Christians without Borders

[John81]

Christians without Borders
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By David Alan Black
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The Covenant News ~ January 11, 2009
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The relationship between church and state continues to be a subject of great interest and importance to me, particularly the dangers of statism and its inevitable by-product, nation-worship. For example, I think the flying of the American flag in our churches is a bad idea. In my opinion, it sends all the wrong messages. For one thing, it confuses the kingdom of God with the kingdom of man. We wonder, ?Where does America stop and Christianity begin?? For another thing, Jesus? kingdom is not of this world. It transcends tribe and nationality. And it is God?s primary agent of activity in the world. Because of this, the nation-state is always seeking to usurp Christ?s kingdom authority. Allegiance to the nation replaces (or at least actively competes with) allegiance to Christ.

Of course, we might sooner expect a change in our solar system as to expect that Americans would remove the U.S. flag from their sanctuaries. Once again, the church has bowed to the culture. We seem to think that America has a national religion. This is the myth of a Christian nation ? a myth so ably exposed by Gregory Boyd in his book by the same title. What is this myth? It is the unquestioned identification of America with the cause of God?s truth and righteousness. This attitude has long been sacralized in the United States and is an established feature of our national psyche. But is it correct?

Christians are to pledge allegiance to one God only. ?You cannot serve two masters,? said Jesus, yet Americans continue to shift their allegiance to the nation as the fulfiller of ecclesiastical functions. Thankfully, there are some today who are questioning such assumptions. They seek to practice discipleship without borders, refusing to be entrapped by cultural Christianity. We might call them ?Christians without borders,? to use a word-play based on the renowned medical group Doctors without Borders. These Jesus-followers are involved in mission and service worldwide. Wherever they go they represent, not their country of origin, but the new Christian community in which national walls have been broken down by the work of Christ. They are set on taking the Good News to the entire world regardless of the ethnicity of those to whom they bear witness. Missions, for them, presupposes a deep sense of universal grace.

In the face of growing nationalism on the one hand and ecclesiastical nearsightedness on the other, is it asking too much of American evangelicals to forego mixing politics and religion? If a church should feel it absolutely impossible to remove the U.S. flag from its place of meeting, an alternative might be to fly the flags of other nations alongside it, especially the flags of those nations in which the congregation has been involved in missionary outreach and service. What a testimony that would be to a watching world that Christ?s kingdom is not a national clique but a transnational community!

The story is told of a father who was eager to read his newspaper but was being pestered by his small son. In order to distract the boy he took from a magazine a page on which was printed a map of the world. Then he cut out each country of the world from the map and gave the pieces to the boy to put back together again. Expecting that this would take considerable time, the father settled back in his chair. A few moments later, however, he noticed that the little boy had completed the project. When asked how he had assembled the map so quickly, the boy replied, ?It was simple. On the other side of the page was the picture of a man. I just put the man together, and then the world fit together.?

There is reason for thinking that if Christians could look, not at their own country, but at a man ? the God-Man whose kingdom unites people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation ? there would be no need for displays of national patriotism in their churches. By its very nature, the church is different from any other society on earth. And the cross, not the flag, is the point of intersection between the church and the world. The cross of Jesus Christ is the secret of being in the world without being of it. It is the source of freedom for us to be given to the world as broken bread and poured-out wine. It is our banner, our emblem, our flag of allegiance. Let us fly it high!

http://www.covenantnews.com/daveblack090111.htm

[Alimantado]

*bump* for this article. Would be good to hear some people's thoughts on it.

[John81]

*bump* for this article. Would be good to hear some people's thoughts on it.

Agreed, but some find it a terribly touchy subject they don't want to discuss.

[Guest Guest]

At our church building (as, after all, the Christians are the church), we have the Christian flag and the American flag at the front of the sanctuary, and then have some flags from a few other nations at the back (I think we have France, Britain, and a few others).

I have nothing against being patriotic, and I am happy to live in America. However, we should remember our allegiance is first to Christ and His Kingdom, and then to our country.

What I am about to say may be a bit touchy to some, but I think I need to say it:
Some people seem to many times forget we are merely travellers in this land; it is not our real home. I am reminded of the past U.S. Election, where the candidates were, to be blunt, the evil and the very evil (McCain, Obama).
Even though the majority of Bible-believing Christians disagreed with McCain on many, many issues, a lot of them voted for him nonetheless. Why? Because he was the "lesser of the two evils".
I imagine some would say it is our patriotic duty to vote for someone in the election. I say this...

If any man running for the office of President of the U.S.A. holds a very large assortment of evil and incorrect beliefs (as McCain and Obama did), we should not vote for him. The lesser of the two evils is still evil.
And our allegiance first is to Christ's Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven, then it is to the Kingdom of Man (or country) which we live in.

Excellent article, Brother John. Thanks for sharing.
God bless,
Crushmaster.

[PreacherE]

I agree with much of what was said in the article. Many churches do have a practice of almost worshiping this nation. The church I was in previously was one such church where statism (as Mr. Black put it) was a big deal. This church had no less than 11 American flags in the sanctuary with only 1 Christian flag to be seen. At one time they had an American flag on the back wall that was approx. 40ft. tall. The sanctuary wasn't even that tall except maybe at its highest point. That's not including all the other American flags throughout the rest of the building (and it was a big building).

I don't have anything against a church having an American flag in the sanctuary. I'm glad to be an American and I thank God for His grace in allowing me to be born and raised here rather than in a pagan country. However, I'll not put my love for what this country once was above my love for the Saviour. If a church wants to fly an American flag then that's between them and God. Same goes for a church that doesn't fly the flag.

In Christ,
PreacherE

[John81]

Crushmaster and PreacherE!!!

[JerryNumbers]

Would this man also condemn men who serve in Americas military service? I believe he would and would state, no man can serve two masters to back his view up.

Does not the flag of this Unites States, as least so far, represent freedom to worship and spread the Gospel as we feel is right?

Ugh, I don't know of any Christians who worship the American flag nor this United States while attending church services. By the way, we do not have a flag in our church, but I have no problem with those who do.

[HappyChristian]

Our church has a Christian flag and an American flag in the auditorium, and one of each flying outside our buildings (except in high wind...).

We don't worship the flag, nor the country. But we are proud to be Americans. I still believe we have the best country on earth (sorry Al...I'm sure you feel the same way about yours! :Green ).

And we support missionaries all over the world - many sent out from our church. We believe in spreading the gospel around the world. I don't agree that if we pledge allegiance, as Americans, to our flag, that we are putting that above or equal to Christ. Some may, but not everyone. JMO.

[John81]

I don't believe this man is condemning a healthy sense of patriotism, or of serving in the military. It seems he is aiming his thoughts at those churches which wrap the Bible with the American flag. There are some churches where the pastor often preaches the glory of America, where American patriotism and the Word of God are so intertwined that one can't separate the two.

I've heard a few, and read many more, sermons which were more like political speeches or some sort of "America: Love it or leave it" sort of speech.

There is nothing wrong with being thankful to be an American, to be willing to serve in the military or other honorable positions within America. It's when folks tie love for America (all too often to the point of saying the government must be loved and backed no matter what they do) to love for God that trouble is underfoot.

Our citizenship in heaven should always be above our citizenship in America. Our commitment to God should always come before our commitment to America or the government.

Our church has one American flag and one Christian flag. I have no problem with that. Our pastor, myself and the rest of the congregation love America, but there are no "flag waving sermons", no false preaching of how America is the hand of God or some sort of second Israel, etc. The Word of God always takes center stage. Our pastor will sometimes praise something praiseworthy with regards to America or will point out someting wicked (homosexual marriage, for example) and call us to prayer.

[PreacherE]

I agree with John that this man is not condemning having a normal sense of patriotism in this article, but rather those who take their patriotism to the extreme. They believe that you can't be a good Christian unless you are behind this nation 110%. The church I was in previously, the pastor many times would make statements similar to the statement John made - "America: Love It or Leave It." It's sad but there are churches which behave and preach this way.

In Christ,
PreacherE