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"God's Chosen Peoples"
July 6, 2003 The Rev. Dr. Will Eisenhower
We want to thank God this morning--and we are thanking God this morning--for the blessings that we have received as Americans. We do want for something of the celebration of the Fourth of July to spill over into our worship service. We know that it's right to thank God for any blessing and every blessing that we receive. And we are grateful for the liberties that we enjoy as Americans, starting with the liberty to gather together here in worship on Sunday morning and not have to fret that there's a government official writing down license plates out in the parking lot. And just sort of going on from there, we have so much to be thankful for.
But there are churches in our city, and in our state, and in our country, where it would be seen as very wrong to sing a hymn like "America the Beautiful." There are churches where it would not be appropriate to celebrate a national holiday in a Christian ceremony of worship. For one thing, there is a fear among some Christians and in some churches that if we do that, we're in danger of confusing nation and God, so that we would end up worshiping the nation as if it were God. And I don't know that that fear is very well-founded, but there are others. We might as well admit to ourselves, you know, there is the fear that if we bring our patriotic commitment and our Christian devotion too close together, there is the fear that it would induce us to scoop our national imperfections under the rug, or under the flag under the rug. And because of that, you know, you want to keep national holidays and Sunday worship completely separate from each other.
And let's ask ourselves, "Has that ever been true? In American history, has it ever been the case that we as a nation have not faced our shortcomings because we've sort of hidden them under the cover of, 'Well, God wants it that way.' " And there's another fear. And that is that not only would our imperfections be ignored, but actually our imperfections would be magnified because we would believe that, "God is on our side. God is always on the side of America no matter what, and therefore we can just sort of pursue our own national advantage and pursue it with all the more gusto because we feel like we've got God with us, God blessing us." Has that ever been the case as a nation? Have we ever too vigorously pursued national self-interest under the cover of devotion to God?
You'll notice I'm not answering these questions (because I don't want to make you mad!). I'm just asking them. And I'm saying on the one hand, we want there to be a "thank you" to God for the Fourth of July. And yet we recognize that in some churches you could not do that. In fact, in some churches people would say, "And, Will, you can't wear that tie." And, "I'm sorry. Take that tie off. You can't wear a red, white and blue tie in church. On Friday, yes, with your shorts and T-shirt, you could have worn this tie (if you had wanted to). But, no. Not in worship." [He removes red, white and blue tie.]
So is it permissible for a Christian minister to wear a flag tie in church on Sunday morning? And in what respects would it be permissible?--recognizing that at least around the country, Christians would disagree on that one. And there may be some disagreement in our own church on that one as well. So I'm going to ask us to look together--and you may want to turn with me to Genesis chapter 12.
We're going to work our way in the direction of answering that question by looking at what the Bible has to say (this is going to be very, very helpful) what the Bible has to say about the chosen people. And my title, as we do that, is "God's Chosen Peoples"--with an "s." I want you to see how I get into that as we look to Genesis chapter 12, the beginning with the first verse.
That word that the New Revised translates as "families" is given some different renderings in some other translations. The New English Bible translates it [word unclear on tape]. The Jerusalem Bible translates it "tribes." "All the tribes of the earth." The NIV translates it "nations." And that's not entirely erroneous, because in the intent of the promise of God "all of the families of the earth, all of the tribes all around the world, all of the nations on the earth" are going to blessed because of God's blessing to Abraham.
So, the first thing that God does is God has a chosen person. Here is Abram. God reaffirms His commitment to Abram several times and, in the process, Abram's name is changed to Abraham. In chapters 15 and 17, in chapter 18 and in chapter 22, God comes and reaffirms this same promise to Abraham, God's chosen person. And we have to understand that initially, Abraham did not start going around saying, "I'm one of the Jews and we're God's chosen people, you know" because initially it was not really understood as God choosing a people. It was that God chose a person, Abraham. And we know that for a number of reasons. One is that God has to remake the same promise to Isaac and then again to Jacob. It's not the case that Isaac kind of grew up knowing that he was a Jew. The term "Jew" is not yet used at this point. That's not until the time of Jeremiah. But of course in time--and we see it start to appear in Deuteronomy--in time, the idea of the entire people (all of those in Abraham's line) that we are a chosen nation, that we are the chosen people.
But now watch this: In the New Testament (while in the Old Testament we had "chosen person" Abraham, and then it was expanded to all of the Hebrew people). In the New Testament--and you may want to turn with me to First Peter--we have at many different points in the New Testament, and in many different ways, a declaration that all of the promises to Abraham and to the Hebrew people are fulfilled in a single person, Jesus Christ. If you look with me at 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 20, we have this:
He was destined, He was chosen. Jesus Christ is God's one Chosen Person to fulfill God's promises. Now, look what happens in the next chapter. First Peter, chapter 2, verse 9:
Who is the "you, plural"? The "you, plural" is all of those who are followers of Jesus. So we have under the Old Covenant a single chosen person, Abraham, and then by extension, all of those in Abraham's line. But that's all provisional, leading up to the definite, saving thing that God wanted to do once and for all time in Jesus, God's one Chosen Person. But now all of us who are believers in Jesus, who are followers of Jesus, we are now, as Peter says, "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people."
So on the basis of all of that, we want to ask, "Is there any way in which Christians today ought to look at a single, actual nation--not the spiritual nationality that we share with all Christians all around the world, but a particular nation as a savior-nation, a messianic-nation, the way that the Jews came to see themselves under the Old Covenant?" And the answer is "Well, evidently not." Our focus is, first of all, on God's one Chosen Person, Jesus Christ. And every promise in the Old Testament to God's chosen people is fulfilled by Him and in Him. And we are chosen in Him to be recipients of those things. And so in the first instance, Jesus is God's one Chosen Person. In the second instance, Christians all around the world are God's chosen people.
So it would be wrong to view any actual nation as a savior-nation in an Old Testament sense. Let's start, first of all, with viewing America that way, because at certain times, and even today in some circles, some Christians see America as God's savior-nation, created by God in the world to do salvific things all around the world. Yes, it's true that we can find that in the Puritans who came to America and they saw all of the promises about Zion as fulfilled on American soil. But if we understand that Jesus is God's one Chosen Person, that in Him we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, then we don't want to take any particular nation--not even our own nation, not America, the one we love, and move it up to that second, and definitely not to that first place. First place goes to Jesus. Second place ought to go to all Christians everywhere.
Let's mention a second one: Should we regard Israel today, the nation of Israel, the way that the Israelites regarded their own nation during the Old Covenant period? And there are plenty of Christians who do that. Dispensationalism, which, if you're familiar with that term, that's what we're talking about. If you're not familiar with that term, we won't go into it now. But there is a kind of Christianity that looks to the nation of Israel today and expects all of the Old Testament prophecies to be fulfilled literally in that nation today. And that's pretty much the view that rules and reigns on Christian television and in lots and lots of Christian bookstores around the land--the view that yes, Israel continues to be that savior-nation.
Now, I'm saying that's not how Christians have traditionally understood God's Old Covenant promises. We understand those as fulfilled in Jesus and we receive the blessings of that fulfillment as followers of Jesus. So a second place or a first place cannot go to any nation--not America, not Israel.
Let me say something good about Dispensationalism (because I don't oftentimes do that!). Let me just say that if you are one of those--don't tell me if you are. But if you are one of those who looks at Israel through a Dispensationalist lens, the way that Israel is talked about in The Late, Great Planet Earth, and all of the "Left Behind" books, and most of our Christian television shows, I do think that there's something very, very good in that. And that is, that that approach of placing somebody else's nation so high on your list, keeps us from just making America and America alone too much God's one savior-nation. I think that there is a good thing about having esteem for America balanced by esteem for Israel. I'm just saying that I think that it rests on a misunderstanding of Scripture.
But now let's come to the question that we began with. Nevertheless, can there be if not a savior, and if not a people of the Savior, could God have a special place for Israel today?--not necessarily in fulfillment of all of the Old Testament promises and all of the Old Covenant prophecies. But nevertheless, do we have a God who could raise up a particular nation for a particular cause at a particular time? And we absolutely do. Scripture is full of things like that. Could America be a nation that God has raised up at a particular time for a particular purpose? I'm saying that if we're careful not to make too much of this, that we can say, "Yes. God has chosen peoples (plural) today and we ought to give thanks to God for the ways that He is able to raise up nations at particular times for particular purposes.
Some of us are familiar with Thomas Hayfield's book How the Irish Saved Civilization. That's the kind of thing that I mean. At the time when all of the learning of the ancient world was about to get lost in a dark age, the Irish preserved all of that ancient learning, and preserved it, and held it, and were able to bequeath it to the rest of European civilization who initially were not interested in it at all.
That's a way of saying God had a chosen people, the Irish. Now it doesn't mean that the Irish are God's only chosen people for all time, but that we can be thankful for that. We can be thankful for the influence of the Irish on the English, who for a while were definitely strong in the Lord. And we as Americans have inherited Irish, Scottish and British Christianity much more than any other nation's. But while we're mentioning this, in this church, I guess I would want to talk about the faith of our Czech forefathers who founded this particular congregation. Can we see them as having been raised up by God at a particular time, for a particular purpose? Could they be one of God's chosen peoples? And I'm saying, "Yes." I'm saying, "Yes."
Now, I can't talk knowledgeably about the level of faith in the Czech Republic today, but I know a little bit more about the level of Christian faith in England at the present time. And the people that measure these things say in England today more people attend Islamic services in mosques in England today than attend Christian services in Christian churches in England. So, a nation can be lifted up by God for a very, very important purpose and that may not mean that that nation is going to forever be God's chosen instrument, but had an important role--Ireland to England to America.
Now, where are we as a nation? Could we become the next England in the sense we used to be a Christian nation, but we're not a Christian nation any more? That could happen. I mean, historically we know that that has happened. We know that nations have been very strong, strong, strong in their faith. There was a time when, of the nations of Europe, Germany was the most Christian nation that Europe had. That's no longer true. And that might be true of America some day. That's all the more reason why we want to thank God for everything that we have from Him that our faith will be fresh, and alive, and vital.
All the more reason why we do want to have celebrations on July sixth that reflect celebrations on July fourth. Because otherwise it's hard to see how a faith in the here and now can get passed on to the next generation and the generation after that. I mean, when you start to say, "No, we're going to have nation over there, and we're going to have church over here, and there's going to be no influence," well, that's how churches sort of wither and die--by deciding that what they do has no connection to the Monday through Saturday lives of everyone else. So if the Monday through Saturday lives of Americans include Fourth of July celebrations, then we want to have sixth of July celebrations.
And, if you'll allow me to say so [he picks up his red, white and blue tie again], it may be OK for our ministers to wear red, white and blue. Certainly not if we think we're putting America in the place of Jesus. Certainly not if we think we're putting America in the place of the royal priesthood that is comprised of Christians all around the world. But if those two places go to Jesus and to Christians, and if we recognize that yes, God does raise up particular nations for particular purposes, it then would be appropriate to say, "Thank you, God."
Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask, Lord, that you would give us balance as we seek to relate our Sundays to our Monday through Saturdays. And, Lord, we ask that you would keep us thankful and grateful. And it's in the strong name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Will Eisenhower Interim Pastor Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota
[Transcribed from an audiotape of the worship service on July 6, 2003.] |
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