My first doctoral class, I read an article about theologian Stanley Hauerwas. The paper began with a volley of uncomfortable questions from a lecture by Hauerwas.

“How many of you worship in a church with an American flag? I’m sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt. How many of you worship in a church in which the Fourth of July is celebrated? I’m sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt. How many of you worship in a church that recognizes Thanksgiving? I’m sorry to tell you your salvation is in doubt.”[1]

If he were here today, I’m sure he’d add Veteran’s Day to the list and tell us our salvation is in doubt.

Now far be it from me to pick a fight with one of the greatest theologians of our time… however. His statements tell me something. The good professor has never pastored a church.

It is good to value dates that are important to people. Mother’s and Father’s Days. Thanksgiving is a religious holiday as it was founded by the Congregationalists, our spiritual ancestors. Plus, gratitude is a fruit of the spirit. The flag is a good reminder to pray for our leaders, no matter who they are; we are united in this republic even while we have a larger allegiance to God’s Beloved Community.

And why shouldn’t we recognize and celebrate our Veterans? Did not Jesus say, “There is no greater joy than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Jesus told stories using everyday things, even religious holidays. Communion is founded on the Passover Seder. Jesus doesn’t mind, at least I don’t think, using all that we can to point to God’s love for us. Hauerwas acts like God can’t use the flag or the Fourth of July or Thanksgiving to point to and remind us of our salvation.

Now, I know what Hauerwas is doing. He believes that American Christians know more about how to be American than how to be Christian. And I would agree with that, just not how he presents the argument.

I was sitting with a family in the hospital. The parents attend church but their adult children do not. One of the children stated, “Well it’s what you produce to society that matters.” I thought of our Good Stewards worship series and wanted to disagree with them, but didn’t. That statement is counter to Exodus, counter to the Sabbath, counter to Jesus who sits with the outcast, leper, and those who don’t produce anything. Yet that’s what people think.

I try not to get too partisan. I see clergy on every side of the aisle sounding more like their political party than like Christ. I could be accused of this. If not now, then definitely in the past. Once, after a sermon I had people write cards to their representatives. One man stated that while he agreed with me, I didn’t leave people with any other option. Nor, he said, did I make my case Biblically. He was right, and I was wrong. I’ve been more careful since to let my convictions be rooted in the Gospel and not the other way around.

I’ve also recently met with a local man who mentioned how he wants to live in a bubble, surrounded by those who already think like him. That also doesn’t sound like Jesus to me. Jesus, we are learning in our Tuesday at Two Bible Study, crossed all sorts of lines. He was on both sides of the lake, the Jewish and Gentile sides. He healed a boy of a Roman solider as well as Jarius’ daughter. Jarius was the leader of a synagogue, much like our moderators today. He spoke with religious and non-religious alike. Men and women. Rich and poor. I disagree immensely with trying to live in a bubble.

I disagree with it, because it’s not what Christ would do. I know this because I’ve read the Bible. I know this because I would rather BE in a bubble. I wanted to be in my Catholic, geek bubble and not know anything outside of my own interests. I wanted to keep what was mine. Keep tight control over what I read, what movies I watched, and just hear things I already agreed with and affirmed.

Yet God kept popping my bubble. Only Catholics..? Here’s some Protestant friends and a wife who is most definitely a Protestant. Only geeks? Oh, I’ll make you obsessed with basketball and you have to hang out with jocks. Only your own circles? Here’s college, and super-liberal, compassionately conservative, kind atheist, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, gay, trans, and folk you can’t even label or categorize. God has done this because if it were up to me, I’d still be in the bubble of my own making.

Two people primed me to see the wider swath of God’s creation. Both are veterans. My grandpa and my childhood friend Brandon. My grandpa is a WWII vet, and Brandon was in the second Iraq war. They told me how diverse the military is. How people from all over the country, from all walks of life, are all pulling for the same thing. The military is a place where no one claims private ownership of anything, and everything is held in common. Sounds like the early church, doesn’t it?

And we in the church could learn something from the military. That type of trust. That type of teamwork, working toward the same goal. To hold things in common. And we do that with our church budget. We do that with trust in our committees and in one another. We hold our building in common and take care of it. Stewardship is looking after that which we hold in common. I am not asking for the same form of spiritual communism that the early church achieved. Like Hauerwas’ list, I don’t think that’s a reasonable request or goal.

The goal is to be good stewards. As Crell Johns loves to say, “To leave Medina better than we found it.”

It would be a temptation to make all of Medina like us. To say that there will be no other church than the UCC. To bring back the Blue Laws and outlaw any other activity on Sundays and Wednesday nights. To insist on our own way and make everything live in our bubble. But that’s not how Christ lived.

We saw that last week with the rich young man. Jesus didn’t fight with him, didn’t question his claims. He did hit him right where it hurt. God often does that. Hits us right where it hurts. Questions the very thing we love, asking us, “Do you love me more? Can you widen your view to all of my creation? Can you love as I love?”

That’s what Hauerwas was getting at. He protests any distortions of the gospel, distortions caused by Christians who let their lives be shaped by stories that do not witness to the truth of the Gospel.

Because here is the thing…

Any gospel that emphasizes shame and sin-consciousness instead of new creation in Christ is no gospel at all and your salvation is in doubt. Any gospel that requires you to vote exactly like the leaders and not to mix with anyone from outside your group is no gospel at all.

Any gospel that causes goodhearted people to feel downcast, depressed, continually “repenting” of their “wretchedness” and begging God for mercy is no gospel at all.

Any gospel that makes you constantly depressed and obsessed with “spiritual warfare” and the need to be in fear and anguish over the eternal destiny of others souls is no gospel at all.

Any gospel that is just getting your ticket to heaven and leaving earth to burn… any gospel that is too heavenly focused to be of any earthly good is no gospel at all.

Any gospel that only confirms your prejudice and doesn’t expose the limits of it… that keeps you in a bubble is no gospel at all.

The gospel lifts the weight, not adds to it. The gospel affirms the goodness of humanity created in the image of God, lifts up the downcast into the life of the divine.

The gospel declares the bright shining hope that Jesus is universal Lord, the One whose empathy and forgiveness and love is for all humanity, that he is triumphant over all, even sin and death, and nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God found in Jesus Christ.

While the gospel does call us out of the sin and the systems that dehumanize us and victimize each other, the gospel is light and hope and peace and joy for all! It is good news in this bleak world or it is nothing at all.

It is to that goal I will pledge my time, talent, and treasure. It is toward our common life in God that I pledge to steward, not just to an echo chamber of my own making. I radically welcome all. All God has to offer and sees fit to gift me with, for this is a love story. And the Good News is that you’re loved by God. And it’s safe to love your neighbor as well because God loves them too. Until your neighbor proves otherwise and seeks to dehumanize and harms you, there are limits and there is evil in the world but don’t focus on it.

Focus on the good. Pledge yourself to that. Tend to what we hold in common, both politically, personally, and as a faith community. Spread good in the world. Help those who need help. Feed those who need fed. Gather with folks who have a different outlook or opinion than you. Hear the voices of veterans and serve those who served. Follow Jesus as closely as you can, and nothing else.

^[1][1] Herman J. Paul. Stanley Hauerwas: Against Secularization in the Church. Zeitschrift fur Dialektische Theologie, Heft 59, Jahrgang 29, Nummer 2, 2013.