America’s Hope and the Church’s Worship

Self-destructive. I don’t know a better way to describe our nation’s current policies, governing ideology, and trajectory. There are many other words we could use to describe it: stupid, demonic, wicked, unbiblical, harmful, corrosive, etc., but self-destructive is as good as any of them. There seems little doubt that if the United States remains on its present course, it will permanently and irreparably undermine every good thing our country has enjoyed as well as its long-term prospects for liberty, prosperity, and survival.

I say all of this as someone who in the last few years has slowly, and rather timidly, admitted to becoming a postmillennialist. Some may hope the bleakness of the prior paragraph might dampen my foolish cheerfulness and make me a more sober, godly, and dour amillennialist once again. Thus far the cheerlessness of America’s condition seems ineffectual in correcting my theology. Maybe a few months in a concentration camp for refusing to use feminine pronouns for God will snap me back into a more realistic appraisal of the powerlessness of the gospel. (I jest… but not about my refusal to use alternative pronouns.)

This might be an appropriate moment to remind each other that the future of God’s kingdom, Christ’s conquest of the world, and the glorious consummation of redemption and history does not depend on these United States or the United State she is becoming. As much as we can (and should) love our nation, America is not the new Israel, she is not the last hope for liberty in the West, she is not the location of the Church’s last stand before the Angelic Air Force sends in the stealth helicopters and airlifts us all to safety before the Tribulation gets underway. America has been, and may yet be, God willing, a great nation, one founded on Christian principles, committed to broadly (though very imperfectly formed) biblical laws, and generous to her citizens and neighbors. But she is just a nation, a political entity founded by men, governed by men, and lately run into the ground by men. Our best leaders have only been men at best, and some of our favorites had a rather sketchy commitment to Christ and consistent Christian governance. Even the most conservative were more than a little compromised in the areas of faith, knowledge of God, and moral conduct.

I wrote this originally for our church’s weekly, Lord’s Day Eve devotional, but what does all of this have to do with the Lord’s Day? Nothing in particular, and everything. We do not gather on the Lord’s Day as Americans, per se, but as Christians, first, foremost, and fundamentally. But we are also Christians who belong to particular nations, and we ought to love, pray for, and grieve for our nation insofar as it is disobedient to God’s Son. The Lord’s Day is not about the nation, the flag, or current policy debates. It is a day of celebration, declaration, and demonstration that Christ is Lord and King. We are not separated from our social, national, and ethnic identity in worship, but neither do those historical features define us. The Church worships in the context of a higher, eternal fraternity that transcends every temporal social marker. My neighbor may be a combat veteran who gave sweat and blood for our country, and I am grateful for his service. But the Lord’s Day is a reminder that I have more in common with my brother in Christ in Afghanistan than I do with a fellow American who refuses to worship the Lord.

Some of us may get a little too wound up about the current state of affairs—though some of you are a wee bit too lackadaisical about it—but the Lord’s Day is a solemn, sovereign, spiritual reset that reorients our vision and values and reminds us of what is true and lasting. The West’s current madness is neither. It is not true, and it will not last. But the Church will, Christ’s kingdom will, the gospel will, Christian families will, the word of God will, faithful preaching will, and the plan of God ordained before the first day began will.

Our hope is in the Lord. There are no political solutions for spiritual problems. Electing conservative leaders is a good idea, akin to putting pressure on an arterial wound. It’s a good idea, but it’s not solving anything. What will? Preaching the gospel. Preaching God’s Word, the whole counsel, not just the “how to get saved” parts but everything, including Christ’s Lordship over all the nations and God’s plan for righteous government. Baptizing your children, catechizing them, teaching them to sing the Psalms and to say, “Amen!” when we pray, and training them how to live as Christians and showing them the way by your example. These are the things that God’s people must do, not just in this nation but in every nation, on the Lord’s Day and every day so long as we live in this world.

The kingdoms of men are temporal, not eternal. Wicked governance will not last, because the future belongs to Christ. He will shake every kingdom that can be shaken until only the unshakable remains. Build your house—your heart, your habits, your household, your hope—on the Rock. Don’t forsake the gathering of the Church, and don’t show up for weekly assemblies but let your heart remain elsewhere. Come, sing, pray, confess, receive, listen, learn, love, and rejoice like you mean it, because Christ is King, and nothing can ever change or thwart his sovereign rule and the future he has planned for all of creation.