O Canada!

Pastor’s Epistle—July, A.D. 2017 A

I hail from patriotic stock. My childhood involved regular gatherings of the extended family around every conceivable national holiday, from Memorial Day through Flag Day to Independence Day. Come summer my Mother would deck the halls with the star-spangled banner, and we even had a wet bar in the basement done up in the style of a Colonial tavern of the sort the Sons of Liberty would doubtless recognize. My high school friends and I would spend the Fourth of July weekend watching films like Gettysburg (1993) or The Patriot (2000) before setting out on our annual tour of the actual Gettysburg battlefield, which we could narrate together by heart as well as any guide.

My Mother can trace her ancestry through multiple Patriots (and a few Hessians) in the American Revolution, and one branch of my Father’s family came over on the Mayflower. So, yes, we’re proud Americans from way back. Moreover, as Christians, and particularly Lutheran Christians, we’ve long believed that patriotism is a good and healthy and godly thing, much like love of family and of hometown. But there’s a difference between celebrating one nation under God (patriotism) and worshipping one’s nation as a god (nationalism). A Christian is obligated to the former and forbidden the latter.

This Christian love of country, combined with the simultaneous refusal to worship one’s country as an idol, is what so baffled and aggravated ancient Rome with regards to the early Church. The pagans thought that they were perfectly sensible in their demand that all citizens offer a pinch of incense to the state gods of Rome, the imperial cult, and the Roman Legions. The state simply could not trust these Christians, who would pray for the government but not to the government. How could their fellow citizens count on their loyalty to Rome if they affixed a higher loyalty to God?

St Paul’s answer, of course, was that Christians made even better citizens than other Romans, because our ultimate loyalties lay with the Goodness, Truth, and Beauty of God. The state could trust Christians, he argued, because they would lie neither for nor against the state. A Christian would pay her taxes, he insisted, not out of fear of the tax collector but for love of good order. In short, loving God more than country would strengthen rather than weaken a Christian’s love of country. Eventually experience proved St Paul right, and in time even the Roman Emperor himself would put aside all claims to personal divinity and be Baptized in Jesus’ Name.

A man who worships his country über alles will eventually embrace tyranny and even barbarism in his country’s name. But a Christian will stand up for, and even die for, the God-given ideals of order, liberty, and human dignity that make good government possible for the citizens of all nations. This was true in St Paul’s day, and ought to be true in our own. And so it is with this in mind that I turn now to Canada—yes, Canada—our benevolent neighbor to the north.

This July 1st is the sesquicentennial of the Canadian Federation, Canada’s 150th birthday. And I for one feel that the United States should just go nuts on Canada Day. Everybody be Canadian for 24 hours. Be impeccably polite, drink good beer, and eat poutine. Read a history of Canada. Try some phrases in French. Enjoy some maple syrup. Don't make fun of people saying “eh.” Watch some hockey. Just be awesome to our neighbors because they really are the best. The longest international border on earth is also the friendliest, and that’s worth celebrating.

Christians are called to love our neighbors, and that goes for the national as well as the local level. Celebrating other countries, especially our closest neighbors, can only enhance our love for our own country. That’s what patriotism is all about, and what nationalism cannot stand. So I’m wishing everyone in our congregation and community a very happy Canada Day this weekend—and a very happy Independence Day 72 hours later. Here’s to God’s true blessings of good government, peaceful borders, and a prosperous North American continent. May God bless Canada, the United States, and all the nations of this earth.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.