Pray For Their Troops by Brady

How Christianity relates to matters of the “state” has been a longstanding debate within the church. I would hope you have suffered long and hard over the idea of what it means to be a citizen of Heaven and an American citizen. The earliest Christians certainly struggled over this same topic. You have Jesus’ famous phrase saying “Give Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s.” You also have Paul who says we should subject ourselves to the laws of the land. N.T. Wright has actually done a lot of work to show how the Gospels may actually have been extremely subversive towards the Roman Empire. You even have Revelation which when reading it in its proper context appears to be against Rome as well. So overall, how we live in the world while not becoming consumed by the world is not new in any way, shape or form.

The more I think about the direction of the church lately, I think we are having an identity crisis and are trying to figure out who we actually are as the Body of Christ. We had a pastor running for president and a debate on whether it would be ok to vote for a Mormon. We also hear that if (fill in the blank) gets elected, the whole world is going to end. The overwhelming state of mind in America is fear when it comes to politics today. Commercials prey on our fears (side note: this goes way beyond politics, just see any insurance commercial) and exploit our doubt.

But even beyond the presidential primary race, I have been thinking about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the popular slogan “pray for our troops.” Now, let me be clear. I am not an anti-patriot. I actually think it is extremely noble and worthwhile to pray for the troops in the war. But what I am confused about as my Christ-following life clashes with my American mindset is, shouldn’t our slogan also include “pray for their troops, too.” In Matthew 5:44-45, Jesus says, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” He goes on to say that even the most conniving people pray for those they love and care about the people on their own team. Why wouldn’t they?

I would argue that this statement by Jesus could really sum up the Gospel in its entirety. You may disagree, but this is the most typical thing that Jesus consistently did during his time on earth, and it is the most atypical thing usually taught by other faiths or value systems. Jesus completely revolutionized the way we see the world, and this is one of the main ways he turned our world upside down. This statement is, in fact, distinctly tied to Jesus Christ and what it means to be his disciple.

So, there is where the head-on collision takes place: is a catchy American slogan or an ancient teaching of Christ more important to follow? A couple of weeks ago, I said in one of my sermons that America is not the savior of the world, Jesus is. Barack, Hilary, McCain, Bush, or anyone else you can think of is not going to save you from much of anything. Somewhere we have got to start thinking outside of our normal mode of American orthodoxy and get closer to the actual teachings of Christ. The truth is that it is biblical to pray for Al Qaeda or Iraqi soldiers (and praying that they die doesn’t count either). They are the very definition of our enemy today, and Jesus told us to not only pray for them, but also love them. Now that’s tough teaching in light of the times. And that is exactly the kind of teaching that got Jesus nailed to the cross. Do you still want to follow him? I hope so…