The loss of family. . .

Over time and even within the last couple of generations, the one constant around the lives of most people was family.  Love them or not, family was the structure that gave support to the person, shaped the community, and built the foundation for a whole society.  Before we get to the role of the Church in this, it is sufficient to say that religious or not, family was the ground upon which nearly every aspect of life was built.  That is not to say every family was wholesome or healthy but that family was both presumed and pursued as the most essential component to the rest of life.

There was also a time in which this was the hidden unity between the divisions of race and class.  While the color of one's skin and the size of the wallet had great impact upon so much of life, family was the same essential and constant force behind all people.  For good or for ill, family was the glue that bound nearly everything together.  Certainly this was true for Black America at a time when discrimination constrained so much of their lives and limited so many of their opportunities.  But that once vaunted institution which spanned time and economic status and race has suffered greatly in the last several generations.  It is no longer the given behind the person or the community or society as a whole.  The Church is suffering greatly because of the loss of family (though, in some cases, it may have been an accomplice in its demise).

Churches were about right and wrong, morality and evil, sin and redemption.  Their concern was the soul and the salvation of the soul was the key to amending sinful lives.  This was true in nearly all the churches and was especially true of the Black churches in America.  When the churches began to be concerned for other things and when those issues and causes began to displace redemption from the center of the life of the churches and the lives of the people in them, things happened.  No matter the race, society became a profound influence upon the agenda of churches and upon their teaching.  What people thought became at least as important as what God thought and in many churches became the most important thing.  

Liberation in the white churches of America was the casting aside of constraints -- throwing off the chains of a strict sexual morality and a work ethic in favor of individual happiness and a culture of entertainment.  Liberation in the Black churches of America became the freedom of their members and from political oppression and racism -- something that turned Jesus into someone different from the God of the cross and empty tomb.  The belief that freedom in the Gospel meant freedom from social and economic inequality, rather than sin, became mankind’s greatest need and the sole organizing principle for many churches.  It did not take long to hitch additional kinds of oppression to this cause (especially in the white churches) until the adoption of a liberated view of sexual desire and gender identity became the natural heir to the Civil Rights Movement.  The hidden cost in this is the loss of family in both white America and Black America.

It is the devil's bargain, as some have coined it.  In exchange for silence on the Biblical issues of the centrality of male and female, marriage, children, and family, the political causes were pursued and economic and political equality became the necessary paths to individual happiness.  Some thought that in order for churches to remain relevant, they had no choice but to go along with the flow.  Religion and politics blurred their boundaries until today religion and political stance are parallel markers of what people think and how they live.  But where is the Gospel in all of this?  That is the subject for another column but suffice it to say that the churches which have adopted this definition of the Gospel have not fared well in the pews, suffering almost as much as the families they helped to sideline and the common values of good and evil that once bridged every community across America.

What does this mean?

According to Gallup, Americans view the following five behaviors as morally acceptable:  birth control (83%), having a baby outside of marriage (58%), gambling (57%), sex between teenagers (35%) and cloning animals (27%).  However, birth control, gambling and cloning animals have all been lower on the scale of morally acceptable in 2026 -- this after years of holding relatively steady.  What does this mean?  Ah, the good Lutheran question.  Who knows?  It could be due to a variety of anomalies in the reporting or who was surveyed or a blip in the thinking of people.  Or, it might be a signal that these are not as sacrosanct in American minds as once thought.  Look at the chart to see where things stand.  You may notice the three behaviors — the death penalty, medical testing on animals and changing one’s gender — which have hit record-low points in moral acceptability.  According to Gallup, "over the past two decades, Americans have grown generally more accepting of most of the behaviors measured by Gallup, which include those associated with sex, marriage, and certain medical and end-of-life issues. However, this trend toward more permissive attitudes has largely plateaued or pulled back in recent years, though acceptance levels on most behaviors remain higher than they were 25 years ago."  FWIW, Gallup measures the poles of political affiliation but not religious affiliation (at least in this report).  I found the most curious thing the closeness in approval given for changing gender, teen age sex, and pornography.  This is an interesting area of disapproval and one that has bucked the perceived trend of sexual promiscuity among teens and the promotion of transgenderism.  Again, I am only reporting and have no answers.  This ought to arouse a spirited discussion in a variety of settings.  At least, I hope so.

 

Praying the promises of God. . .

In nearly uniform tradition, Christians have repeated the Apostles' Creed, the Our Father, and the Psalms as part of their daily devotional routines.  This is good and salutary and should continue.  If you cannot think what to pray, at least pray that.  But there is an eminently practical reason for this.  God does not repent of his promises.  Let me go one step further.  God cannot repent of His promises.

Much is made of God's freedom to do what He pleases but He also lives within limitations upon His absolute power.  He cannot deny His Son nor what His Son has accomplished by His blood shed for sinners.  He cannot deny the self-offering of Jesus Christ on behalf of those who had nothing to offer of their own righteousness or goodness.  He cannot deny what that once for all sacrifice has accomplished in the full and free payment for sin rendered by our Lord Jesus Christ.  He cannot deny the boundaries He has placed upon Himself for our behalf -- from the rainbow reminder in the wake of the flood to the watery rebirth that raises up the dead to life everlasting to the words by which bread and wine feed the faithful the flesh and blood of Jesus.  Praying the promises of God is praying what God has solemnly pledged and sealed with the blood of Christ so that there is no going back.

I only wish I were as resolute.  I am not.  My promises are weak and frail, easily broken and sometimes repented of because I find the cost of those promises too high or they were made in haste or passion.  But not God.  Not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Not the God born of Mary, Virgin mother.  Not the God incarnate for us and for our salvation to fulfill the first promise of Eden.  Not the God who watched His Son suffer in the place of the guilty and pledge His own agony and blood for their sins.  No.  This God cannot repent of His promises.  That is why we pray them to Him and so reinforce our confidence in His Word while pleading what we could never plead for ourselves.

In one very profound sense, this happens supremely in the Eucharist.  We pray the promise of Christ, His blood that continues to cleanse us from our sin and His flesh that feeds us eternal life.  We pray this to the Father not as another offering to repeat the once all sufficient offering of Calvary but as the remembrance His own Son has commanded us to make.  We pray it best by trusting what it says.  We pray it best by giving thanks.  We pray it best by ordering our lives by its life and truth.  We pray it best by cherishing the precious gift of forgiveness which continues to be offered by the merciful God to unmerciful people.  Pray the promises of God.  Recall the history of God's saving acts among His people Israel and their ultimate fulfillment in Christ.  Everything in the Old Testament is about Christ, the promise of God kept in His incarnation, holy life, life-giving death, triumphant resurrection, ascension in glory, and coming again as Lord and Judge of all.

Every morning we rehearse this promise in the invocation of the Triune name of God, in the confession of the creed, in the sign of the cross, and in the Our Father -- even before we get to our own petitions we pray the Psalms, some of the greatest prayers of the Bible.

Another year of grace…

 46 years ago today. . . on the hottest day in July on a Nebraska prairie in a rural Lutheran church, a pastor was made. . .  Most of the men in that picture are long gone to be with the Lord. . . some of us are still here. . . the good work is completed by God's grace and whatever was built upon the firm foundation of Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone, remains.

Christianity and the nation. . .

Somewhere along the way, the uneasy relationship between politics and religion became more comfortable -- at least for churches.  The issues seemed clearly religious to those within the Church, or at least the leaders, but not so much to those outside the faithful.  In face, an increasing number of Americans began to see religion itself as primarily about politics, primarily political instead of essentially religious.  I am not sure how deeply this is felt or addressed but it shows in the issues themselves.

To a great number of those outside the faith and even to some in the Church, the positions of the Church became more a political stance with a religious justification than a theological position with political consequences.  Voting on election day became part of the issue itself and not simply what Scripture says about this or that and then, to some, it became more important than the theological truth itself.  Those within the Church do not see this because it is natural for doctrine held to have implications for how you think, how you live, and, in this case, how you vote.  I fear this is what has happened to the sex issues that have been so prominent in the news both for Christians and those outside Christianity.

Abortion became on of those political issues with a stance which had religious justification but was not primarily a theological issue.  The pro-life movement which seemed to win big at the level of the courts seems to have lost the hearts and minds of people within the Church as well as those outside.  If the primary focus on this issue were theological -- what the Scriptures said -- it should not be so easy to have lost the fight on the individual level.  But that is the point.  Your stance on abortion is more likely to be seen as a political stand than it is to be identified with a moral truth flowing from God's Word.  It became easy to disagree about abortion while remaining united in the core theological truths.  The issue was a free issue on which Christians can rightfully disagree because it was largely political and not essentially doctrinal or theological.

I am not sure how the shift from theology to politics took place but it has -- even in the minds of some within the faith as well as those outside.  This is not simply true for abortion but also for sexual desire and gender.  In the minds of many, the basis for a judgment on these issues has shifted away from what God says to what desire says or what society holds.  These were once theological issues -- exclusively so but with practical implications for life and life within society.  Are they still?  Or are they simply political issues with political judgments upon which Christians may marshal different theological resources to support their position but none is exclusively religious.

It is not simply reflective of those on the right but also on the left.  Christianity with its source(s) of divine truth is simply source material to be used as you desire to give theological meaning to what is largely a political or social position.  Little will change in the hearts and minds of the faithful until and unless this changes and we rediscover that it is doctrine, theology, and Scripture which directs what we hold to be true and right.  Only then will we surrender the positions of our hearts and minds to the judgment of God's Word.  

The question is then when people join a congregation are they looking for a theology that fits their politics or are they looking for politics that reflects their theology.  Are conservative people being drawn to churches which reflect those conservative values or are they drawn to churches which hold to the faith of the Scriptures (which one might think was a conservative thing to do).  Looking for a good fit in a congregation has become largely the pursuit of one in which political views are shared and this comfortable fit beckons them in rather than one in which people confess a common faith.  They tend to stay more because they have ideological beliefs in common than because they share a common faith.  This, according to some social scientists like Ryan Burge, is the reason why membership in evangelical churches seems more stable than in others.  In others, in which politics has replaced the theology, the narrowing of political views has resulted in a winnowing of the membership.

Happy Fourth!

Here in the South it is not uncommon on the patriotic Sundays (nearest Memorial Day, July 4th, Veteran's Day, etc...) for churches to have patriotic services.  A color guard brings in the flag.  Patriotic songs are sung and perhaps a Sousa march is played.  A sermon inevitably addresses the sacrifices of those who paid for our liberty with their lives, on the need for national repentance to regain God's favor upon our nation, and on the special status of America before God.  I do not know if this is done in other nations but here it is common to weave together the fabric of faith and patriotism, at least on certain Sundays of the year.

I consider myself a patriotic American.  I am jealous about the good name and noble virtue of American exceptionalism in the world.  I am in awe of the faithful folk who have stood guard against our enemies and whose blood was shed on battlefields far and near for the sake of this nation and the freedom we value so highly.  I grew up carrying those white crosses adorned with poppies out to the cemeteries of fallen soldiers.  I still shudder when the guns of a military salute go off and tears well up in my eyes at the funerals of veterans when a soldier gets down on one knee and presents the flag to the bereaved on behalf of a grateful nation.  But there is no American flag inside the nave or chancel of this church and there should not be.

It is one of the gravest of sins to presume God's loyalty to a people or a land and to interweave faith and patriotism.  The resulting fabric will not be faithful to either cause when we assume that God is one of us (Americans or any other nation and people) and when we declare ours the only righteous land and citizenry in the world.  We do not do our nation or our faith any good by beating our chests and proclaiming God in our hip pocket.

If you are a patriotic American, then pray for the our President, the members of Congress, your Governor, state legislature, judges, mayors, and all levels of civil servants elected and appointed.  Do not pray for those you like or those with whom you agree but for all manner of leaders in the kingdom of the left.  Pray for their wisdom, for their faithfulness, for their faithful exercise of the powers entrusted to them as servants of the people, and pray for them to be people of truth and integrity who love justice, who act mercifully, and who carry the solemn mantle of public service humbly.  And while you are at it, do not speak so disparagingly of our politicians that no one of good repute and noble character would deign to serve the public good.

If you are a patriotic American, then render unto Caesar the things that are his as your civil, patriotic, and solemn duty.  Don't cheat on your income taxes and call it the great national sport.  Don't sit at home while others cast their ballots for people, initiatives, and referendums.  Don't be a silent minority or majority but engage the issues, causes, and conversations of the public square, guided by principle and faith as well.  Don't refuse to speak circumspectly or to act virtuously but show forth good citizenship as best you can until and unless to do so would violate God's law.

If you are patriotic American, then teach your children our history -- the good and the bad -- and urge them to give nothing less than their best for the cause of liberty, the rule of good law, and the common good.  Teach your children the sacrifices of those who went before them on lonely beachhead, in jungle heat, on thunderous wave, and cloudy sky to protect, preserve, and defend our freedom.  Teach your children not to squander this legacy of liberty in the pursuit of selfish endeavor or to justify lustful desire but to pursue it with honor, integrity, and virtue.  Teach your children to honor the flag without confusing flag and cross and thereby diminishing both.  Teach your children how the government works and prepare them for their own time when they must pass the torch to their own sons and daughters.

If you are a patriotic American, cheer on the defense of the defenseless, the protection of the vulnerable, the cause of the unborn, the aged, and the infirm, and challenge oppression, hatred, and bigotry in all its forms.  Honor life as precious gift and not as the prerogative of  rich, the powerful, or those who intimidate.  Refuse to allow life to be valued by the almighty dollar, the parade of accomplishments, or how productive one can be.  Protect rights without dismantling morality or diminishing virtue or surrendering right to wrong, goodness to evil.

Going to worship on a Sunday close to a national holiday and raising up the flag where Christ alone should reign helps neither patriotism nor the faith.  Be wary of those who intermix and confuse the two for they are prone to abuse one for the sake of the other.  God is not an American but live your life and profess your faith so that your patriotism will not diminish your faith and your faith will ennoble your life as citizen and both will be honored.  I know that there will be those who might take offense at what I have written but a patriot is more than someone who waves the flag a couple of times a year.