These first days of July have been days of reflection for me. On July 1 I celebrated in my heart my Dad's 93rd birthday, the first birthday since his death last January. The July Fourth holiday was his holiday, as my niece recently said. After celebrating his birthday Daddy (or PeePaw to the grandkids) would go to the annual Fiddler's Contest, always held on July Fourth at the bandstand in Belton, TX. He only entered if he thought he had a chance to win.
Thinking of Belton on the Fourth of July brought back a variety of childhood memories--the carnival arriving in town and setting up in the City Park during the week of the Fourth. I rode the hobby horses without fail, that is until I was about 12 years old, then for some reason or other that was too "babyish" for me. That's when I started riding the Tilt-A-Whirl and that remains the ride I might ride, if I ride any ride at all when a carnival comes to town. The only thing I remember eating at the carnival was Cotton candy--and as far as I know, that's the only time I ever ate Cotton candy.
The second big event in Belton on the Fourth of July was the annual rodeo. Our whole family went at least once, but sometimes every night, July 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. The fireworks on the Fourth were a part of the rodeo celebration. Actually the rodeo was the third big event in Belton on the Fourth of July. I completely forgot to mention the Fourth of July Parade that morning. The parade became a big deal when I was in high school and a member of the Marching One-Hundred High School Band--award winning--special half-time performances at football games with lights on our shoes and on our instruments... But I digress. (How could I have forgotten the parade?)
Anyway, as I said at the beginning these days have been days of reflection for me. And now this year with July 4th falling on Sunday, my thoughts have gone off into another direction. As I recall, first century Christians refused to bow their knee to Caesar and suffered the consequences. Failure to worship Caesar meant treason, imprisonment and possible death. In other words allegiance to Christ prevented them from pledging their allegiance to any one or anything else. They were in the world but not of the world!
In this line of thought another story came to my mind, a story I heard while living in Switzerland back in the '70s, a story told by an elderly Christian woman. As a young adult she had lived in Germany during World War II and remembered Hitler coming to power. As she told her story she recalled a Sunday when they gathered to worship and all the hymnals had new dust jackets sent to them by the government. In my recollection of her story I can't remember whether the dust jacket had a picture of Hitler on it or a Swastika. Which ever image was on the dust jacket it was difficult for her to see this political intrusion into their Christian worship. History tells us that there were German pastors who refused to follow the dictates of the government and became known as the Confessing Church in Germany. Many in that movement were imprisoned for their faith. Some even died.
The first century Christians refused to bow to the political powers of their day and some Christians in Germany resisted secular intrusions into the church during World War II. But today, in America, we find our national flag in almost every sanctuary and few seem disturbed by this secular intrusion into sacred space set apart for the worship of God. Perhaps we brought the flag in ourselves. I don't know that part of our history. The flag wasn't there when I was a child in Belton, TX. But when we returned to the States in 1982, after being in Europe for sixteen years, the Stars and Stripes adorned almost every church we visited. (I've not yet mustered up the courage to ask why.)
And now, this year, one of our biggest political holidays falls on the day traditionally set apart for worship of our Lord--because he arose from the dead on the first day of the week. I wonder what will be priority for most Christians tomorrow, the celebration of our country or our adoration of our Lord? Or for that matter, what will be the priority of the churches?
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Excellent questions! The early Baptists even went so far as to say that a true Christian could not hold public office! There's a film called "Theologians Under Hitler" which traces the corruption and compromise that prominent German theologians were willing to accommodate under the Nazi regime. The main point of the film was, if it could happen once, it could happen again. IS it happening again?
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