Musings

The question whether we are or can be a Christian nation is getting much attention in our current political climate.  I don’t know to what extent I have anything to add, however, I do have some questions and a few thoughts.

My last post was a personal reflection in which I expressed that I seek to place Jesus at the center of my life and actions.  Perhaps in exploring what kind of nation a Christian Nation might be, we need to ask to what extent is Jesus at the center of this discussion?  It might be more important to first discuss what it means to live Christianly, meaning, in what ways do we live out being centered in Jesus and living out what is important to Jesus? 

That is a relevant question – for Jesus can often be lost amid our expressions of our beliefs and dogmas, our political and theological views. I once pastored a congregation that was comprised of theological liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats, congregants from many different denominational backgrounds, expressing a number of issues that might have divided other congregations.  What held us together was not compromising our beliefs and opinions, but seeking to have potentially polarizing conversations as if Jesus was an integral part of the discussion, because as a congregation we confessed that Jesus was our center (even though we understood Jesus in different ways).  Jesus held us together as a congregation.  The conversations were not easy, nor easily resolved, many remained in discussion, but we sought to discern how the Spirit was leading us to listen and engage one another because we valued one another as being committed to Christ Jesus as our center. 

I also wonder how we use the term Christian.  Do we identify as Christian in order to set ourselves apart from people of other religions, say Judaism, Islam, Hinduism?  Yes, we have differing beliefs and practices, but to use the term Christian to create barriers between human beings is to miss the point of what being Christian is and perhaps is an aberration of what we hope the term might mean – it is more than what we believe.

On the other hand, if we use the term Christian to identify and align ourselves with Jesus, then we might begin to understand that we are to continue the mission Jesus came to do (and continues to do through the Spirit).  If Christian means that in Jesus we are different in how we are human, acting humanely, living humanely, having compassion for those who are poor, imprisoned, sick, strangers (see Matthew 25: 34-40), living as if God is active and present in all that we are and do, then this term has significance because it is more than an ideology. 

So perhaps before we begin seeking to be a Christian nation, perhaps we first need to take a step back to understand what it means to live Christianly, to live in the way of Jesus.  We need to consider from where we draw our understanding of what it means for us to live Christianly – from Facebook or the Gospels?  We need to ask to what extent is Jesus foundational to who we are as human beings?  Do we seek to somehow align Jesus to what we value, to affirm what is important to us, our way of doing things, or, more rather, and more importantly, do we seek to align ourselves to Jesus, with what Jesus values, with how Jesus demonstrated through his life and ministry the way we are to be humane and loving human beings?  In being Christian are we focused on what is important to Jesus so that it might be important to us?  There is a difference.

Before we can understand what a Christian nation might look like, we need to first understand what it means to be ones who learn from Jesus and live like Jesus, as followers who commit themselves to him as disciples.  It means perhaps first reflecting upon and embracing this statement of Jesus’: “If anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever would save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit someone if they gain the whole world and forfeit their soul? Or what shall a person give in return for their soul?” (Matthew 16: 24-26).

I can get caught up in wanting to express my opinions, my perspectives – yet, I am being reminded that if I want to be the change that I want to see in the world, this nation, my community, my family, then I need to first and foremost be deeply connected to Jesus, for me to be centered in him, so that he might live through me (see Galatians 2:20).