Dual Citizenship: A Service of Readings and Hymns

 

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

The First United Presbyterian Church 
July 4th, 2021 
Rev. Amy Morgan

Dual Citizenship: A Service of Readings and Hymns

Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote: "Religion, declares the modern man, is consciousness of our highest social values. Nothing could be further from the truth. True religion is a profound uneasiness about our highest social values."

As our nation celebrates today those social values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the values of freedom from tyranny and independence from oppressive power, we, as a church, pause this morning to feel the “profound uneasiness” that arises when true religion must reckon with how those social values interact with the inbreaking reign of God. This is not to say we should not celebrate or feel proud of our nation. We will give thanks for all the ways we see God’s liberating power at work in our nation and praise God for the blessings of our earthly citizenship. But this is also an opportunity to ensure that our highest loyalty and devotion is centered on God, and God alone. So today we will hear readings from scriptures and theologians, we’ll sing hymns and hear songs, that will call us to both gratitude and uneasiness. This is the space we always live in, as citizens of this earthly nation, and of the commonwealth of heaven. 

Our first reading is Psalm 145, which extols the glory of God’s reign. This reading also includes a parable from Jesus, illustrating how the goodness of God’s reign extends far beyond what we can see or expect. 

Psalm 145

I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.

 ² Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forever and ever.

 ³ Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable.

 ⁴ One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.

 ⁵ On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

 ⁶ The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed, and I will declare your greatness.

 ⁷ They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness, and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

 ⁸ The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

 ⁹ The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.

 ¹⁰ All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your faithful shall bless you.

 ¹¹ They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom, and tell of your power,

 ¹² to make known to all people your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

 ¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The LORD is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds.

 ¹⁴ The LORD upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.

 ¹⁵ The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.

 ¹⁶ You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing.

 ¹⁷ The LORD is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings.

 ¹⁸ The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

 ¹⁹ He fulfills the desire of all who fear him; he also hears their cry, and saves them.

 ²⁰ The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

 ²¹ My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD, and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.

Hear the words of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, verses 31 and 32:

Jesus put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field;

 ³² it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."

Hymn: “What is the World Like”

While we, as Christians, hope, pray, and work for our nation to reflect the reign of God on earth, it is not always obvious how God’s reign is breaking into our reality. As the Gospel of Luke tells us:

²⁰ Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, "The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed;

 ²¹ nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you."

Jürgen Moltmann is a German theologian and Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He is most noted as a proponent of his "theology of hope" and for his incorporation of insights from liberation theology and ecology into mainstream trinitarian theology. In his book, The Trinity and the Kingdom, Moltmann writes:

In the pragmatic thinking of the modern world, knowing something always means dominating something: 'Knowledge is power.' Through our scientific knowledge we acquire power over objects and can appropriate them. Modern thinking has made reason operational. Reason recognizes only 'what reason herself brings forth according to her own concept'. 1 0 It has become a productive organ - hardly a perceptive one any more. It builds its own world and in what it has produced it only recognizes itself again. In several European languages, understanding a thing means 'grasping' it. We grasp a thing when 'we've got it'. If we have grasped something, we take it into our possession. If we possess something we can do with it what we want. The motive that impels modern reason to know must be described as the desire to conquer and to dominate. For the Greek philosophers and the Fathers of the church, knowing meant something different: it meant knowing in wonder. By knowing or perceiving one participates in the life of the other. Here knowing does not transform the counterpart into the property of the knower; the knower does not appropriate what he knows. On the contrary, he is transformed through sympathy, becoming a participator in what he perceives. Knowledge confers fellowship. That is why knowing, perception, only goes as far as love, sympathy and participation reach. Where the theological perception of God and his history is concerned, there will be a modern discovery of trinitarian thinking when there is at the same time a fundamental change in modern reason - a change from lordship to fellowship, from conquest to participation, from production to receptivity. The new theological penetration of the trinitarian history of God ought also to free the reason that has been made operational - free it for receptive perception of its Other, free it for participation in that Other. Trinitarian thinking should prepare the way for a liberating and healing concern for the reality that has been destroyed.

Hymn “We Wait the Peaceful Kingdom”

The laws of our country are meant to reflect our “highest social values.” But, like all human justice, our laws can be flawed in execution and intent. The law of God, therefore, is what undergirds our interpretation of all human laws, sometimes leading us to work for change and reformation in our nation’s justice system. Until God’s justice and peace have full reign on earth, we are uneasy with simple and complete devotion to any human system of justice. Jesus describes the essence of God’s law in the Gospel of Mark in this way: 

²⁸ One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?"

 ²⁹ Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;

 ³⁰ you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'

 ³¹ The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

 ³² Then the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other';

 ³³ and 'to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,' and 'to love one's neighbor as oneself,'-- this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."

 ³⁴ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that no one dared to ask him any question.

Following the law of God, as described by Jesus, has consequences. Author and African Methodist Episcopal minister Raquel Annette St. Sinclair explores both the challenge and blessing of living as a disciple of Jesus, writing in her book, Call and Consequences: A Womanist Reading of Mark:

“The call of discipleship is the invitation to follow Jesus. The condition for discipleship is to engage in a ministry similar to his. We are called to engage in life-affirming, God glorifying, agony-eradicating ministry. We are called to partner with Jesus in service, not pain. Pain is a consequence of discipleship. It is not a lifestyle, a life sentence, or a life goal. Pain only signals the level of opposition to ministry. It is not the measure of discipleship; ministry is.”

Hymn “This is My Song”