, in and over everything we do and say in our
00:07:33.840 | worship services, especially the ones that give thanks for American blessings and privileges,
00:07:40.480 | there should be the dominant expression of the work of Jesus Christ, the gospel, to forgive
00:07:47.840 | American sins and American sinners like us, and a call to make Jesus supreme in this particular
00:07:57.760 | service we are in and over the hearts of the people and over the land.
00:08:04.400 | Now those are some of the biblical principles that I think should shape our expressions
00:08:11.260 | of thankfulness for America in worship.
00:08:15.400 | And I realize now I'm out of time and I haven't even touched on what is probably this pastor's
00:08:22.280 | most painful situation is.
00:08:24.640 | I've inherited a church where things don't seem to be in proper proportion, and I'd like
00:08:29.360 | some practical help.
00:08:30.600 | And so I'm going to do that in another APJ.
00:08:33.440 | Yeah, let's go ahead and plan on doing that Friday, Pastor John.
00:08:37.360 | And thanks for the question, Scott.
00:08:38.720 | We'll be back to address it more next time.
00:08:41.680 | As you can hear, we're working through some audio issues on Pastor John's end, and thank
00:08:46.560 | you for your patience as we work through those.
00:08:49.780 | You can subscribe to the audio feed, so you can search our episode archive, and you can
00:08:53.440 | even reach us by email with a difficult question you may be facing in life or in your local
00:08:56.880 | church.
00:08:57.880 | Do all that through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:09:00.400 | We'll return Friday to look at the practicals of what we introduced here.
00:09:05.720 | We'll see you then.
00:09:06.720 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:09:07.720 | We'll see you on Friday.
00:09:08.280 | [END]
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