A Theology of Fists & Flowers: No Man Can Serve Two Masters
“Hey, Bud. You too good to say the pledge?!”
“Hey, Bud. You too good to say the pledge?!”
I was at my kid’s youth sporting event, hastily setting up my folding camp chairs before the game started.
“What’s that, Sir?”
“I said, ‘You too good to stand and say the pledge?”
I take a step between him and my family.
“Oh, no it has nothing to do with being too good. I just don’t say it. I haven’t said it since the 8th grade. I do stand though, out of respect.”
He takes a step forward, finger-pointing at my chest but not actually touching it because poking a man’s chest where I come from is universally understood fighting language and even he knows that’s too far for a rec league ball field.
“Worthless liberal piece-a’ shit. If you don’t like it, you should move.”
I think he shouldn’t be cursing around kids, but his kids don’t flinch, so they’re probably used to it. Maybe my kids are too used to it as well.
I get lost in the thought as he moves back toward his group.
He sits down. I sit down. Eventually, the air clears enough that everyone simply watches our kids play a game together.
Admittedly, most people I run into aren’t quite as confrontational as my friend at the ballpark.
At most, I might get a little side-eye once in a while. Mostly, people don’t notice that the big, bald, red-bearded guy standing silently, arms crossed behind his back respectfully isn’t actually saying anything, and most don’t care that I don’t put my hand over my heart.
I don’t try to draw attention to my silence. I simply don’t participate.
I understand that might make me unpopular with some of you. I hope you’ll hear me out. You might not agree with me by the end of this, but maybe you’ll understand.
PUSHING BACK AGAINST A CREEPING EMPIRE
I hold a lot of opinions that cut against the grain of the average cultural and religious sensibilities of my Appalachian home, but outside of talking about issues related to sex and gender, none seem to elicit such a consistently negative response as my agnostic approach to patriotic, nationalistic fervor.
Let’s run down just a few of the fan favorites.
I don’t believe that we can partner with Christ to bring redemptive wholeness to this world using empire methodology.
I don’t believe an American flag, or any other flag for that matter, has a place in our worship spaces, especially on an altar or elevated stage that indicates authority.
I don’t believe Christian Nationalism has historically proven itself any better than Sharia Law.
I don’t believe the church gains any Kingdom benefit from accepting shared power with a human government.
I don’t believe that those who try to hold a foot in both Kingdoms can do so without sacrificing their allegiance to one or the other, and the spirit of empire demands it be from the Kingdom side of that equation.
I used to think that my beliefs around Kingdom and country were rooted in a rebellious spirit, a human reaction to authority that ultimately needed to be sanctified. I might have even been told that a time or two. I no longer hold to that belief.
It wasn’t my rebelliousness that held my spirit in check, it was a nudging acknowledgment that the spirit and methods of empire ultimately serve the few at the expense of the many.
That is what Jesus pushed back against. And pushing back against that is what made Jesus’ message so appealing to the working class and marginalized in the first few hundred years after His birth.
It’s also what got him killed.
No man can serve two masters.
ARE YOU THE KING OF THE JEWS?
Over the last year, I’ve become obsessed with the last week of Jesus’ life.
From Lazarus forward, Jesus seems to have a sense of urgency we don’t see in the prior years of his ministry.
I’m especially drawn to the interrogation of Jesus by Caiaphas, the “High Priest of the Year” and Rome’s Pontius Pilate in the Gospel of John.
Let me set the stage.
Pilate enters the room, seemingly tired of this entire ordeal which he doesn’t seem to think is his problem to handle. As a representative of the empire, he asks the only question he really cares about.
Are you the King of the Jews? (John 18:34 NRSVU)
The only thing the spirit of empire really cares about is sustaining and collecting power.
Power creates wealth.
Power can write its own story.
Power makes the rules.
Power gets to write history.
Power decides who wins and loses.
Power is the closest thing to “… becoming like God.”
Jesus answers in verse thirty-six.
My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here. (John 18:36 NRSVUE)
We’ve all read that verse a million times, but I want you to really listen to what Jesus is saying to Pilate.
Allow me to give a very irreverent and unscholarly interpretation.
“I’m not chasing the same things you’re chasing. If I was interested in the same things as you, I’d have instructed my followers to save me by spilling blood. I haven’t done that because I’m not interested in ruling the way you rule. That is not the world I am building. There is another way.”
And that’s the root of why I often say you only get to fly one flag — because Jesus makes it clear if we want to solve the problems and brokenness of this world by using the structures of human empire, we’ll have to play the game using empire methodology, and that’s not the methods of the Kingdom.
They never lead to the same place no matter how we try to tell ourselves that it will be different this time.
What’s empire’s favorite method for control and correction?
It’s the sword. It’s always the sword. It’s always violence. It’s always coercion.
The Kingdom of God tells us that we obtain wholeness by giving. The empire of man tells us we build security by taking.
How can you pledge your allegiance to both?
IT’S ALL ABOUT ME!
One thing that always bothered me when reading about the interrogation of Jesus by the authorities was a nagging tension I had between what they were asking Jesus and the fact that he hadn’t really done anything prior to the arrest, at least not compared to the previous three years.
Why now?
And then I learned about the Sadducees.
I don’t know about you, but growing up it was always the Pharisees that got the worst rap. The only thing I knew about the Sadducees was that Nicodemus was one of them, and to be honest, he seemed mostly an alright dude.
Turns out, he was the exception to the rule.
I’m going to do a more in-depth piece on some of the factions working in the background during Jesus' ministry, but I want to mention one particular fact important to our conversation.
The Sadducees loved Hellenism, and Hellenism has one prevailing principle: IT’S ALL ABOUT ME.
The Sadducees were a priestly class that had partnered with Rome to form a tense but happy marriage that kept the masses in check.
In return, the Sadducees got STUPID rich. They enjoyed every luxury, and they had no problem bending the rules to maintain their newfound power.
They were the religious class of the rich and opulent. They believed that worship could ONLY happen in the temple, and if you wanted to access it, you’d have to ante up.
They were the gatekeepers to God. They also ran themselves like an organized crime ring, including hiring their own private police force to protect them from anti-Hellenistic freedom fighters who saw their corruption as an affront to YHWH and the promise of the Messiah from the line of David — the next great king of Israel.
So, what does that have to do with our story?
Well, one week earlier, Jesus had ridden into an occupied Jerusalem to a crowd laying down palm branches to save him from the dust of the road shouting triumphantly.
Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord — the King of Israel! (John 12:12 NRSVUE)
Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead, an event so miraculous that the High Priests and Sadducees were plotting to kill him again just to keep the folklore around Jesus from spreading, and now this!
Jesus comes in riding a donkey of all things, and the people are calling him the Messiah, the long-awaited King.
Hosanna is a word the Hebrews used to cry out to God for deliverance from oppression and captivity — not good for them at all.
You don’t think that got the attention of both Rome and the ruling priestly class of Jews?
The Sadducees arrested Jesus not because he was calling himself the Messiah and being blasphemous but because the power He wielded and the way he wielded it threatened to rip away their power and influence.
All this talk of another Kingdom was making them nervous.
The High Priests and Sadducees, called by God to be the priests to God’s priestly nation had been seduced by the power, comfort, and security of empire.
They believed they could have both. They believe they could hold duel allegiance through an uneasy but profitable alliance.
But we shouldn’t be too harsh with only those birthed into power, the common people throughout history are just as complicit.
We don’t want to achieve change through peace. We want violence.
We want blood.
GIVE US BARABBAS!
After Pilate talked to Jesus, he left the room and addressed the crowd, saying he could find no fault in him. Instead, he offered them a choice.
I find no case against him. But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” They shouted in reply, “Not this man but Barabbas!”. (John 18:38–40 NRSVUE)
Jesus was a Rabbi on a donkey talking of Kingdoms where we turn the other cheek and carry the packs of Roman soldiers further than was required.
Barabbas was a zealot in jail for killing Romans during an insurrection, a true brother in the effort to rid their world of an occupying force.
Violence is always more seductive. Empire hates to be humiliated.
We don’t want to END THE EMPIRE. We want to BE THE EMPIRE.
We should respect the authority of our Government. We should attempt to live at peace with it when that peace is not dependent on us forsaking our Kingdom mandates and methodology.
The flags we fly matter.
They are our banners of war.
They say who we are, what we stand for, and how we fight our battles.
I don’t know how it’s possible to align yourself under more than one.
I know in my heart of hearts that you can’t pledge allegiance to more than one.
And for that reason, I’ll continue to stand but not speak any words but these, “I go forth for the heart of my King, and I’ll do so with raised fists and the wildest flowers.”
Shalom.