July 5, 2009 - Proper 9, Year B (RCL)
This week
Time Magazine reported
that the Obamas
have finally chosen a church home.
They’d visited St John’s Episcopal
in Lafayette Square, a favorite for Presidents and the church they attended Easter Day,
but as they walked down the aisle to take communion
they were distracted by members of the congregation taking photos.
They’d been to 19th Street Baptist,
but there the crowds began to form three hours before church began, and long time members
couldn’t get in.
Friends and aides
had checked out other places, vetting sermons, trying to guess
if they would be a good fit for the first family.
Finally a report came;
the Obamas would make the chapel at Camp David
their church home.
No danger of tourists -
the congregation is made up of residents on the military base;
no risky sermons - the preacher is a military chaplain.
And they still have the traditional Christmas pageant for Sasha and Malia to participate in.
A solution, it seems,
though you do wonder what our presidents miss out on
when they attend a church that basically limits its members to military and their families;
most of us
wouldn’t qualify.
Of course, we all know that there is a formal separation of church and state,
and so it shouldn’t really make any difference
whether our President goes to church or not;
certainly, at least in theory, it should be no more newsworthy
than whether the president wears black socks or gray.
But of course, we all know that no matter what the formal and official line may be
church and state,
or at least religion and politics
have always been tangled together.
It shows up
in the motto on our money, “In God We Trust,”
which dates back to the Civil War;
and in the Pledge of Allegiance,
where the phrase “Under God” was added fifty five years ago
when fear of communism
was at its height.
We hear politicians
drawing on familiar phrases from scripture
to buttress their arguments.
Many of our public holidays are religious in origin.
And the state relies on religious organizations
to provide help to those in need.
As Christians
it can be difficult to work out where we stand on all this.
We understand the impulse
that led our early leaders
to enshrine the separation of church and state.
And yet, our scriptures assume
that church and state, or at least God and government,
are inherently related.
And probably nowhere more than the story of King David.
These last couple of weeks
we’ve heard the stories
of David’s early life.
His calling and anointing
when he was just a shepherd boy.
His victory over Goliath.
His friendship with Jonathan.
His military leadership
and his checkered relationship with King Saul.
And his sorrow
at Saul’s death.
Now we have come
to the fulfillment of that first story:
David, who was anointed as a boy,
is now finally
crowned king.
And it’s clear from the words of the Israelites
who come to him
that the reason they want him to be their king
is that they can see
that God is with him.
And they want God
on their side.
Because if God is on their side,
surely they'll win all their battles;
if God is on their side,
surely they’ll have bumper harvests;
if God is on their side,
surely they’ll prosper and be the leader among nations.
So if having God choose the king means God will be on their side, then they’ll take whoever God gives them - and this time, that means David.
But of course, if you know anything about the later career of David,
it’s not quite as simple as that.
Because having God on your side
isn’t just about being the right person,
it’s about keeping the faith,
doing what God
would have you do,
doing God’s mission.
And the mission of the people of Israel, the people of God,
going back to the time of Abraham,
is to be a blessing
to all people.
Being faithful to God, a blessing
is what has God on their side.
And so a problem develops.
when the people of Israel
get used to having a king,
get complacent,
and assume
that simply having the right king
is enough to get God’s blessing.
No.
It’s not having the right king,
it’s being faithful, being a blessing.
No wonder that by
the time of the prophets
they’re being castigated
for having lost the plot.
They’ve forgotten about the poor, the displaced, the hungry, the homeless.
They’ve forgotten
about being a blessing.
And when they forget their call to bless
and the underlying call to faith,
God walks out,
or so it seems.
Or at least, God says,
“I’m going to have to bless the world
without your help.
And that might mean
that you miss out. I’ll be busy doing
your job.
But of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. Return to me,
live out your call to bless, and you’ll know my presence again.”
We, obviously, are not the people of Israel, the people of God
that are the focus of the Old Testament.
As Christians
we share their God, except that we know God
through Jesus Christ;
as Americans
our political world
is very different.
We’re not a theocracy: our president is chosen by us, rather than by divine appointment.
And yet we face some of the same dangers that faced the people of Israel.
We tend to assume
that because we have been blessed
with fruitful land,
and - at least until the last year or so - prosperity,
and relative peace,
that somehow we are special,
that God is with us in a unique way, that God has blessed us
because of something we have done.
We are blessed,
but it’s not a simple equation -
we’re Christian, so God blesses us,
or, we have a Christian leader, so God blesses us.
Or, when things aren’t so good,
we’ve been bad,
so God is punishing us.
And likewise, other countries might be struggling
with poor government
and famine
and poverty,
and it might not be because of their faithlessness. In fact, it might be because of ours.
It might be
that God has every intention of blessing them.
But God often does the work of blessing
through his faithful followers;
it might be
that we
as the people of God,
have been remiss in our vocation, our call
to be a blessing to them.
We as citizens
who happen to be Christians
do have the responsibility
to pray for our government,
and we have the right
to ask our national leaders
to govern us in a way
that pleases God, to take actions
that make us a blessing
to the whole world,
not because we’re a Christian country per se, but because as a democracy, the government is accountable
to we the people.
And indeed, if scripture is anything to go by,
as we live our the call that God has given us, to be a blessing,
God might indeed bless us.
Because blessing so often
brings blessing.
In the end,
it seems the Time report was wrong. According to the White House, the Obamas haven’t
chosen a church; they’re still looking.
But we can be thankful that like so many before him, our President is a man of faith.
we can be thankful
that he wrote about his own baptism, a choice he made as an adult,
“I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized...kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.”
On this Fourth of July holiday weekend,
as we give thanks for the blessings that we have received in this land,
we remember too
God’s call to us
to faith,
and God’s call to us
to be a blessing
to the world.
© Raewynne J. Whiteley 2009