Go Where Jesus Sends Us

My spouse and I spent this past week camping in southern Maine. It has been our yearly practice for many years to go camping for the week of July 4th; always at the same campground; always at the same campsite. It’s a ritual of rest and relaxation and connecting with the outdoors.

As in past years, we noticed a pattern of who camped in the sites around us during the week we were there. For the first few days, most of the vehicles in the campground had Quebec license plates and we heard many people speaking French. Most of those folks left on Monday, July 1st. The campground was rather empty for a couple of days. It began to fill up again on Wednesday, July 3rd. This time most of the vehicles had US license plates and most people spoke English though I heard other languages spoken as well.

Do you see the trend here? Canadians came at the beginning of the week; US people came at the end of the week.

As it turns out, July 1st is Canada Day – a national holiday in Canada that gives people time off from work and a chance to get away to camp at the beach for a few days.

In the US, of course, July 4th is our national holiday of independence from Great Britain. It’s generally a major summer celebration – with cookouts and fireworks and parades and a chance to get away to camp at the beach for a few days.

Many countries celebrate their national holiday day of independence in the summer months. The New York Times published a list of countries that do so, including Iceland (June 17), Indonesia (Aug 17), Jamaica (Aug 6), Niger (Aug 3), North and South Korea (Aug 15), and Pakistan (Aug 14) and India (Aug 15). These countries celebrate the day they became free from living under colonization by another country (Denmark, Holland, Great Britain, France, Japan).

Celebrating the day of independence for one’s country can be a unifying sign of patriotism within that country. This sign of patriotism can be an expression of joy and pride for the country in which one lives. It can reflect a devotion to all the people of the country and the values and ideals they have in common. And patriotism can be expressed by people in every nation, each in their own way, unique to their own history and culture.

There is another word that we hear frequently today, circulating in the press and social media and public conversation, that many might think is similar to patriotism but it is not. That word is nationalism.

Nationalism, as I understand it, is the belief that one’s own country is far superior to any other country. It then takes the narrow view that one group of people – the elite, the powerful, the wealthy – should have power, authority and control over the governance of the country for the benefit of that one group – the elite, the powerful, the wealthy – and at the expense of all other people in the country (the widow, orphans, and foreigners, as described in the book of Deuteronomy).

Most often this view is formed based on the color of one’s skin and the historical enslavement of Black people and the underlying code of white supremacy that has dominated our country from its beginning.

Nationalism is very different from patriotism.

Nationalism negates our founding principle that all people are created equal.

Nationalism is a threat to our way of living together equally under the law.

Nationalism is contrary to God’s plan for all of creation to live together with justice and peace for all, to thrive together, to share our God-given resources so that everyone might flourish and prosper and have enough.

Right about now you’re probably wondering why I’m talking about nationalism this morning. What does that have to do with the gospel, you’re thinking? Isn’t that too political to be talking about in church?

Nationalism is rampant in our country today – and our country is the world into which God sends us out – today – to speak the word of God, just as God sent the prophet Ezekiel to the people of Israel, who were rebelling against God.

Nationalism seeks to divide people based on arbitrary categories and meaningless differences in appearance. Jesus seeks to gather us together as beloved people of God, to teach us and heal us, to form us into his body, and then to send us out into the world, two by two, always in community, with his authority, to speak God’s word of truth and love to the world and to drive out the evil forces that try to divide us and separate us.

It is not easy, for any of us, to stand up and speak out against evil in the world. It is not easy to follow the way of Jesus – to connect with God every day through silence and prayer; to love our enemies as well as our neighbors; to serve others in need even when we are hungry or angry or lonely or tired. It is not easy to have hard conversations with people who disagree with us, who have a different point of view, who see themselves as superior, unwilling to listen, unwilling to change, who might be offended by our teaching and mock our wisdom.

It is not easy; yet, we need not despair nor be discouraged.

As people who follow Jesus, we too have a day of independence, a day of freedom, to celebrate every day of our lives. That day is the day of our baptism; the day when we were baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; when we were baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked by the cross of Christ forever.

Through our baptism, we believe (that is, we trust) in God’s promise that we are God’s beloved people.

Through our baptism, we believe (that is, we trust) that we are set free from our sins through Jesus’ death on the cross and we are given abundant life, a life that is meant to be freely shared.

Through our baptism, we believe (that is, we trust) in the power of the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into us each and every day.

Through our baptism, we enter into a covenant with God; we promise God that we will live in a different way; we promise God we will let ourselves be changed.

Through our baptism we promise to go where Jesus sends us – out into the world, calling all people to repent and to turn back to God. We promise to bear witness to those we meet about the healing love of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to wash over them and make them well and make them whole and give them peace.

We keep these promises freely and willingly, not for our own sake but for the sake of this world which God so deeply loves and seeks to redeem.

To God be the glory. Amen.