Intro: Three Nuances
Regarding what happened at the US Capitol on Wednesday, January 6 – I want to avoid overreacting or underreacting and I want to guard against claiming to know too much about what happened or saying too little about what happened.
The first nuance I would make is that we need to guard against reductionism right from the outset. Many people were part of the pro-Trump rally. Surely, many people from many different groups were there for many different reasons. I have no desire to lump them all together and judge all of their motives as one lump. The Lord knows their hearts; we do not (Acts 1:24). We do not even know our own hearts that well sometimes, let alone the hearts of others.
The second nuance I would make is a crucial distinction about the topic of idolatry. Warning people about political idolatry is different than charging people with political idolatry. It can be hard to discern the difference between political activity and political idolatry. We would never want to charge everyone at the Pro-Trump rally with idolatry simply because they were there.
The third nuance I would make is that we should not make the mistake of seeing this political rally as only a political rally. We saw the political and the theological come together in confusing ways. And this is my main concern as a follower of Jesus Christ. When the symbols of Christianity are melded together with the symbols of political identity, then those who love the name of Christ must attempt to pull them apart. That is the difficult work of warning against a kind of Christian nationalism. It is the loving work of 1 John 5:21 - "Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
My Main Burden
My main burden to ask a singular question: “how do citizens of heaven think through the chaos at our nation’s Capitol Building?” I began to answer that question for my people by reminding them of something I had already said to them in a sermon from June 20, 2020. In the application section of the sermon, I said the following:
I read a quote from a commentator that I found striking this week: “Peter is explaining in this letter how social alienation that the Christian experiences from society is to be remedied by the genuine fellowship found within the community of believers” (Jobes, 1 Peter, 131). In other words, when Christians feel that the world is against them because they are exiles on earth, they should find refreshing fellowship with other citizens of heaven. How devilish then, to have citizens of heaven so join in allegiance to earthly political systems that they experience alienation not from the world, but from each other.
But how do we find true fellowship as citizens of heaven? How do we guard against falsely joining in allegiance to earthly political systems? Peter’s answer is that we must all eat and drink and grow from the same source: the pure milk of the word. In other words, the fellowship of believers has to be a biblical fellowship. It cannot be conformed to the patterns of this world, but it must be transformed by the renewing of our minds biblically. Therefore, we must not allow the world’s categories to define the lines of our fellowship. We must beware of drawing the lines politically or ideologically. The lines must be drawn up biblically.
So here is my fear. We are in constant danger of growing in conformity to the patterns of this world if we drink a worldly formula rather than pure biblical milk. In our current climate, Christians often drink something that seems like milk, but it is formula from a worldly can, not the Divine Book. We often have people formed by political formulas rather than biblical milk (it is true whether the formula is Fox News or CNN) (Jason Meyer, “Long for the Pure Milk of the Word,” 1 Peter 2:1-3, June 20, 2020).
One of the worldly formulas I warned against is Christian Nationalism. Today I want to update what I said in light of what happened on Wednesday as people stormed into the Capitol building and Congress had to be evacuated.
I have said multiple times that political identity is not part of our church’s discipleship strategy. The church of Jesus Christ does not become an organization that lobbies for one candidate over another. “Jesus is Lord” is a profoundly far-reaching and transcendent political statement. We are citizens of heaven and therefore exiles on earth. Heaven’s citizens are earthly exiles and thus political exiles. As political exiles, we can speak prophetically to both political parties to hold them to account to Jesus who rules over all of them—he puts his finger on everything and says “mine” (Imagery borrowed from Abraham Kuyper).
Christian nationalism turns all of this teaching on its head and says that the future of the church is directly dependent on the future of our nation. One definition I appreciate comes from Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry. “Christian nationalism is a cultural framework that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life.”[1] The danger of Christian nationalism is my biggest burden concerning what I witnessed on Wednesday. This is where I feel so much heartache and (hopefully) righteous anger for what happened at the Capitol building. I am saddened that many people did what they did in the name of Trump. But I am scandalized and horrified that some people did it also in the name of Jesus.
We must always reject any attempt to fuse together one’s national/political identity with one’s Christian identity in a way that equates or conflates allegiance to country with allegiance to God.
Therefore, all the symbols of Christianity present at that insurrection were deeply offensive to me. Putting Trump and Jesus together on a billboard, or erecting a giant cross, or having a sign that says Jesus saves makes it seem like Jesus is behind the insurrection.
But the apostle Peter learned the hard way that Jesus is not going to lead an earthly insurrection by asking his follower to take up earthly arms.
51 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword (Matt. 26:51-52).
Here is the rub for me. Equating the mission of the church with the machinations of a political group is bearing false witness and taking the name of the Lord in vain. The mission of the church is not to “make America great,” but to “make Christ known.” Yes, Jesus saves. But he saves through a cross, not a president or a power play on the Capitol. The strategy of the early church was not to get the right ruler in power. They made the stupendous claim that He already is. Jesus is risen and ascended at the right hand of God and sits on the heavenly throne.
So I want to encourage you to pray as citizens of heaven for our earthly authorities (1 Tim. 2:1). I do not want you to hear me speaking against engaging in politics or even being active in politics. I am simply sending a pastoral warning to guard against political idolatry. We can engage in politics without trusting in politics. Voting for a candidate is not the same as trusting in a candidate. The kingdom of God does not arrive on Air Force One (as Chuck Colson once said). Our politics should not be our faith and our allegiance to Christ should not be equated or conflated with our allegiance to a political candidate. Deception does not often present itself as deception. Satan rarely tempts people with something like Satan worship, which would be an obvious departure from the worship of Christ. He often masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14), not a demon of hell. He tried to draw away the Corinthians not with a vision of himself, but the presentation of a counterfeit Jesus, counterfeit spirit, and a counterfeit gospel (2 Cor. 11:4).
As a pastor, I know that I am providing oversight for people’s eternity. I do not want idolatrous worldviews to unwittingly seep into our thinking unnoticed. My fear is that those of us who might most need this caution may unfortunately dismiss this word of pastoral warning too quickly. The Lord knows all of our hearts (Acts 1:24). May his word dwell richly in us and be a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. We do not just read his word; his word reads us (Heb. 4:12). And may we protect our precious fellowship as elect exiles and guard against any worldly ideology that would divide us. In the aftermath of this event, may we seek Christ together, worship together, and intercede together.
Notes:
[1] Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry, Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2020).
Jason Meyer is the Pastor for Preaching and Vision in Minneapolis, MN. He holds a PhD in New Testament from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a member of the St. John Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
