Being True to Our Baptismal Identity

Has much of Christianity in the United States of America lost its baptismal identity?

Have Christians sold their birthright in an attempt to compromise their identity for he sake of getting along with the Empire?

Have we forgotten who we are and to Whom we belong?

Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann provides some valuable insight for us to consider:

"For I believe the crisis in the U.S. church has almost nothing to do with being liberal or conservative; it has everything to do with giving up on the faith and discipline of our Christian baptism and settling for a common, generic U.S. identity that is part patriotism, part consumerism, part violence, and part affluence." 

When I was baptized my 10 year old mind could not fully comprehend that my identity was about to change for the rest of my life. I was baptized, in the words of St. Paul, into Christ Jesus. These were just words to me at the time.

Little did I realize that my baptism defined me in ways that my citizenship in this or any other country would never define me. Now granted I have not always lived according to this conferred baptismal identity—I had to grow into it as I grew into an adult and beyond.

My baptism may have conferred upon me a new Christlike identity but living out that identity became a matter of maturing in my faith and coming to a clearer understanding of the implications of what it means to follow Jesus in this world.

This has been a lifelong process for me up to the present time.

Brueggemann reminds us that the Jews also forfeited their identity as God’s chosen people (circumcision) by attempting to become Babylonians (during their tragic exile).

They compromised their Jewish faith, their traditions, and their Jewish identity for the sake of getting along with an Empire that worshiped other gods—an Empire that did not recognize the supreme authority of the God of Israel.

History seems to be repeating itself right before our eyes. 

Are we Christians compromising our unique God given identity in exchange for a patriotism that offers nothing substantive in return? 

We fly our national ensign high on flagpoles in front of our churches; we position that same flag next to the cross in our worship centers; and there are some who feel right at home reciting the Pledge Allegiance in those same sanctuaries.

There is nothing wrong with a love of country. But when we compromise our baptismal identity for the sake of Empire then we have a serious identity crisis. 

Brueggemann is right. It seems that a good portion of the church in America has “given up on the faith and discipline of our Christian baptism.”

A baptism that clearly identifies us as followers of one Lord!

And in so doing we have settled “for a common, generic U.S. identity that is part patriotism, part consumerism, part violence, and part affluence.”

American Christians must reclaim their true identity in Christ. We must acknowledge our own unique God given identity that we received at our baptism. 

Until such an identity is reclaimed American Christianity will become nothing more than an insipid version of what sociologists call “Civil Religion.” A melding together of the religious and the patriotic which creates a hybrid version of Christianity whose identity is wrapped in red, white, and blue.

There is nothing wrong with loving or honoring one’s country. But let’s not be mistaken, our identity as Christians is not defined by where we live geographically on this globe, or by which flag we salute, but rather by our confession in Jesus as Lord. 

This makes all of us resident aliens regardless of the country in which we claim residency. 

A Brilliant Idea We Can't Afford to Abandon!

A Theocracy is a form of government in which a deity is the source from which all authority derives (Wikipedia). 

In some theocracies clergy serve dual roles as spiritual leaders and political leaders.

Afghanistan is a theocracy.

Iran is a theocracy.

Mauritania is  theocracy.

Saudi Arabia is a theocracy.

Sudan is a theocracy.

Yemen is a theocracy.

All Muslim countries.

The Vatican is a theocracy.

Obviously a Christian State.

They share one thing in common and that’s one dominant religion.

America is not a theocracy.

It is a government of the people, by the people, and for the the people. We were not created to be a nation ruled by divine fiat or religious law, but by the consent of the people. 

The idea proposed by Thomas Jefferson that there should be a wall erected between the Church and State was genius—it was also a very progressive idea for its time. One could say that Jefferson's idea was far from conventional.

I don’t want a government that believes its authority is given to it by a single deity of one  given religion. I don’t want a government that only recognizes one faith tradition at the expense of all others.

Christianity is not the only religion that is practiced in the United States. But some wish it were the only religion. These are the folks who lust for America to become a theocracy.

There are Evangelicals who do not subscribe to the Jeffersonian ideal of the separation of Church and State. Maybe it's because Jefferson was not an Evangelical. Yet I think Jefferson’s idea was brilliant because:

I don’t want the government telling me which religious values I must embrace and which ones I must let go; 

I don't want the government dictating to me which rights I can exercise and which rights I can’t;

I don't want the government telling me when to pray, where to pray, nor how to pray; 

I don't want the government to allow teachers in public schools to lead my children in prayers or provide them religious instructions patterned after their own religious values;

I don’t want the government telling me what medical procedures are best suited for me and which ones violate some religious law that I may not embrace;

I don’t want the government legislating religious values for the population in general; a one size fits all approach;

I don't want the government legislating moral values;

I don’t want a government that bends its knee to the authority of one particular religion—even if that religion is my own;

I don't want a government interfering in my bedroom nor in my prayer room; 

I also don’t want a government interfering with my right to worship in whatever community I choose. 

Well these are the things that happen in theocracies. America is not a theocracy. We are a liberal democracy (a.k.a. Western Democracy). Our democracy is a government of elected representatives and not of religious autocrats.

Simply put, I don't want to live in a country like Iran or Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia or Sudan.

Thank God for the separation of the Church and State. It’s a progressive idea we all can live with and be forever grateful to the one who conceived of it in the first place.

Thank you Tom!

Truth-Telling: It's a Christian Thing!

Since when did truth telling become a thing of the past?

Since when did lying become so fashionable?

Since when did lying become so normalized in our society?

Since when do Christians get a free pass on lying or turning a deaf ear to it?

What has happened to the voices within our society that hold public figures accountable when they blatantly lie? When they make up stuff? When they stretch the truth until truth is unrecognizable?

I am deeply concerned over the lack of respect that is being given to the truth these days. What really is most unsettling is the lackadaisical attitude so many Christians seem to have regarding truth-telling. It’s as if they just don't care. Why?

Telling the truth just doesn’t seem to matter to folks anymore. If telling a whopper of a lie gets the job done then let’s turn a blind eye and become pragmatists— whatever it take.

There was a time when not telling the truth was considered a sin by Christian people. Whatever happened to that Biblical idea? So now it’s okay for a public figure to lie through his or her teeth and as long as it is not under oath it’s okay (both are wrong). 

Really? We should be good with this?

So what do parents tell their children about how we’ve normalized lying in our society?

 “It’s okay honey, lying is okay if it benefits you?” 

“Go ahead and lie because the more you lie the less people will know that you are lying!”

“Who cares that you are lying, if you can get away with it and not be held accountable it’s perfectly fine. Just lie your pretty little head off”

“Just don’t lie under oath dear, but any other time is acceptable.”

Are these the messages parents want to send to their children? Are these the values we wish to pass on to the next generation waiting to take the reins of leadership in our country and in our churches?

What has happened to us? Have we become so blind to the truth? Even worse, has it disabled our capacity to discern what is true and what is not? 

Have we become numb to truth?

Does truth no longer matter to us? Do we even know what truth is anymore? This should matter to us all.

It matters to me. 

So let’s start pointing out to our children that lying, no matter the reason or who does it, is unacceptable and should never be acceptable behavior—not to mention that it is also unethical.

Let’s raise the bar of our expectations for those who sit in positions of leadership and demand the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I would expect nothing less and neither should you. Neither should any of us!

Jesus once said that we Christians would know the truth and the truth would free us up to live as real human beings. The problem is less and less people seem to be able to recognize the truth anymore.

It’s so disheartening.

What happens to the fabric of our society when people who claim to follow Jesus don’t seem to care about truth  anymore?

This is not a liberal or conservative issue. This is not a partisan issue. It’s not even a political issue. It’s a Christian issue. If you are a Christian, then truth becomes who you are because you follow the One who self-identifies as the "Truth!” You did read that in John’s Gospel didn’t you? If not then check it out ((John 14:6).

So how about some truth! We will all feel a lot better about ourselves if we insist on the proclamation and preservation of truth. 

It’s a Christian thing you know.

Fear is a Really Bad Motivator!

Fear is never a good religious motivator. 

In fact, fear in the religious world is just downright toxic. It’s bad news. It foments very bad religion. So many people have been impacted in horrific ways by the fear mongering of religious Fundamentalists.

Screaming preachers (God's agents of fear) instilling fear into the hearts of prospective converts is something we all should loath. Threatening people with an eternal hell is nothing more than ecclesial malpractice as far as I am concerned. 

In fact, I have never met anyone who was frightened into God’s kingdom by threats of an angry vindictive God who seems to enjoy the thought of punishing recalcitrant humans. 

Fear in the political realm is also as bad, although I must admit it is sometimes an effective motivator. For reasons unclear to me people seem to respond to dark negative narratives spun by opportunistic politicians. But this is a topic for another time.

So for now I want to address the use of fear as a religious motivator.

You see, spreading fear in the religious arena of life is especially egregious. It is destructive to the human spirit. It drives people away from God rather than to him, as some of its fear practitioners believe.

This is why I believe it is no accident that the Bible’s most frequently used mantra is “fear not” or “do not be afraid.” Have you ever wondered why this is so?

Well I am going to suggest that it is because fear has a way of distorting one’s reality. It has a way of creating false pictures in our imagination. Just like little children who are afraid of the dark, fear creates false impressions in their mind’s eye, thus shadows come to life as the frightful boogey man. 

Fear that is intentionally used as a motivator to get people to conform to certain religious values or to accept a particular religious way of life is especially dangerous and toxic. There are countless stories of young adults who have fled from Christianity because fear was the main entree on their church’s menu.

If fear can distort one’s reality, as I believe it does, then it definitely can distort one’s understanding of who God is and how God behaves towards us. 

When a person is exposed to fear as a religious motivator God can become a sulking far off deity waiting for an opportunity to zap the offender with a cosmic taser gun. You may find this a bit silly but when one’s perception of God is so distorted by fear then anything is possible in the human imagination.

Some people rely on the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures) to help shape their image of God. Fundamentalists are particularly prone to envision God through the Old Testament lens.

Of course this is strange since Jesus is a much more accurate example of who God is and how he behaves. When I was a young man I read a book written by a radio preacher who was well known for his Fundamentalist rants. He often bragged about his method of reading the Scriptures with strict literalism.

Well in this book he claimed that Jesus spoke on the subject of everlasting damnation or hell more so than any other topic. Well this is simply not true. In fact, if there was one topic that Jesus spent less time discussing than any other topic it was the afterlife—where one goes following death. 

He indeed talked about it but it was far from being his most frequently used topic.

I have often found great comfort in the words of the Apostle Paul whenever someone attempted to use fear to motivate me, particularly as it relates to God and my relationship with him. Paul had a much healthier view of God than the Fundamentalist preacher mentioned above:

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

According to Paul God’s love is inescapable. His love penetrates every crack and cranny of our lives. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ, not even sin; not even or worse moments in life can pry us from the grip of God’s love; not even our worse day can dislodge us from love’s grip.

With God there is nothing to fear! Don’t let anyone tell you anything different! There is really nothing to fear from God!

Does God Rig Elections?

Please don’t tell me that God rigged this last Presidential election—or any other Presidential election for that matter.

How would anyone know this? How would anyone be so certain that God was involved in any political election for that matter. Is God that big of a micro manager that he has to involve himself in our political elections? Is this all he has to do? Really?

Does anyone have a special communication link with heaven that the rest of us don’t have? Does God tell any one person things that he doesn’t tell he rest of us? 

C’mon man! Get real!

I’m sorry, I don't mean to come across as being flippant. I really don’t. Yet I’m dead serious about this. A friend of mine messaged me on Facebook declaring that Donald Trump is God’s new king Cyrus of Persia. You know that guy, he’s the pagan king who set the Israelites free from Babylonian captivity. The assumption therefore is that God will use Mr. Trump just as he did Cyrus the pagan king.

Being compared to Cyrus, a pagan king, is not that flattering  in my opinion. 

There’s a story in the Old Testament (since some folks love to use the Old Testament to prop up their claims about God) in which we find Job getting a tongue lashing for his false assumptions about how God behaves (Job 38-42). 

It seems that Job and his cohorts believed God rewarded those who lived holy lives and punished those who did not. This is a really bad summary but I believe it makes the point: 

Neither Job or any one of us can make such claims on God’s behalf; we really don’t know what he will or will not do—with absolute certainty.

So God told Job: 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about Job so please play the quiet game.” 

Well, in so many words.

Here’s my point and I do hope I haven’t stepped on anyone’s spiritual sensitivities. But it must be said: 

Making claims for God is tricky business. 

When a pastor tells his or her congregation that God told him or her to say such and such, then caution is called for. I naturally don’t trust folks who claim God talks to them alone.

I find it really strange that any one human being can make such definitive claims for God without knowing all the facts (we never know all the facts). Again, read the text in Job.

Can or would God use an American President or any world leader? Perhaps. Maybe. But I think we are skating on very thin ice when we claim that God literally rigged an election so his man (or woman) would win. 

You might sincerely believe this but it doesn’t necessarily make it true and what does that say about God?

As a pastor I quit saying a long time ago that God told me to say this or that in a sermon. I stopped making claims for God that I really didn’t know were true (deep down in my heart I didn’t know they were true).

Did God heal uncle Joe from cancer? How do we know for sure? Perhaps it was modern medicine that led to uncle Joe’s healing (probably was more the case). We may want to believe that God healed uncle Joe from cancer, but how do we know with any degree of certainty? 

We don’t! We can’t!

We might say: “Thank God Joe has been healed of cancer.” 

But this is different from claiming: “We are thankful that God healed Joe from his cancer.” 

And you know what, I am glad I don’t know for sure. You want to know why?

Because my relationship with God is based on faith and not certainty. There are a lot of things about God I just don’t know (such as when he does or does not intervene in someone’s life or in the life of a given nation or in a political process).

Shouldering the responsibility of knowing anything about God with certainty is just too difficult for me. It really is. I choose to go with faith or trust that God cares for me and loves me; he loves and cares for us all. 

That’s all I really need to know: I trust that God loves me—and all of us!

So please, quit making claims on God’s behalf; claims that you know deep down in your heart you cannot substantiate.

So please stop trying to interpret the unfolding events of life as the result God’s direct intervention—which may or may not be true.

You just don't know. With any certainty that is.

God's Big Surprise!

“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”

 (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

This one line helped  define Jim Nabors as the lovable character Gomer Pyle (pictured above). If you are too young to remember who Gomer Pyle was then perhaps none of this means means much to you. But please stick with me, it will begin to make sense momentarily, I promise.

Just recently I read Paul’s words cited above and they screamed out at me: “Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!”  Now I must tell you that I have read this verse of Scripture perhaps hundreds of times but this morning they took on a whole new meaning for me.

I am sure you have had similar experiences when reading the Bible. You read a particular verse and suddenly the light comes on out of nowhere and you see the verse with new clarity and with new insight. It is indeed so utterly surprising when this happens.

Paul’s topic in the larger context of this verse is the comparison of God’s wisdom with human foolishness.

“For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1:23-25).

When one considers this context it then becomes clear that God has much different ways in dealing with the Evil of this world than  we humans do. This is particularly true when it comes to human aggression and violence (war) that is going to destroy this wonderful earth and life God has created for us all.

So according to Paul and this is the point at which I was so surprised:

“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.”

So the big question we must ask ourselves when reading these stunning words is this:

“Why is the message of the cross foolishness to those who are perishing?”

Well, it is foolish to believe, let alone embrace, the idea that sacrificial love can be weaponized in such a way as to defeat the power of evil in the world.

“Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

Who would have thunk it, right?

This is exactly what surprised me when I read this verse this week:

God weaponized love to fight the aggression and violence in this world. The cross of Christ became the instrument God used to confront and ultimately defeat the violence of the world.

For Christians the beating of war drums demonstrates just how foolish our world is and always has been. We engage in violent conflicts and wars to what end? What changes? Where is the peace (shalom) that the war mongers promise us with the startup of each and every new campaign?

In the nuclear age this is immensely troubling since there are enough nuclear weapons available to us to destroy life on earth many times over. This is the foolishness of the world that is so alarming and to expect the powers that be to act any differently is of course unreasonably naive.


Quite frankly, they know no better.

Yet the main feature of the Gospel is the wisdom of God demonstrated on the cross of Christ. The Lord proclaims, writes Paul:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

    and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

The message of the cross is our world’s only hope of survival. It is the message of self-giving love (agape) in response to the aggressions and violence of a world seemingly gone mad.

The cross becomes our compass bearing, leading us towards a better life based on the wisdom of God and not the foolishness of unregenerate leaders, greedy politicians, and narcissistic presidents.

God help us all to see and embrace the life-giving wisdom of God today.

The Birth of an Idea!

Today I attended the memorial service of the Rev. Dr. Hebert Meza. Most of us who knew this kind and gentle man knew him simply as “Herb.” I first met Herb in 1988 when I first inquired as to how I might become a member of the Presbyterian USA denomination. 

Herb served as the chair of the committee charged with examining me and approving my ordination credentials. He made the process of making that transition so much easier with his acceptance of me as a colleague of equal standing. In fact, he told me more than once that everything would be fine and for me not to worry. 

He had such a way of putting me at ease. I have never forgotten the way Herb Meza encouraged me and gave me the confidence of knowing I was making the right decision to become a Presbyterian minister.

But there was something else about Herb Meza I did not know until just recently and it serves as the inspiration for this article. 

You see, even in death Herb was able to affirm me and give me confidence in knowing that I am tracking well with my understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Keep reading and it will become clear what that track is.

Herb served as a teenage Marine in World War II. He experienced an event during his tour in the Pacific that resulted in the birth of a magnificent idea for him; an idea that he never gave up on for the rest of his life.

One night during combat Herb and a Japanese soldier engaged in hand-to-hand combat, the result of which led to the death of the Japanese soldier. In that fox hole in the middle of the night Herb Meza discovered the idea of becoming a peacemaker.

He claimed that killing that Japanese soldier altered the direction of his life and led him to go beyond lip service to peacemaking, but rather to dedicate his life to that endeavor. 

He also carried a picture of a Japanese woman that he found in that dead soldier’s wallet for many years afterwards in hopes of somehow meeting her and having the opportunity to apologize to her and ask for her forgiveness. 

What many would describe as an act of bravery was for Herb the birth of a magnificent life-changing idea: 

The idea that peace is incredibly important to sustain life on this earth. 

Some today would call Herb Meza a “hero” but I am certain he would not welcome that moniker upon himself. If he was a hero he would be a “hero for peace.”

I never experienced combat in the ways Herb Meza did but I too captured a huge idea that was bigger than any idea I had previously  entertained: 

That peace is a worthwhile endeavor and there is no limit to what we should do in its pursuit.

At Herb’s memorial service a portion of his own reflection of faith was read. I have included it below and hope it will speak to you as it did to me. 

I have committed as much of myself as I could to as much of God as I have discovered along the way. But the thing that has sustained me has been a lesson I learned from the Spanish mystic, Miguel Unamuno, “Most men,” he once wrote, “are Don Juans about ideas. What we should do is find a large idea, marry her, and set up housekeeping with her.” That is what happened to me. And I have come to the conclusion that, for those of us who love humanity, we must not be satisfied to serve the power of any one race or nation. 

We must insist on a larger idea, particularly in this nuclear age. For those of us who have seen that idea in Jesus Christ, we must remember that in the complexity of this modern world only a tough-minded and resolute determination to think all things in the light of the revelation of God’s purposes, and in the style and love of Jesus Christ will see us through. For the world is too small for anything but love, and too dangerous for anything but truth. 

It is my prayer that in this time of bitter division that we Americans will marry an idea much larger than ourselves, or our politics, or our country—an idea inspired by the image of Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace. 

An idea that Jesus Christ expressed so succinctly yet so passionately: 

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

An idea such as this is worth a lifetime of investment from us all.