This week’s sermon steps outside the appointed lectionary for Year B and uses lessons appointed for a day to celebrate God’s gift of a nation and to hear what our Lord teaches about the Christian and his relationship to the Government.
How to be a Perfect Patriot
In the Name of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7, 17: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up….Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
The Christian wrestles with his relationship to the government. Though government is from God, as Paul wrote, and though Jesus told us render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, government is also operated by sinful people, many of whom wish to legislate in ways directly contrary to God. Then we hear Peter say, We must obey God rather than men, and know that when a divinely-established government commands us to sin, we must disobey the government, as Peter did when ordered to stop preaching the resurrection.
We wrestle with our relationship to our governments. Following the Fourth Commandment, we want to honor, serve, and obey them. Following the First Commandment, we want to honor, serve, and obey God above all. We want to be faithful Christians. Yet we also want to be perfect patriots. How can we be both? Through Moses, the LORD offers a way. Today, through Moses we learn HOW TO BE A PERFECT PATRIOT. LOVE GOD FIRST AND FULLY. KEEP GOD’S COMMANDS COMPLETELY.
Our text begins with the cornerstone of Judaism, the Shema. Shema is the first Hebrew word of verse four, “Hear.” It’s the basis of Judaic monotheism. It’s the basis of Christian monotheism. There is only one God. Though He reveals Himself as three persons, there are not three gods, but one. And this one God gets all your love. Literally, that next verse goes, “You will love the LORD….” It’s an assumption. God gets your whole heart, your whole soul, and all your strength. Always.
All my heart? Isn’t there room for wife, and kids, and parents, and country? All my soul? Don’t I get to have hobbies, and interests, and passions? All my strength? Don’t I get to do something other than worship God and go to church and read the Bible? Of course. God commends marriage and child-bearing and family. God commends working hard and even enjoying life. God acknowledges that not every waking moment is spent in His Word. But still, He says, Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Our whole life, every thought, word, and action is subordinated to Him. And Him first. Him before wife, kids, parents, and country. As Jesus said, Anyone who loves his father and mother…his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Him first. Him last. Him always.
He must receive priority. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. It’s His Words that we’re commanded to talk about first and last each day, whether we’re at home or on the road. It’s His Words that we’re called to impress upon our children. Parents must constantly teach their kids. It’s not enough to read the Bible once. It’s not enough to send them through confirmation. It’s not enough to say it once. It’s no excuse to say, “We’ve had this text, we’ve heard this sermon, we’ve read this story, we’ve done this devotion, we’ve studied this memory treasure.” Constant, repeated instruction for all the days of your life. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us not give up meeting together. It’s the natural outflow of loving Him with all your heart, soul, and strength.
How does this make you the perfect patriot? It gets your priorities in order. Understand the first commandment down, the rest follow. There we find the bedrock of our faith – the true God first, everything else next. If God is the God He says He is, the One and Only, the LORD God, the Creator of all, He who judges souls, and if He is our God above all other Gods, then when He says Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you, we’ll not only say, “Yes,” but also, “What are they? How might I keep them completely?” Which makes us ready to be perfect patriots. Because among all the commands, stipulations, and decrees of the LORD are the simple words, Honor your father and mother. Which Luther understood far more broadly, We should fear and love God that we do not dishonor or anger our parents and others in authority, but honor, serve, and obey them, and give them love and respect. The incredible fact is that loving God with all our heart, soul, and strength, requires being perfect patriots. Keeping God’s commands completely means being perfect patriots. This is true because God has delegated some of His authority to earthly representatives. He calls governments God’s servant to do you good. This is part of the commands, stipulations, and decrees He has given you.
And so Paul says, If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. And to Timothy, I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority. And Peter says, Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
Impress that on your heart. Ponder it as you watch the news, listen to your elected leaders, enter polling places, and gripe about rules and laws. Ponder it as you consider who to vote for and what political values to support. Ponder it as you serve your community as a volunteer or civil servant. Ponder it as you drape yourself in the flag of America and proclaim your rights. Ponder the perfect patriotism stipulated by the commands and decrees of your God. Ponder the perfect patriotism that is loving the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. And then ponder the great responsibility God has placed upon you. The perfect patriot lives in the world but not of the world because the perfect patriot’s first responsibility is to the LORD. Him first, then country, family, and friends. Yet none are mutually exclusive. As you function among country, family, and friends, it is first and foremost as a servant of God that you do so.
And you fail. In so many ways. You fail by being a citizen of the world before being a citizen of God’s kingdom. You fail by abdicating all earthly responsibilities under the excuse of “serving God.” You fail by not impressing this on your children, repeatedly. You fail when you’re not a perfect patriot, serving and helping your country. You fail when you’re not a perfect Christian, loving God with every bit of your heart, soul, and strength, keeping completely His commands, rules, and laws, even when that means disobeying the world’s rules. You fail when you live as if you’re the only country that matters and the only god that exists.
And you know what God has in store for such treason. It’s worse than a hangman’s noose, a firing squad, fines and penalties. It’s permanent exile in the endless torments of hell. I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers. As Luther explains, God threatens to punish all who transgress these commandments. Therefore we should fear His anger and not disobey what He commands.
But it’s then and there that we must give thanks that He would send His Son to be the One who loves with all heart, soul, and strength. Jesus perfectly fulfilled all these commands. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them, He tells us. And He did. From the moment of conception to the moment of Ascension, there was Jesus being not only the perfect, sinless Son of God, but the perfect patriot as well. He was our righteousness. We were His sin. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. He loved fully, completely, and continually, even going so far as to submit to the cross. He clothed us in that love at Baptism. He feeds us with that love in His Supper. And He changed our attitudes towards such love and patriotism. What was once done grudgingly, what was once done only out of fear and terror, is now done out of thankfulness and praise. Paul writes, Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. The death and resurrection of Christ changed everything. Not only did Jesus do what was necessary so that God declares us not guilty of our sins, so that God opens heaven for us, but He changed our entire mindset about life. We love, serve, and obey not only God, but our parents and our nation, because God so loved us that He sent us His Son. Oh, how I love your law, the psalmist sings, how sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. In Christ alone this is so. Amen.
