4 ways to turn our allegiance toward God the Creator

Fault lines appeared within Mennonite Church USA last fall as presidential politics polarized the nation. Sentiments were so strong they sometimes stretched relationships within families and congregations. Mennonites who emphasize Jesus’ call to love our enemies supported the candidate they thought most likely to pursue diplomacy. Others supported the candidate they thought most likely to protect the unborn.

Not only in politics are Mennonites tugged by allegiance to something beyond the body of Christ. A substantial part of the denomination today is professional, educated, entrepreneurial or wealthy. In each case we are likely to identify with ideologies and organizations that support our status and interests.

Academics join scholarly guilds whose values filter back into our schools and publishing, and business people belong to trade associations that back legislation favorable to their industry. Those with property or wealth want tax policies that protect what they have gained. Some support immigration restrictions that their own forebears did not face.

Mennonites get sucked into currents of self-interest and accommodation that pull us away from our deepest identity in Jesus. Any commitment or ideology that draws us from Christ, from God’s people and from radical obedience to God is idolatry. The remedy is repentance and whole-life worship of the living God.

Positioned in the heart of empire: Like Christians of the first-century Roman world, Americans live in an empire that wants our loyalty. We do not like to think of ourselves as living at the hub of empire. But by almost any economic or political measure, the United States is a powerful nation that controls vast resources around the world. If necessary, we invade other countries to protect access to resources we want. We prop up regimes friendly to us in spite of their questionable human rights record.

As empires go, the one to which we belong is not worse than many others throughout history. But all empires seek the loyalty of their domestic population and the collaboration of peoples they control. All empires sometimes act in ways that run counter to the gospel. Even when dressed up in garments of democracy or religion, empires will be brutal and selfish when they deem it necessary.

Empires do some things Christians should support: The first-century Mediterranean world enjoyed benefits from the Roman Empire, including an end to piracy and festering war between nations. The Romans developed a global economy and a common monetary system for their world. The apostle Paul counseled believers to respect and pray for imperial rulers, at least when rulers are “not a terror to good conduct” (Romans 13:3). First-century people who embraced this global system, especially if they worshiped the emperor, found some measure of security and perhaps wealth.

The Roman Empire did not have political parties like a modern democracy. But they had organizations to foster allegiance, most notably the widespread order of augustales or priests of emperor worship. At civic and religious settings these people presided at processions extolling the emperor and the empire. Towns and cities built altars or temples to Caesar.

Some sponsored choirs to sing praises to the emperor, who claimed titles such as “son of god” and “savior of the world.” The book of Revelation is a spirited reply to such idolatry, calling Christians to a counter loyalty that reflects true allegiance to the living God.

We need careful discernment: Christians in America live in an empire known for both humanitarian generosity and military violence. We need careful discernment because this empire sometimes speaks with biblical language. Politicians profess loyalty to Jesus even as they use military force to protect American interests. Others who speak of their Christian faith defend the right of parents to choose whether or not to end the life of their unborn. Parts of our society advance the notion that the Founding Fathers were Christian, a claim few would have made for themselves.

Americans typically do not worship their leaders, living or dead. But the rotunda of our nation’s Capitol features a huge painting called “The Apotheosis (deification) of George Washington” (see above). Like Christ in medieval cathedrals, the first president is seated in glory, illustrating the fine line between patriotism and idolatry.

Many tugs at our loyalty: In countless ways we are drawn into sentiments of allegiance: lapel pins, the national anthem, bumper stickers, Web sites, political phone calls, Fourth of July, the Pledge of Allegiance, battlefield tours, military corporations, political speeches, “God Bless America,” voting, advertising and much more. American history gets retold as a sacred narrative.

Not all of the above are idolatrous. But the list is a reminder that we are inundated with pressures for allegiance. In addition to the tsunami of political enticement, an economic hurricane now is realigning allegiances in this nation. A decade ago theologian Harvey Cox wrote an article called “The Market as God” in which he suggested that economic forces had taken the role of religion in our culture, displacing allegiance to God (The Atlantic Monthly, March 1999).

Whether the Market meant Wall Street or the invisible hand of supply and demand, we were transfixed by its power and trusted its wisdom. Then came the October 2008 crash, and the Market god proved powerless to save.

Allegiance issues from our own heritage: Mennonites face allegiance temptations even from our own faith heritage. We take peacemaking, service and justice seriously because we follow Jesus, but we are susceptible to making such discipleship expressions ends in themselves.

True worship glorifies God, but we sometimes glorify ourselves by advancing only an ideology of peace or justice without pointing others to Christ.

Worship is the act of turning mind, body and soul in reverence and obedience to a power beyond ourselves. Worship often involves symbolic actions, words and images that appear on a physical level but shape our spiritual landscape. Every culture conditions its people to participate in symbolic expressions of allegiance without critical reflection.

Even John of Patmos, author of Revelation, was prone to worship something or someone other than God and had to be corrected (Revelation 19:10; 22:8-9). But John’s eyes were opened to see that the whole world was worshiping a beast of an emperor/empire (13:1-10). He saw a second beast—the augustales and their system—that made people of the world worship the first beast of empire (13:11-18).

John’s vision called the Roman Empire to account for violence, greed and idolatry—and provides the language and symbols of alternative allegiance. Instead of singing songs to the beast of empire, followers of Jesus sing, “Worthy is the Lamb.” Instead of accepting citizenship in imperial Babylon (Rome and its network), Christians receive citizenship in the New Jerusalem.

Revelation suggests that our allegiance will turn toward the Creator if we do the following:

1. Worship God and the Lamb with our whole selves. From start to finish, John’s vision reverberates with worship, and we will not be faithful to Jesus without experiencing the same. Regular worship with the faith community and daily communion with God recalibrate our spiritual navigation. We need worship that is experiential, not just cerebral. We need to bend the knee, get soaked at baptism and enter prayer or song with culturally appropriate body language.

2. Commit to the New Jerusalem as our primary place of allegiance. Mennonite involvement in business, education, diplomacy, medicine and other vocations presents an unprecedented and welcome opportunity for witness. But these engagements in society also bring temptation to individualism and unholy allegiance. We need renewed commitment to make church—especially the local congregation—a priority that trumps frequent getaway weekends, sports activities and work overload. We also need to view belonging to the global church of Christ as more important than any national or class identity.

3. Immerse ourselves in the written Word. Four hundred times the author of Revelation alludes to Scripture. The biblical narrative from creation to the return of Christ was the Big Story that shaped John’s worldview. Western culture today is less biblically literate than a generation ago, and Mennonites are part of this trend. Unless we again drink deeply from the wells of the written Word, we will not have the spiritual backbone to keep us from bowing to Babylon.

4. Engage in mission that draws others to the New Jerusalem. John sees the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to earth (Revelation 21:2). Its doors never close, and Jesus the Lamb is at the center. The city—a symbol of the people of God—is big enough to encompass the entire land mass and all the people of the Roman Empire (that is, the entire world as John knew it). From the New Jerusalem flows the water of life that nurtures trees whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2). Every member of the body of Christ can claim citizenship in this eternal city. As we drink from the river of life, God calls us to work for the healing of the nations.

So if we are in business or agriculture, we will make certain our products and services benefit humankind. If we are in medicine or law or education, we will live out values of peacemaking, justice and care for the poor. If we are retired, we will use our skills and resources to build the church and bring Good News to others.

And as we witness and work in the world, the most formative activity of our lives will always be worship. Inviting others through the open doors to the Lamb will remain our highest calling and deepest joy.

J. Nelson Kraybill is president of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind. He is author of Worship Shapes Allegiance (Brazos Press, forthcoming).

For further study and worship materials on national identity:
www.MennoniteUSA.org/identity