July 7, 2008
Flag waving
Today is Independence Day and I had the opportunity to ride in the parade with our church float. It was great to see our young people sitting in the trailer pulled by Dave Coon’s truck. They were excited about the work they are going to do in the next week at Reach Work Camp. They shared their enthusiasm with the crowds lining the parade route. It was a wonderful experience.
The two candidates for President have been talking about patriotism over the last week or so. There has been a lot of back and forth between the two political camps about what it means to be patriotic. When you think about the word, what thoughts come to your mind?
As I think about the word I think about who and what we are as a nation; where we have been, where we are and where we might be going. Patriotism is more than flag waving. It is fine to wave the flag or to wear a flag pin, but true patriotism goes much deeper as it seek to understand what it is that holds us together as a people.
Let me suggest that being patriotic means that we cherish the ideals on which the nation was founded; those things spoken of in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We take seriously these things and seek in our individual and corporate life to live up to them
Patriotism is not the personal possession of any one political party or candidate. True patriotism draws people from various ways of thinking together and seeks to have dialogue about who and what we are as a nation and a people.
Christians have a special responsibility to understand that the Sovereign God we worship and adore in Jesus Christ is not a national god. Our Hebrew ancestors tried to make it clear that the God they worshipped was larger than the nation of
This Sovereign God calls us to worship and adore Him above all else. This doesn’t mean that we don’t also love our native land and what it stands for. It does mean that no nation can ever be confused with God and that all people and nations stand under God’s judgment and grace. When we understand this, then we can wave the flag for all its worth.
John
