Each Sunday in this series we’ll be focusing on a different part a the resolution that was passed by Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference this past July at the annual meeting. It’s titled, “A Call to Discipleship Amidst a Culture of Christian Nationalism. But we’re going to begin by taking the document as a whole as my starting place and so I’m going to read the entire resolution. In worship I had people take it in turns but for the sake of sound quality I thought I’d re-record.

Be it resolved that we–as members of the Pacific Northwest Mennonite Conference congregations, church plants and constituencies–affirm the following:

As Christians in the Anabaptist tradition we read the scriptures through the lens of Jesus’ life and teachings. This reading of scripture, together with our prayerful listening for the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and the faithful witness of our ancestors in faith and our global Mennonite community, lead us to proclaim in word and action that:

• The blessing of Christ’s love is for all people–regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, national origin or religious identity. Faithful discipleship in Christ calls us to extend welcome and hospitality to all.
• Discipleship in Christ calls us to a path of nonviolent love that is actively engaged in a ministry of reconciliation, peacebuilding and justice-seeking. Any violence, negligence or abusiveness in our words, actions or attitudes is a sign that Christ’s work of transformation in our lives remains incomplete.
• As Christians our citizenship is most fundamentally in the Body of Christ and the Kingdom of God. Any effort to confine the good news of God’s love in Christ within particular political ideologies, cultural boundaries, or national borders is contrary to our faith.
• God’s love and favor always act to moderate, and never exacerbate, the inequitable distribution of wealth, power, privilege and prestige. Faithful discipleship requires us to spend these assets–to the extent that they are granted to us–freely and generously to lift up those who are overlooked, marginalized, abused or excluded.

As we seek to faithfully live out these convictions, we are grateful to walk this path alongside other Christians, people of many faiths, and all companions who share our commitment to build and nurture beloved community. When our words and actions fall short of these convictions, we pray for grace and mercy, and that we might yield to Christ’s invitation to repentance and our continued transformation in the Love that heals and reconciles all.

Indeed may we seek to be faithful in our discipleship.

What this resolution does well, I think, is describe what that discipleship looks like. What it doesn’t try to do is describe what Christian Nationalism actually is. I assume that there was plenty of discussion around that at the PNMC annual meeting in Kalispell this summer, which I was unfortunately unable to attend.

Before we respond to an idea or cultural value we need to describe it. And I did go to the MCUSA convention and it was there that I went to Drew Strait’s workshop on Christian Nationalism.  Drew Strait, who is a professor at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, has been studying the rise of Christian Nationalism for the past decade or so, and it is primarily from his research and presentations that I will draw my descriptions. He also has a book called Stranger Worship: Six Steps for Countering Christian Nationalism in which he outlines his understandings.

When Strait talks about Christian Nationalism – he in turn bases some of his work on researchers Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry, who describe White Christian Nationalism as follows:

“A cultural framework – a collection of myths, traditions, symbols, narratives, and a value system – that idealized and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life…the “Christianity” of Christian nationalism represent something more than religion…It includes assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism. It is as ethnic and political as it is religious.”

I note that they include ‘White’ in their naming of this phenomenon because Christian Nationalism is indeed so tied up in racial identity and assumptions.

Because Christian Nationalism is so ubiquitous in American culture and in American Christianity especially, it becomes almost invisible. To the world, Christian Nationalism just is Christianity. According to White and Perry’s data and analysis more than half of the American population are either what they call ‘accommodators’ (those who are fine with it, let it happen, it benefits them – about 32%) or ‘ambassadors’ (those who are actively pursuing and evangelizing – 20%). (rejectors sit at 21%; resisters at 27%)

The very weird thing about Christian Nationalism is that the ideology is a kind of religion in itself. But it’s a religion in which one doesn’t really need to go to church or even to hold orthodox Christian beliefs to fit within this framework – as I think is evident in many leaders and politicians we witness today. It’s not about religious revival so much as political power, boundaries and order.

Those who do have religious affiliations are disconnected from faith communities that teach values like hospitality, peace and justice. Instead Christian Nationalism gravitates toward: nativism, xenophobia, white supremacy, homophobia, militarism, patriarchy and authoritarianism. 

This is what Drew Straight calls ‘strange worship.’ A worship that makes an idol of un-Christ-like values. A worship that creates kingdoms operating under and centering power by force and control. Straight gives some examples of when our allegiance to political institutions betrays our loyalty to Jesus and God’s kingdom and leads to the strange worship of Christian Nationalism. 

For example:

• when exclusive loyalty to the life and teachings of Jesus becomes distorted.
• when loyalty to state power legitimates harm toward our neighbor.
• when we begin to see the state – rather than the unarmed, multi-cultural church – as the primary context for Christian action and witness.
• when identity is defined more by a hierarchical ethno-racial caste system (eg. when whiteness becomes our controlling narrative) than by identity in of belonging in Jesus.

If we consider that those are examples of worship that is strange and alien to the God of Jesus, what does legitimate worship and belonging look like in the kingdom of God? Drew Strait has said that it starts with telling the whole story of Jesus – his birth, his life, his teachings, his death and his resurrection. And with pledging allegiance to our citizenship not in a nation but in the reign of God.

Jesus talked a lot about God’s kingdom, or God’s reign, or the kingdom of heaven – all of which he uses and I will be using more or less interchangeably. In Matthew 13 he describes the Reign of God by using parables. He also talks about coming to proclaim the inauguration of God’s Reign. The Kingdom of Heaven is among us. Heaven is not some future prospect but here and now and we are invited to live even now as if that is in fact true. To worship truly.

I am reminded that when police- and prison-abolitionists imagine and talk about a future without carceral and retributive justice, they are also talking about a time that begins right now. A future in which communities have enough of what they need, harm is minimized or prevented and that people who make choices to hurt or destroy are restored and healed. They realize that if a future like that is to be realized then adherents need to build those kinds of communities and systems here and now. To live caring for each other, in communities of restoration and healing here and now.

While many of those same abolitionist activists would not claim Jesus, it seems to me they are taking a page out of his Kingdom of Heaven playbook. Let’s look at how Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven. The Reign of God is like…a mustard seed, weeds and wheat sown together, yeast mixed into dough: small, ordinary, and a little unexpected. Yet they grow with outsized impact on their environments.

The kinds of impacts that they have are significant! The mustard seed starts teeny tiny and while it doesn’t become a giant redwood (it’s still just a shrub) it becomes its right size. A size to provide shelter and care for the birds of the air.  It might have been sown to provide mustard greens and seasoning – which are also great! – but reaches its potential when it offers shelter.

The yeast is not just tiny, it’s invisible, even more mysterious. This is before germ theory. Yeast was gathered from the environment – more like sourdough starter – and it becomes activated when it joins with other ingredients. It needs the flour and water and oil and sugar. And when they work together, along with the baker, their purpose is to feed and nurture. And feed a lot of people. Three measures of flour is about 50 lbs!

The kingdom of God, and true worship as a citizen of that kingdom, is offering shelter. It is planting new life. It is nurturing and feeding the community. It is doing this not just for some but for all. In the parable of the wheat and the weeds the servants ask whether they should pull up the weeds. Jesus’ answer: That’s not your job. Let it all grow! Give it all fertilizer! It is for God and the angels to decide how to weed and prune.

It’s a little counterintuitive to how we think about gardening. I worked as a farm-hand for a summer when I was 19 and one of my jobs was to painstakingly brush roundup on a field of grass that was being grown for seed. I walked along the rows of grasses identifying which didn’t belong and made show those were killed.

That is not my job in the kingdom of God. In God’s kingdom, everything thrives. Everything grows and we need to look for opportunities to give life and growth rather than take it away. And it is already happening.

I always think of that Mr. Roger’s quote: “Look for the helpers.” He was told this by his mother to comfort him at scary times. We can find hope in people who are helping and caring, especially in times of disaster. But it’s true in general too. Those who are inclined toward help and compassion are already oriented toward the Reign of God.

The resolution adopted by our conference this past summer reflects that same orientation: The blessing of Christ’s love for all people; a call to non-violent love engaged in reconciliation; not confining the Good News to a particular group or boundary; sharing our gifts freely and generously to lift up those who are overlooked, marginalized, abused and excluded.

This orientation is an expression of true worship in the God of love and justice. When Drew Straight talks about antidotes to the strange worship of Christian Nationalism he adds some more specifics that I think are also meaningful to name. They include nurturing diverse networks, building real relationships (not succumbing to social media), cultivating generosity, caring for the spiritual self, minimizing harm to the most vulnerable, praying for enemies and opponents.

Christian nationalism is a real threat. That can sometimes hard to see here in the northwest and especially if we are surrounded by like-minded folks at church or in our communities of friends and colleagues. But it’s here. Here in Kirkland in churches like Pursuit. It is certainly lurking online, offering belonging and affirmation especially to young white men and boys, some of whom feel like they are the ones vulnerable and abused and excluded and overlooked.

We do need to keep alert and oriented toward true worship. In the next six weeks we’ll be looking at each of the points of the resolution in turn, as well as an interlude for Mennonite World Fellowship Sunday, when we’ll hear from Weldon Nisly about his work with Community Peacemaker Teams. I’m not sure I can think of another organization more diametrically opposite to the values of Christian Nationalism. 

As we close, I invite you to pray with me the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. A prayer that calls us into discipleship that releases control, invites God’s Kingdom and offers true worship to the One whose Reign is forever, even as earthly kingdoms come and go. It is printed in your bulletin, but please pray the words that are most familiar or beloved to you. Let us pray.

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