Here I Go...

Ohhhh Church and the 4th of July. So many churches are covered in American flags! They have flags on their walkways, in their windows, on their signs, over their alters! I’ve heard stories of American flags being carried down the isles in processions during church services! And everyday, we pass so many churches whose signs read: “God Bless America”, “God Bless Our Troops” or (my personal favorite, spotted yesterday in Louisa) “USA- God’s Gift”.

I have to laugh because otherwise I have to cry. The idolatry is obscene! God has begged us to disarm, Jesus has pleaded with us to love our enemy, we’ve had it explained to us again and again that love for empire is nothing more than worldly idolatry and that, while we still cling to it, we have no hope of knowing the Beloved Community, the Upside Down Kingdom.

How many times must we be told that we cannot serve two masters?

No matter who that person may be, no matter how great their promises seem?

All images courtesy of Google Image Search and found in approximately 3 seconds.

I struggle a lot with the fact that these are the images that are conjured up in folks’ minds when they hear the word “Christian”. Hillary and I talk a lot about identity and labels. I struggle a good deal with how important words and labels are. On the one hand, labels often seem to encourage stereotypes and breakdown communication and understanding, on the other hand, reclaiming titles and labels can be really liberating, both for people and for the words themselves.

Christians in general are really frustrating to me- MOST especially, the folks who define themselves as radical Christians, who seem to share a lot of the same values and goals that I do. But I’m so often disappointed by where these communities fall short (let’s remember the PAPA Festival incidents). It often gets to the point where I start thinking I cannot call myself a Christian because I cannot identify with so many people in this movement. I know that’s not true, but it’s so disheartening to be seeking something that feels so right, that I know is so right and be be constantly disappointed by every community I encounter.

And then I read my Daily Devotion for today:

“Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of any Christian community, no matter how honest, how serious, and how committed they may personally be.

God hates [okay, I’m pretty skeptical of folks making sweeping statements about what God hates, but bear with it…] dreaming, for it makes people proud and demanding. Those who have dreamed up an image of a community demand its fulfillment by God, by others, and by themselves. They come into the fellowship of Christians as demanders and set up their own law. They act as if it is they who have the task of creating the Christian community as if their dream image is supposed to obligate other people. Anything that does not go according to their will is called failure. When their dream comes to nothing, they see the community falling apart.

Because God has already laid down the only basis for our community, because God- long before we entered into life together with other Christians- has joined us together with them into one body in Jesus Christ, therefore, we come into life together with other Christians, not as demanders but as grateful receivers. We thank God for what [God] has done with us and for us. We don’t complain about what God has not given us. Rather, we thank God for what [God] gives us daily.”

Well, that gives me a lot to think about.