Speaker 1: What is up everyone?
Speaker 1: Ryan here, and I am joining you in Mike's Beats Laboratory, aka our podcasting office, and we're here for our weekly podcast.
Speaker 1: We call Reflections, and the question I want to ask or trying to talk about today.
Speaker 1: I was asked this question a couple months ago and somebody asked me this.
Speaker 1: They said, hey, why doesn't central, which is our church here in Elk River, the greatest city in all of Minnesota and the world?
Speaker 1: I would argue, why don't we have a flag, an American flag, in the sanctuary?
Speaker 1: And it's a fair question, because for two reasons one, at central, many years ago, before I got here, they used to have a flag in the sanctuary, an American flag up front along with a Christian flag, or what's known as the Christian flag.
Speaker 1: And then, two, there's many churches around the country anyway that have an American flag up front or even out in the front of the building, like out in a flagpole.
Speaker 1: And so I yeah, I wanted to answer because we actually have a.
Speaker 1: We do have a reason why we don't have one in the sanctuary and it's one that I stand by, and I wanted to kind of explain or unpack it.
Speaker 1: And first I'll say this look, I, I love this country.
Speaker 1: I think that all of us should love where we came from and where we're from and be proud of that.
Speaker 1: And I am, and you know, maybe you know I grew up in Denver, colorado, and I love Denver, and actually now, though, I consider Minnesota home and I love Minnesota.
Speaker 1: I love Elk River.
Speaker 1: I'm very proud of that.
Speaker 1: I love to brag about Elk River.
Speaker 1: I've raised my kids here.
Speaker 1: It's home for them.
Speaker 1: I love so many things about this city and about the great state of Minnesota, and I love this country.
Speaker 1: I've traveled all around the world.
Speaker 1: I've been to every continent except for Antarctica, and I love it here in the United States.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, and so hear me when I say it's good to love where you're from, to be proud of that, to talk about it with some, you know, with some with some fondness, and I love that.
Speaker 1: But I would say this my identity is not, first and foremost, a citizen of Elk River or of the great state of Minnesota or of this country of the United States.
Speaker 1: My primary identity, at least according to the Bible, is that I am in Christ, I am a beloved son of God, and I am a a citizen, as Paul writes of a different kingdom.
Speaker 1: That's the kingdom of God, and so I always want to make sure I have the just the order correct, that my primary identity is as a son of God and I'm a citizen of the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: Because here's the deal sometimes our national values, or the things that we value as a nation, or the values of the state, or the values of the city, even Sometimes those things, those values, in ways that are obvious or in ways that are very subtle, those values can come into direct conflict with the values of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so, if ever those things ever come into conflict, I have to remember that my primary identity, the pathway I'm following, my rabbi, is Jesus and not anything else, not the ideologies of the city, of the state, of the nation, and so I always want to make sure that I have things in proper order, because sometimes they do conflict with each other.
Speaker 1: And so, if you look at Israel's history, israel, one of their great sins, way back when they were given the Mosaic Law, one of their great sins was the sin of nationalism.
Speaker 1: Now, nationalism is not the same thing as patriotism.
Speaker 1: Nationalism tends to be this idea when you begin to elevate yourself, your own identity, over and against other people or outsiders.
Speaker 1: And Israel did this on many occasions.
Speaker 1: They were commanded by God on several instances to take care of foreigners and outsiders and include them in the blessings of God, and they didn't do that.
Speaker 1: They valued their own national identity on many occasions over and against their neighbors.
Speaker 1: So, for example, in the Mosaic Law, in Leviticus 23-22, this is one of my favorite verses God says hey, when you reap the harvest of your land, like when you're out there harvesting your crop you shall not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleaning of your harvest.
Speaker 1: You shall leave them for the poor and for the alien or the foreigner.
Speaker 1: I am the Lord, your God.
Speaker 1: In other words, he tells the people of Israel when you're plowing your fields, when you're reaping the harvest, leave the edges, don't gather those fruits, those crops, those, whatever it was you're gathering.
Speaker 1: Leave them for the poor and the outsider, the foreigner, the widows, and let them be included in the blessing of God.
Speaker 1: I've blessed you, now you go bless others.
Speaker 1: And nationalism is sort of counter to that.
Speaker 1: It's not sharing what extra you have with the foreigner, the neighbor, the outsider.
Speaker 1: It's rather just like enclosing the circle and only looking after your own.
Speaker 1: And so this idea of nationalism is again, it's not patriotic.
Speaker 1: That's different.
Speaker 1: Patriotism is fine in most cases, but when it rises, where it's over and against the neighbor, over and against the outsider, where we don't include others in the blessings of God, that becomes a problem.
Speaker 1: When we elevate our identity as Americans, as Minnesotans or even as Elk Riverans over and against our identity as Jesus followers, that's a problem.
Speaker 1: And so one of my favorite things that I love doing here at Central is it sounds macabre, but I love doing funerals and I love doing funerals for veterans.
Speaker 1: I mean, the way that the military shows honor to these ones who have served this country is just beautiful.
Speaker 1: They do it like second to nobody.
Speaker 1: It's outstanding.
Speaker 1: I've done a number of funerals for service members and it's just really a way to respect and honor those who have served this country and I love it.
Speaker 1: And one of the things they'll do is they'll put an American flag over top of the casket Another just beautiful way to honor the one who's died.
Speaker 1: But here's what we do, and we aren't the only church that does this, but many times in churches, when we wheel the casket into the sanctuary, we take the American flag off and we put over top of the casket.
Speaker 1: It's called a funeral paw, it's a white, a beautiful piece of cloth that covers the whole casket and it's got a cross on it.
Speaker 1: And then we wheel the casket in from there and they they fold up the flag and they take care of it.
Speaker 1: They put it on on a shelf just during the service.
Speaker 1: And the reason is because when, when that casket goes in there, we want people to remember that our primary identity as Christians is that we are people of the cross, not the flag.
Speaker 1: And so so when we go into the sanctuary, the space of this place of worship in God, we remind each other that we are, and the, the Paul, is white, by the way, which is a beautiful symbol of who we are.
Speaker 1: In Christ We've been washed.
Speaker 1: You know, the sins that were as red as scarlet are now as white as snow.
Speaker 1: There's that beautiful imagery and also it's got a cross, so we all gather under the cross.
Speaker 1: We are all on equal footing here because we're people of the cross.
Speaker 1: Then we kind of come back out of the sanctuary and we go to the, the grave site.
Speaker 1: We put the flag back on it Not because we're not in favor of the flag or this country, it's totally different.
Speaker 1: It's just that when we gather in there, we wanna gather reminding ourselves of our primary identity as the people of God, as one blind beggar helping another blind beggar find food, and also recognizing that when we gather in there there's lots of folks who gather who are not Americans.
Speaker 1: We actually have some people at Central who worship with us, who are from Tanzania.
Speaker 1: We have others from other African nations and when we gather for worship we wanna remind folks that our primary identity is the cross, which is like the main symbol in our sanctuary.
Speaker 1: So, love where you're from and love your city and be proud of it.
Speaker 1: And it's hey, they all have warts, that's okay, warts and all.
Speaker 1: I love Elk River In Minnesota, same thing, or wherever you're from, and it's okay to kind of be proud of that and rep your city, rep your state, rep where you're from.
Speaker 1: In the United States, I mean, I love cheering for the US and the World Cup.
Speaker 1: I'm all in on the World Cup in the American Team, america, I love it.
Speaker 1: But if it's ever over and against the neighbor our Mexican neighbors to the South, our Canadian neighbors to the North or anywhere else globally.
Speaker 1: That's a problem.
Speaker 1: Jesus said he commands us to love our neighbors, to make disciples of all nations and then, of course, in this Jewish tradition, to love and bless the foreigner.
Speaker 1: And how can we do that as people of God?
Speaker 1: There's all kinds of ways, but we can never elevate our identity as a citizen of this world over and against our identity as kingdom people of God, which looks our citizenship always looks like Jesus dying on the cross.
Speaker 1: That's the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: So love where you're from and also be a person of the cross wherever you go.
Speaker 1: All right, love you guys.
Speaker 1: I'll catch you soon, peace.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends.
Speaker 1: And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 830, which is our local gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clclcrivrorg.
Speaker 1: Peace.