Modern Bricks
I had to do two summers at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago while working on my Doctor of Ministry degree. During both summers, I was there for the 4th of July, and both times most of the folks at school traveled to Grant Park for the concert and fireworks show. It was an amazing place- I had first heard about it during the Democratic Convention in 1968, where protesters, affirming their rights of assembly and free speech had fought with the Chicago police… But in the late 80’s, several hundred thousand people- of all races and creeds gathered peacefully in the park to celebrate the nation’s birthday with picnics and then wonderful music, led by the Chicago Symphony. Both summers, American music was featured: Gershwin, jazz, the blues… At the end of the concert, the Orchestra played Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes,” and fireworks were shot over Lake Michigan. I remember looking around at the huge crowd- seeing the ethnic quilt that is our country- whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians- all enjoying ourselves- one crowd- one people, and I had tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat: This is what our country is all about… I was proud to be an American!
Our first reading, as we continue our path through Genesis, talks about “One People, too...” Last week I told you that one of the most important themes of the “pre-history” of Genesis is that “God is God and people are not...” And the way people get in trouble is when they begin to assume the prerogatives that belong to God.
In our Bible story, all the people congregate on a plain in the land of Shinar... They are one people, one language, and they are determined to “make a name for ourselves...” And so they set to work, burning bricks, building a huge city, with a tower in the center that reaches to the heavens.
Quick digression: in the ancient near east, mountains were the places where heaven and earth came together. Think about Jacob, dreaming on the mountain with the ladder that angels ascended and descended between earth and heaven. Or think about Sinai, where Moses connected in a powerful, intimate way with God, receiving the Law.
Where there were no mountains- like in the Tigris/Euphrates River Basin, what people did was to BUILD mountains- towers, called ziggurats, which served as the places where heaven and earth came together- where both priests and rulers- could connect with the gods...
So what we have in our story is the building of a ziggurat- of a tower- all the way to the heavens. Human beings are saying that they are the ones who can connect with God; that they- that we, if you will, are the ones who determine how the relationship with God will progress; that we can combine earth and heaven in one place...
Human beings are united: linguistically, religiously and politically in this effort...
God’s response: you are over-reaching, again! And God confuses the language of all the people- they can no longer understand each other, and the building project comes to an abrupt end, and the people are scattered...
And I have to point out one other thing- the name of the incomplete city is Babel... a terrific and amusing play on the name of the most dominant empire of the day, Babylonia... The place of confused language...
That’s what happens when humans try and play God: when religion and empire building are combined, danger and confusion are right around the corner.
That’s the tension all of us face as we consider our faith and our love of country:
I’m sure all of us have powerful memories- powerful feelings about the love of our country- powerful feelings of gratitude, of obligation to this country of ours, which for all its faults, has provided freedom, stability and opportunity for countless millions.
And as followers of Jesus, we also share a faith which transcends national boundaries- a faith which teaches us all peoples were created by God, all to be valued, because God values and loves all… Jesus says, “Make disciples of all nations,” and God has no partiality to any, except for biblical Israel (not the current secular state). The Bible teaches us that God’s concern is people over countries…
Our faith- our God also generates similar powerful feelings of gratitude, of obligation- of love:
I get that same lump in my throat, and tears in my eyes that I spoke of earlier when we sing “For All the Saints” as I remember my parents- and the promise that in Christ we shall one day be reunited with our loved ones… I have the same feelings at Easter, when the story of the Resurrection is read- or Christmas, when St. Luke’s story of the Birth of Jesus is read. There are times in worship- when Maria is playing, or the choir is singing- or the congregation is singing with the choir descant over it all, and I start to cry!
What’s more, our faith makes a claim the country can’t: God’s love is eternal; God’s love in Christ continues beyond death! God’s love saves us forever! Our country can’t offer us that!
Two powerful sources pull at us: God and Country. Have you ever noticed that the most spectacular buildings anywhere celebrate one, the other, or both? Can you see the potential connection to Babel? Churches and government buildings are awe- inspiring!
Washington, D.C. - the National Cathedral, is an incredible Gothic building, and it is not far from the temples of our American Republlic: the Capital, the White House, the National Archives- and all the monuments…
Or London: Westminster Abbey is just across the street from Parliament...
Or in Buenos Aires, the President’s House is just across the plaza from the Cathedral...
Let’s not forget St. Paul… maybe we’d like to forget St. Paul and our government leaders right now. Let me just ask you this: How would you feel if I climbed into the pulpit and said to you, “My sermon’s not done. But it might be by sometime on Tuesday… And this is not my fault; it’s someone else’s...” But in the city of St. Paul, we see the beautiful and imposing State Capital, and the Roman Catholic Cathedral almost square off against each other- joined, it seems architecturally.
WHICH TAKES PRECEDENCE? WHICH HAS PRIORITY? There are problems when the State makes claims that are reserved for God- or when faith demands the role and place of government…
The Church was persecuted in its earliest days: Christians could not offer sacrifice to the emperor; they couldn’t say “Caesar is Lord,” when Jesus was and is…
Sir Thomas More lost his head because he refused to agree that Henry VIII- a close friend- was head of the British Church… Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake for refusing to accept Henry’s daughter Queen Mary’s insistence that England return to Catholicism…
Puritans in New England, fleeing persecution in England, persecuted Baptists and hanged Quakers in Boston in the 17th Century, in a “religious state…”
Or in Pakistan, where opposition to a law forbidding the criticism of the Prophet Mohammed is met with assassination, and Christians and even other Muslims are routinely persecuted and murdered...
Just five of thousands of examples…
That issue- that problem: which demands ultimate loyalty, God or State, is the question posed by Jesus’ opponents in our Gospel lesson today.
It’s a trick question! Should we pay taxes to the emperor or not?
If Jesus says “Yes,” he’s agreeing to Roman claims of sovereignty in a nation which claims God is sovereign, and he’s finished with the people!
If Jesus says “No!” he’s a rebel, opposed to Rome and can be arrested for treason! Again, he’s finished!
Jesus asks for a coin, and asks “Whose face is on it?” (His opponents are stuck: devout Jews were opposed to “graven images” as idols, even on coins, so they shouldn’t have had one in the first place…)
“Whose face?” “The Emperor,” they say, and Jesus says, “Give to the emperor things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s!”
Jesus is telling us that we have responsibilities as citizens and we have responsibilities to God: two separate things! And unless the government is making claims that only God should make, there is no reason not to participate in the political process! (And whenever that happens, there can and will be disagreements, even among Christians! Good grief, Lutherans never agree on anything!)
That’s why St. Paul can say “Be subject to the governing powers,” even when he’s talking about authoritarian Rome. It’s only when the Roman Emperor Nero begins to consider himself the god Apollo in human form, and demands to be worshipped that Christians have trouble: both Peter and Paul are accused of treason and are killed…
Or, nearly 2000 years later, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church oppose Hitler and plot his assassination because they know the claims of National Socialism and Christianity are diametrically opposed…
Or, fifty years after that, Christian Churches take the lead in bringing down the Communist governments in Eastern Europe; governments which had claimed virtual divinity and demanded the absolute obedience of their citizens.
The American Experiment, which we celebrate today for the 235th time, has largely avoided the trap of combining church and state claims on its people. We have mostly learned the lesson of Europe- or of the Puritan New England I mentioned earlier, in recognizing the danger.
At our best, Church and State have served as correctives for one another. It was churches, for example, that were instrumental in leading the Abolitionist Movement to stop slavery, and then almost 100 years later, lead the Civil Rights movement in bringing a halt to legalized discrimination.
So, too, with the First Amendment to our Constitution, and the recognition of many faiths, the government has refused to allow Christianity in one of its many forms to dominate the rest of the culture, for all the false claims that this is a “Christian Nation, the New Israel, specially blessed by God over all nations,” so long as we behave in a particular way…
We are a nation of many cultures and languages- of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists, you name it. Our challenge as a nation will be to remember that our freedom depends on freedom for all of us, whatever race or creed, however long we’ve been here.
Our challenge, in a diverse and divided country, will be to withstand the temptation to think that only by pushing one, singular way, can we “build that tower to the heavens” without including the other groups that make up our country... Goodness, our language- even when we speak the same one- is confused. Babel is all around us! “Freedom” is defined in many ways, depending on one’s point of view...
Our challenge is to learn to listen once again, to what the people around us are saying. We tend to surround ourselves with those who agree with us, and nod like the monkeys in Kipling’s “Jungle Books:” We nod and say, “It must be true; we all say so...”
Our challenge is to remember what the “General Welfare,” as our Constitution puts it, is and why it matters- and that “General Welfare” means “General Welfare,” from the richest of our citizens to the poorest!
Our tasks- as followers of Christ, and as citizens- are to cherish, honor and work for that common good. We are to pray God’s strength, God’s justice and God’s blessings for us all in this land in which we are so privileged to live. And let’s do that right now- will you bow your heads and pray with me:
We give you thanks and praise for the privilege of living in our great land. Help us to see the trust we have been given- and our responsibility that comes from enjoying the freedom and opportunity we have. Help us to not make our country an idol- a religion. Help us to work for the good of all of the people who call this land “home.” Most of all, remind us that we are pilgrims in this land- that our ultimate destination is to be with you. We ask this in the name of our Savior Jesus, Amen.
