Tag: Founding Fathers

AN ECUMENICAL PEOPLE OF GOD

While staying with our son, daughter-in-law and grandkids this past August, we were able to see many of our national shrines and memorials in Washington DC and the surrounding area. We were blessed to be able to visit the giant obelisk monument to the Father of our Country, George Washington, at the National Mall area. We also visited Mount Vernon, George Washington’s beloved home in Alexandria VA, of which he famously said, “I’d rather be at Mount Vernon with a friend or two about me, than to be attended at the Seat of Government by the Officers of State and the Representatives of every Power in Europe.” We were also able to see the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, the Smithsonian Museum of American History (which displays the actual Star-Spangled Banner of our national anthem), and the Smithsonian Museum of Air & Space. In addition, we visited the US Naval Academy and harbor area of Annapolis MD, and we saw Fort McHenry (of Star-Spangled banner fame) in Baltimore.

As we traveled around these amazing historical sites, one thing I took note of was the fact that our national founding (although imperfect) was deeply rooted in biblical faith. However, our Founders made sure that our establishment was nonsectarian. While they repeatedly appealed to God in our founding documents (speaking of our “Creator” and our “Lord”), and while they regularly addressed God in our founding traditions (Congressional prayer, oaths of office, and so on), they also made sure that there would be no establishment of a state-run religious denomination. Therefore, I observed during our trip a clear Judeo-Christian rootedness on display at all of our national shrines and memorials, but this was accompanied by a clear interdenominational, nonsectarian and ecumenical emphasis according to the clear direction of our Founders.

By the way, the word “ecumenical” (oikoumene in Greek) literally means “the whole inhabitable earth” — but it refers to the concept that the entire Christian Church of all its various denominations should work together to develop closer relationships and to promote Christian unity according to the biblical High Priestly Prayer of Jesus in John, chapter 17, verses 20-26.

So all of this stuff got me thinking about our ecumenical relations right here where we live as Mt. Olive Lutheran Church. I think of Via De Cristo (VDC), the spiritual retreat ministry our congregation participates in. While it’s mostly a retreat ministry involving Lutherans, rooted in the covenantal and sacramental theology of the Lutheran branch of Christianity, VDC also draws in people from many different denominations of our Lord’s Holy Church. I also think about the Lift Up Crescenta Valley ecumenical association we are a part of, as well as all the various ecumenical partnerships we support like the Bailey Human Care Center.

Like the ark of the Prophet Noah and the fishing boat of the Apostle Peter, all the denominations of the Christian Faith constitute the holy life raft for all believers and followers of Jesus Christ in a world deluged with the floodwaters of hopelessness and spiritual death. In fact, the Christian ecumenical movement is often symbolized by a boat, representing that all the people of all the denominations of the Church of Jesus Christ are in the same spiritual boat together.

So essentially, the various branches of the Christian Church are UNITED IN THE ESSENTIALS of our Christian Faith: 1) Jesus of Nazareth was and is more than a man, even much more than a prophet or priest or king, 2) Jesus is the only-begotten divine Son of God, 3) Jesus freely gave of himself in sacrificial love to be the once-and-for-all-time offering of atonement for our sins, 4) Jesus was crucified, was dead, was buried, then he rose from the grave and ascended into heaven, 5) Jesus is our Lord and Savior, 6) We proclaim the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life by the blood of Jesus, and 7) We do good works of lovingkindness and service in the name of Jesus. However, we also have DIVERSITY IN THE NON-ESSENTIALS of our Christian Life: that is, diversity of denominational practices related to sacraments, ordination, worship, piety, organizational structures, etc.

Therefore, as the various branches of the Christian Church have diversity in the non-essentials but unity in the essentials, we should also have CHARITY IN ALL THINGS. We can have a joyful and charitable spirit with one another as we agree to disagree regarding the non-essentials, because we share together in the all-surpassing seven Christian essentials I listed above.

“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:22-23)

Together in Christ,  Pastor Tim

IN GOD WE TRUST

When we were little children, we viewed our parents through an almost entirely positive lens.  They could do nothing wrong in our eyes.  When we became adolescents, we viewed our parents through an almost entirely negative lens.  They could do virtually nothing right in our teenage eyes.  And periodically during adolescence, teenagers will slip in and out of a childlike orientation toward their parents as they grow.  However, if we had a loving set of parents, we matured to later realize as adults that our parents are basically good and decent people despite their various imperfections.

In a similar way, our United States of America has arguably been in its adolescent phase of development in recent decades as our national life has been marked by a great deal of adolescent-like negative angst about our national history and heritage.  So while some view our USA as virtually doing no wrong in the world, there are many who now view our USA through an almost entirely negative adolescent lens. 

Of course, the truth is that there is no such thing as a perfect nation.  All nations have negative aspects to their histories and present realities.  Yes our USA is not perfect, but our history and heritage are not a horrible travesty either.  The USA has been, by far, and continues to be, by far, a great blessing to our world.  Therefore, it is indeed right that we should have a healthy sense of patriotism for everything that is good and laudable about our national founding and history and heritage.  While acknowledging the bad historical aspects, and learning from them, we uplift and give thanks every Thanksgiving for the good historical aspects of our nation above all else, and it is these many good aspects of our nation that our national symbols (especially the US Flag) point toward and represent.

As we are on the brink of the yearlong Presidential campaigning season for 2020, I believe it is important to be mindful of the fact that our national inheritance is truly a great good — although we have at times failed to live up to our highest ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers.  I also believe it is important to remember that, as our two national mottos declare, “In God We Trust” and “E Pluribus Unum” (meaning “out of many, one”).

In his book Mere Christianity, the great Christian author and lay theologian C.S. Lewis wrote the following… “God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.”

As the people of the Church of Jesus Christ, we know this wonderful statement by C.S. Lewis to be most certainly true of both individuals and entire nations.  So no matter what, we recognize that it is in God that we place our trust and hope, first and foremost, because our first citizenship is in God’s universal kingdom of grace and truth.  As it says in Philippians 3:18-20… “For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

And we also ought to recall the following biblical admonition from Psalm 146:3-5… “Do not put your trust in rulers, in mortals, in whom there is no salvation. When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish. Happy are those whose salvation is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.”

The font of life and salvation is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Therefore, no matter the outcome of this next year within our national life together, let us always remember our first citizenship in God and our true salvation in, with and through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In God We Trust!  Thanks and Praise Be to God!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Together in Christ,  Pastor Tim