Three Traditions

I got to travel to Israel and Palestine recently. In fact, I'm writing this from Palestine. Unless you completely don't pay attention at all, you'll know that this part of the world is a holy place for at least three religious traditions and billions of people. I was lucky enough to be there during significant religious holidays. 

Easter Celebration in Bethlehem

Since I'm a Lutheran pastor, I wasn't really able to travel before Easter Sunday - so my son and I planned our travel to visit my daughter just after Easter Sunday in the Western Church. This happens to be a year when Passover and Ramadan and Orthodox Easter celebrations all overlap with each other.

There certainly is significant inter-religious conflict and strife. Still, and not to take away from the problematic realities of this holy place, to my perception it's a beautiful thing to know that while Passover is being celebrated, and while Muslims spend the days of Ramadan fasting before they gather together at sundown for a communal meal, Christians are bustling about preparing for Easter festivities. The way I see it, the reality that each group is practicing the disciplines of their faith alongside one another is beautiful.

Of course I know that there are undeniable conflicts between these religious groups; the sociopolitical realities of Israel and Palestine are more complex than this simplistic reflection can address.

And still, I think that there are worse things in the world than different traditions practicing their own disciplines alongside one another.

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We Are Not A Chrisitan Nation

Ok, let's just get this out of the way right now. The United States of America is not a Christian nation.

We all know that there are lots of folks who think it is, and we all know that there are lots of folks who wish it was. But it's not.

Feel free to argue, but let me articulate (probably poorly) why this is true.

Sure, we might have the decalogue printed on plaques and pillars which adorn public spaces. Arguably, though, that makes us a Jewish nation, since Christians don't have exclusive (or primary) rights to the Ten Commandments.

So, what would make us a specifically Christian nation? The first place I'd go would be the Gospels … you know, the accounts of the life of Christ. Let's take a look at the Beatitudes (Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5; Luke's Gospel, chapter 6). Blessed are the poor, blessed are the hungry, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the peacemakers.

In our nation, the poor and hungry are more often reviled, looked down on, and dismissed than they are blessed. In our nation, the meek don't get squat – a person has to be aggressive if they want to get anywhere in life.

Further, after some religious extremists attacked the financial and military centers of this country on September 11, 2001, we were most certainly in mourning. What was our response? Did we consider ourselves blessed in our mourning?

We most certainly did not. In fact, our response not been to show mercy; our response has not been to create peace. We pursued, aggressively, individuals and groups who are enemies of our state … and we pursued them whether they had anything to do with the attacks on 9/11 or not.

In the years since that horrendous attack, we did not turn the other cheek. Rather, we poured more and more dollars into the military, killing many more people than would be appropriate even if we followed “an eye for an eye, a life for a life”.

Our foreign and domestic policies are designed to place us in the best position relative to the rest of the world; they are not designed with the best interests of our neighbor in mind, as Luther instructed in the small catechism (now my roots are showing).

There are, I'm sure, many more examples of how we are not a Christian nation. However, there's just one more I want to point out from this coming Sunday's Gospel text. If we were a Christian nation, we would take seriously Christ's instruction to place the little children first and at the center. When social services that help children and their families are cut; when education funding is being cut left and right; when huge percentages of the homeless and hungry are under the age of 18, we cannot say we are placing children first.

We as a nation most certainly do not follow the example of a G-d who allows the death of the divine rather than exert power over the creation.

Now, please don't misunderstand. I'm not trying to argue that we, as a nation, have done or are doing anything wrong. Whether we're wrong or right is perhaps a topic for another post.

All I'm saying is that if we're going to be a Christian nation, our national policies should reflect the teachings of Christ – and right now they don't. So let's either change our policies, or admit we're not a Christian nation.

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