A Reflection on Independence Day/ Pentecost 6 July 5,
2015 All Saints
Church, Southern Shores, NC Thomas
E. Wilson, Rector
2
Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10 Hebrews
11:8-16 Mark
12:13-17 for link go to https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+12%3A+13-17&version=NRSV
Allegiance of Creative Tension
While today is July 5th, we are in the
midst of the 239th celebration of our Independence Day of July 4th.
It was a day when our forebearers had to
make a choice. The Declaration is a document which uses both religious and
secular arguments about living in the tension between two or more options of to
whom to pledge allegiance. On one hand they wanted to remain faithful to their
heritage as British citizens, and on the other hand, they wanted to hold on to
their inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as
given by their creator - rights which
they felt were being violated. They began “When in the course of human events .
. .”. Different times call for different
decisions - for decisions are almost never a “one size fits all” kind of easy
choice.
When I start preparing these reflections, I look
over the lessons and the theme of the Sunday and I pray and ask for help in
figuring out what needs to be said about it. Then I ask myself, “So what? What
does this have to do with real life? Who
cares?” I read a daily blog by Tom
Ehrich, and this week as I prepared to write, I read his words, “In preparing a
sermon, read the Bible, read The New York Times, and hear a story from personal
life. Do it all, or the sermon will fall flat.” I remember a quote from 20th
Century Theologian, Karl Barth: "The Pastor and the
Faithful should not deceive themselves into thinking that they are a religious
society, which has to do with certain themes; they live in the world. We still
need - according to my old formulation - the Bible and the Newspaper." What
we say here has to do with what is going on in our lives out there.
When I first came to this church and saw the
building and this sanctuary before my interview with the search committee 147
months ago (but who is counting?...), the guide told me that this sanctuary was
a lot different from the other churches in that there were no stained glass
windows. The guide was right for almost every church in which I served, or
worshipped, or had visited had lots of stained glass windows, beautiful
creations of art. I loved going into the sanctuaries and finding that, when I
was being covered in blue and reds, I was able to deeper into my own personal
prayers. I could get away from the world and deeper into myself. For an introvert
like me, getting away is very important. I have always liked to go into the
dark. This last week my old High School reunion website has had a discussion
about the old movie theaters, the old big movie palaces, which are no longer
theaters, no longer standing, in my old hometown. I have spent many hours of my
life in them getting away and into myself.
 | |
| All Saints Sanctuary on Palm Sunday |
When I came here for the interview, I realized that
I had spent - and still spend - a lot of my life in the dark. However, when I
saw these windows, so open, so vulnerable to the outside world, I decided that
this church’s mission was primarily out
there and the work that I was called to join in here in this place was to
help people learn how to live faithfully in the world out there.
We also celebrate the 6th Sunday after
Pentecost, and I have chosen the First reading from the Hebrew Testament Lesson
reading for this day. I chose the second reading, the Epistle, from the
readings for Independence Day, and I chose the Gospel from the Alternative
lessons for Independence Day. One of the themes of all three of these lessons
is about living where we have to live within a tension.
The Hebrew Testament lesson from 2nd
Samuel continues the David saga as David makes the movement from being obsessed
with his own survival, the meeting of his own ego needs, to changing his life
to public service, to work for something that will live long after he dies. His
life will be a tension between his own private agendas and the good of the
larger community. There are five more weeks of stories from the Saga of David
and we will see that tension acted out each week.
 |
| Kennedy Inauguration 1961 |
David’s tension between his own ego and the good of
the community will continue for the rest of his life, and it is a tension that
each of us must honestly enter into if we are to call ourselves faithful
citizens. That old phrase of my adolescence, first heard on January 20th
1961, still burns into my soul: “My fellow Americans, ask not what your country
can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” It was that phrase which
moved me away from being an actor, the ultimate in getting away from the world
and into the self of a character, moving me to ask how I might make a
difference in this nation, in this society, and in this world.
Yes, it is my country and I owe it allegiance, but
on the other hand, it is not my country because that memory of Kennedy’s
challenge is itself held in tension with the second lesson, which was probably
written between 90-100 AD, which says that our ancestors in faith, and we
ourselves, are “strangers and foreigners on the earth . .
. seeking a better country, a heavenly
country.” It suggests that we are
also lifelong resident aliens holding our real passports in our hearts.
The Gospel lesson has Jesus being confronted by people
who want him to resolve a political tension, and they ask him the question
about paying taxes to Caesar. I see Jesus’ reply not just to the clever
finessing of the political question of paying taxes but to answering the deeper
question of “Do we have allegiance to this world or to God?” I think that Jesus
is answering the question as he does every either/or question - with the answer
of “Yes.” We are to remain in that tension, a creative tension, for the rest of
our lives.
The whole idea of the Incarnation - the Spirit
dwelling in the messiness of the flesh - is that God’s holiness is not just
outside the world but in the middle of all the brokenness of our people and
institutions. How we live into that tension is the subject of a classic in
theology, “Christ and Culture” by H. Richard Neihbur, where he delineates five
different options:
Christ against
Culture.
In this group the Christian remains faithful by avoiding the brokenness of the
world and remaining pure from the corruption. The good news is that these
people find meaning in suffering for their faith and the bad news is that they
tend to distrust the God of nature.
Christ of
Culture.
In this group the Christian is the one who sees that Christ is found in the
religious dimensions of a “Christian nation”. The good news is that these
people build wonderful religious institutions and have a high degree of
homogeneity; the bad news is that these people fight a lot of enemies of their
culture and define Jesus only through the eyes of their culture.
Christ above
Culture.
In this group the Christian is the one who grows through life as a preparation
for final union with God. The good news is that these people are focused in on
heaven; the bad news is that they don’t take evil seriously enough.
Christ and
Culture in Paradox.
In this group we are in “No-Persons” land between the promise and the wait. The
good news is that they are fed up up with things; the bad news is that they can put up
with things.
Christ
Transforming Culture. In this group the Christian is the one who is working to change the
world. The good news is that they change the world; the bad news is that they
are so busy that they do not grow spiritually.
When I first read
Neihbur’s book years ago, I was agreeing and identifying with the fifth option of
transforming the world. However, while I still push that option a lot, I have
come to the point in my life that I see the worth in each of the different
options. There are times when we need to stand up against the worldly culture
and defy it, like the anchorman in the movie “Network” saying,
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” There are times we wrap ourselves
up in our culture and find God in it. There are times when we see things as a
learning experience and preparation for the next life. There are times when we
have to just take it, as Hamlet says, “Who would fardels bear,/ To grunt
and sweat under a weary life,/ But that the dread of something after death,/ The
undiscovered country from whose bourn/ No traveler returns, puzzles the will/ And
makes us rather bear those ills we have/ Than fly to others that we know not
of?” There are times when we feel called to change ourselves and the world we
live in.
So which is
the best option? The answer of course is “Yes!”
There is a quote from Herman Hesse in “Siddhartha” that speaks to me
now:
“No, a true
seeker, one who truly wished to find, could accept no doctrine. But the man who
has found what he sought, such a man could approve of every doctrine, each and
every one, every path, every goal; nothing separated him any longer from all
those thousands of others who lived in the eternal, who breathed the Divine.”
Allegiance of Creative Tension (Poem)
Asking
him for a “Yes or No?
Answering,
he asked for a coin.
Was
he going to flip it with
A heads up for the emperor?
Or
a face into the ground to
Be
stepped over so that he
Might
show that he was so
Total, or so very dead, right.
Make
a choice, they said, and
Tell
us doctrine Alpha or Beta,
Hoping
that we might be right
At least 50 percent of the time.
But
suppose it is about breathing
The
Divine in which all of our
Choices
are redeemed so we lose
The right and find our true selves.
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