Freedom of Worship: A Memorial Day Meditation

As most people who read this blog know, I have lots of frustrations about contemporary American Christianity. My biggest frustration is that we Christians have transposed the call to Christian discipleship with the allegiances of American citizenship. Which is to say that Christians find it difficult to discern between that which is Christian and that which is American with the result that America becomes seen as Christian and the Other becomes seen as profane. The result of this, of course, is that we begin to see American foreign policy as the outworking of Christian mission. And this troubles me very much.

Nowhere is this seen more clearly than on patriotic holidays. For example, in the Summer of 2009, two of my friends from the UK came to Nashville, and on the Fourth of July, they were confused to see one of the large churches on Woodmont flying a literal wall of American flags around their campus. Despite having come from an alleged Christian nation, my English friends nevertheless thought it strange to see a church so embrace a national identity. "Do you have to be an American to go to that church?" they asked.

Other holidays, like the upcoming Memorial Day, also cause Christians to confuse their allegiances. Today I passed by a Presbyterian church in Lebanon whose marquee out front said: "Give thanks for our veterans. They gave us freedom to worship God." Staggering! As a friend I told about this replied, "What does that make Jesus? Chopped liver?"

My friend's response gets to the heart of my frustration. Jesus is completely negated if our "freedom" to worship is dependent on the status a nation's government. Therefore claims that "our" veterans gave us freedom to worship are nothing short of idolatrous because they replace the salvation brought through the resurrection with a pseudo-salvation brought about through the American military. Christians live a story that claims all the powers of violence -- the power that drives all militaries -- has been defeated through the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus, who "at the cross is the man who loves his enemies, the man whose righteousness is greater than that of the Pharisees, who being rich became poor, who gives his robe to those who took his cloak, who prays for those who despitefully use him" (Yoder, 1994: 51). The resurrection was the vindication of Jesus' suffering way -- the way that we Christians must follow if we are to be disciples of Jesus. We Christians can live such a way because we are confident that because Jesus was raised, we too will be raised.

The resurrection then is what gives Christians freedom to worship. May we remember this especially during the season of Easter! Whether or not worship is legal at any given time, the story of Christian history tells us that God is to be worshipped. The martyrs of the second and third centuries stand as witnesses to the truth that worship is not necessarily going to be sanctioned by the state's freedom, but worship must nevertheless be the happy cry of God's people to God, who is ultimate good. Apart from God's goodness, we cannot know happy worship. God's goodness concerns care for widows and orphans, neighbors and enemies. Moreover, God's goodness affirms that the first will become last and the least will become the greatest. Therefore worship aimed at God through the lens of the state's freedom does not work because it necessarily relies on the defeated narrative of the state. A defeated narrative that affirms the strongest and richest win and that claims the state itself can grant and restrict the freedom to worship through force. Worship is not dependent on the state's narrative of militaristic victory but instead relies on the story of the victorious, crucified Suffering Servant. May God give us American Christians grace to live into the narrative of God's goodness.

And moreover still, Christians are members of a body that knows no national divisions. The church is made up of people from every nation and all peoples. Therefore to single out the American military as the guarantor of Christian worship is denying the very core of the church's identity.