What Do I Have To Brag About....

As we pridefully prepare for the celebration of the 240th anniversary of the birth of this nation, I must ask myself what it may be that we have to brag about. We certainly are militarily the strongest nation in the world and the wealthiest. Despite a certain slogan that implies the contrary, we have been and remain a great nation.  I guess sometimes we boast a bit.

Paul reminds us in the lesson this morning: ^“May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

My parents both immigrated to this country from Northern Ireland.  There’s a word that is often applied to the attitude of Northern Ireland Protestant Unionists:  triumphalism.  They take ethnic pride to new lows.  They literally parade through the streets of Roman Catholic neighborhoods on the Twelfth of July celebrating Battle of the Boyne that took place in 1690, 326 years ago.  It commemorates the defeat of the English Roman Catholic King James II by his son-in-law, the Dutch Prince William of Orange. 

Although the ancestors of the foot soldiers of the Battle of the Boyne would like to believe that the battle was waged to protect their version of Christian faith, history has made it very clear that the battle was fought for significantly less noble political reasons.  For all practical purposes it turned the Roman Catholic population of Ireland into de facto aliens on their own soil for centuries.  And to this day the Unionists feel compelled to remind the Roman Catholics of their defeat in the perpetual triumph of the Protestant Unionists.  Triumphalsim! Ethnoc boasting carried to an awful and provocative extreme.

I’m always worried about the potential for either ethnic or national pride to get away from us.  Sometimes we even discolor our faith with personal pride.  Sometimes we boast a bit!

When I reflect on this great nation I try to remain mindful not of pride but of gratitude.  We are indeed blessed.  Unlike my parents who courageously left behind family and friends to come to this country, I was born here, so the United States was a gift to me. I can't say it's something I achieved, something I earned, or something I take pride in. It just happened. It was an accident of birth. But it is one of the many reminders in my life of how blessed I am to live in freedom in this great country. 

It’s interesting that on this day one of our assigned texts comes from Galatians. 

In Galatians Paul spends a great deal of effort talking about freedom, liberty.  Galatians is about the freedom that Christ brings. It is a very pointed and strongly worded letter. Paul wrote it in fear that our rights – our freedom – as followers of Christ could be taken away.

There were a group of early Christians who were present and vocal in the churches of Galatia. They taught that before a person could be saved, it was necessary to follow the law of Moses as well as have faith in Christ. That meant that in addition to baptism as sign and symbol of the new believer's walk with Christ, there was required the rite of circumcision.

Paul knew the requirements of the Law very well. He had tried desperately to live according to the law of Moses before his conversion on the road to Damascus, and it had brought him not liberty but bondage, not freedom, but fear. He could not bear the thought that new believers would have this yoke pressed upon them. He wrote forcefully to the church of Galatia that salvation was by faith alone. Not by works. Not by ceremony, but by faith in what Christ did for us upon Calvary. Thus our text for the day, "May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (6:14)

Paul's choice of words is interesting. He is boasting not of what he has done, but of what was done in his behalf.  Living under the law gave people the opportunity to boast. "I am a good man. I keep the law. I observe the commandments. I have been circumcised. I am better than you. I am one of God's chosen."

Christians can’t do that. Oh, we may boast, but it's like bragging about being citizens of this country when we were simply born here. So you're a “good person.” So what! Are you proud of your “goodness?”  Is that why you are “good?”  That won’t get you anywhere with God. We are not saved by anything we do; we are saved by what Christ has done.  If we’re “good,” we’re “good” out of gratitude for what has already been accomplished on our behalf. 

We're lucky people, luckier than any of us deserve. But that's the point. We are fortunate enough to live in a great nation.  What we need today is not pride, but humble gratitude:  gratitude to a merciful God, gratitude for the sacrifices of people of faith through the ages who have made it possible for us to enjoy the privileges that are ours. We have so much to be thankful for. We are free, but we are also tremendously indebted to the one who gave his life for us.

You and I have all the benefits that go with being citizens of this free and prosperous land. What kind of people would we be if we did nothing to help make this an even stronger and freer country? It's always amazing to me that some of the people who wave the flag so publicly resent the fact that they have to pay their fair share of taxes, resent serving in the military, resent jury duty, and even resent having to vote in our elections. There are things that we must do out of gratitude for the blessings of this country. How can you say that you're "proud" to be an American, and despise its basic institutions?

So too in our life with God. Do not misunderstand. We don’t do good deeds to make ourselves “better” in the eyes of others.  No.  None of this has anything to do with earning your salvation. It’s yours and mine for the taking.  Christ paid our way a long time ago. Just as the blessing that we have been granted to be citizens of this country requires acts of gratitude from us, so too the unthinkable blessing that we have been granted by God through citizenship in God’s kingdom paid for by Christ’s blood is appropriately accepted and responded to with acts of loving gratitude from us.

I don’t know if you noticed in our Gospel lesson that Jesus told his disciples to proclaim: “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”  He told them that whether they are made welcome or made unwelcome, they are to proclaim “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”  God’s Kingdom has arrived.  It’s your’s for the taking.  We don’t deserve it.  You may enter into it or you may turn your back on it, but God in Christ has invited us to become citizens of God’s Kingdom. Thanks be to God.

True freedom begins at the cross of Calvary. Maybe you don't feel free today. Maybe you don't feel thankful. Maybe you're hurting, hurting so badly that you can't see what God has done for you. This table is the sign that God’s Kingdom has come near.  It’s here that we live now as we shall later live fully in the Kingdom of God.  I need to tell you that there's healing here at this table, if you'll receive it. There's freedom here at this table, there's love and understanding and peace. 

We have so much to be thankful for on this Independence Day, 2016. We are free, but we also owe a great debt that can never be repaid. There is freedom at the cross of Calvary. "God forbid that I should boast, save in the cross of Christ my God."

Amen.