In every age there are those who feel they need to help God
out of hiding. God, it seems, is never without public relations
agents, who want to help Him get His name out. They have
their own reasons – some of them well-intentioned, and
some of them selfish – but the truth is that God does not
really need help getting noticed. Publicity is not His thing;
and, in fact, there are times when it seems God actually
prefers to hide. The prophet said it some twenty-eight
centuries ago, “Truly, you are a God who hides himself.” But
some of us seem to feel we have to bring God out of the
closet.
Some of the people who write about church growth, for
instance, say that no church will succeed unless it is in a
prominent location. If you are not on a main street, you won’t
make it! You have to put your church building in a place that
helps God out of hiding! I guess that is what motivated the
many churches that line Sixteenth Street; a prominent
location that symbolically links to the White House and to the
seat of power. They didn’t want God to hide.
In every age there have are those who feel they need to help
God out of hiding, to get His name in laws and on buildings
and out in the marketplace. In the year 312, Constantine,
after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, felt that Christ had
helped him win the battle that made him the undisputed ruler
of the entire Roman Empire. And so Constantine made
Christianity the only legal religion. Astonishing – what had
been a persecuted faith only a few years before was now not
only legal, but was the only legal way. Constantine brought
God out of hiding. Constantine put God at the very center of
public life. And when he did so, he ruined Christianity! He
spoiled spirituality! He violated the very essence of what it
means to be a Christian.
Before Constantine, to be a Christian meant that you might
have to hide, you might have to practice your faith in secret,
and you might even lose your life for Christ. But those early
Christians burned with a passion for Christ! They really felt
their faith. They had to pay a price for it, but they felt it
deeply and lived it day by day. That was before Constantine.
After Constantine, to be a Christian meant you were a
Roman, so, ho-hum, you got baptized, you were a church
member, no big deal. There was no danger in serving
Christ, and so there was no challenge either. Constantine
made citizenship and church membership one and the same
thing, and neither was helped. Both were diminished. For
centuries we have paid the price of a weakened church and
a careless faith – just look at the state churches of Europe
today and you will see what I mean. Great cathedrals, empty
of worshipers. Governments which nod to God but callously
ignore God’s ways. It does not do anybody any good to help
God out of hiding. God often prefers to do His work in the
shadows.
The founders of the American nation knew that. Instinctively
they recognized that they did not need to help God with a
publicity campaign. These men understood that when the
state leaves the church alone, both state and church do best.
I take as almost inspired those words of the First
Amendment, which I have memorized as if they were the
very words of Scripture, “Congress shall make no law
respecting the establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the
free exercise thereof.” Church and state should stay clear of
one another.
So here we are on the heels of a decision by the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals, to the effect that it is
unconstitutional for children to be forced into saying the
Pledge of Allegiance to the flag because of the clause that
affirms that this nation is “under God”. The court held that it
was unfair and sectarian. Those who wished to defend the
phrase argued – are you ready for this? – that the phrase
has no specific religious content! They said that it should be
allowed because it refers to God in a general way and is not
intended to support any particular faith at all! Did you catch
that – the phrase “under God” has no specific religious
content!
You know, I cannot get bent out of shape over this decision.
I am not worried about it because I know that God and His
purposes are not well-worn words in a carelessly repeated
pledge. I know that God’s sovereignty does not depend on
nebulous lip service. And I know from my Bible that there
are times when God prefers to hide, and that, when He does
so, there are some very special things that you and I need to
be doing. There are some very particular things that we
need to be about when God hides Himself.
The nation of Judah had suffered a terrible defeat at the
hands of the Babylonians. Jerusalem had been decimated.
Its great Temple had been destroyed. Its leading people had
been carted away into exile. They wondered how they could
possibly continue to be God’s people in a foreign land, where
strange gods were worshiped and where their God was not
acknowledged. How long would they have to suffer? How
long would they have to be an oppressed people? How long
until God would come out of hiding and show Himself and
take them home?
In the midst of the anguish of the people of Judah, there
comes the inspired insight of the prophet of the exile. He
said an astonishing thing. He told the people that their
deliverance would come, yes, but, first, that it would be at the
hands of not one of their own Jewish leaders, but at the
hands of Cyrus, King of the Persians; and, second, that their
deliverance would be orchestrated by a God who hides
Himself in order to be their savior.
What a strange message! Cyrus, the Persian King, who did
not know God, and who thought that he was operating out of
his own military muscle, was actually an instrument in the
hands of God, whether Cyrus knew that or not! It would be a
bit like saying that Saddam Hussein was being used to serve
the cause of Christ or that Osama bin Laden was God’s
choice to wake up America. That makes you wonder,
doesn’t it? Strange message!
But the other part is equally strange. “Truly, you are a God
who hides yourself, O God of Israel, the savior”. A God who
hides Himself. We are accustomed to talking about how
God reveals Himself. But this prophet says that sometimes
God hides Himself – and is our savior!
What does this mean for us, celebrating the 226th birthday of
our nation, and debating about a phrase, “under God”.
I
First, notice that God is able to use for His purposes
whoever and whatever He needs to use. He is God. The
prophet says,
“I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. I
arm you, though you do not know me”.
God uses what He will for His purposes. And so if He
chooses to go into hiding; if He chooses to be mysterious; if
He chooses to use the flotsam and jetsam of history in order
to accomplish His purposes, who are we to question Him?
What He does He does in order to awaken authentic faith in
His people. What He does He does in order to jar us loose
from our shallow sloganeering and our casual Christianity.
God is working His purpose out, and God will use whatever
He chooses. Our task is to wake up and see Him at work.
When we were in England a few weeks ago, we drove down
the street in Birmingham where Margaret and her family lived
during the Second World War. Margaret’s father was a
pastor and a block warden. That meant he had to see that
everybody on the street got into bomb shelters when an air
raid was coming, and then he had to get out and comfort the
wounded and the bereaved when it was all over. In the
midst of all of that, he sat scribbling in the family shelter,
struggling with where God was in the midst of war. He
concluded that God in Jesus Christ was suffering along with
us; but also that God was waking up His people. God was
using – dare I say it? – even a Hitler, a Mussolini, to work out
His purpose.
God hides; God is mystery. And we do not always see what
He is doing, but make no mistake, He is working in all things
to achieve His purpose. I cannot improve on Paul’s great
statement in the Roman letter,
“We know that all things work together for good for those who love
God, who are called according to his purpose.”
God uses whom He will for His purposes, to wake us up.
II
Second, I want you to see that the purposes of God are
justice and liberation and not slogans and phrases and
publicity. The prophet sprinkles his word liberally with these
themes:
“Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the skies rain down
righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation may spring up, and
let it cause righteousness to sprout up also; I the LORD have
created it.”
God is at work to establish justice and to create freedom.
God is calling His people to work with Him toward these
goals and not just to mouth slogans or to be satisfied with
empty phrases. Isaiah says in another place,
“These people draw near with their mouths and honor me with
their lips, while their hearts are far from me”
It is so easy for preachers, politicians, and other surface
patriots to go on crusades about words like the words of the
pledge. I say it is far better to go on a crusade for God’s
purposes, for justice and for righteousness. Words are cheap
and easily lost. Justice and freedom will endure.
Last Sunday afternoon Dr. Ngudiankama brought a message
to the La Philadelphie congregation on the theme, “Has God
Forgotten Africa?” He spoke at length about the harsh and
bloody history of the African continent and especially about
his homeland, the Congo. He told us how many had died,
and he reported on the false liberators that had appeared on
the scene, only to deepen the pain of the people. I waited
and waited for him to answer the question, “Has God
forgotten Africa?” I waited for a simple yes or no. I expected
an answer couched in rhetoric. I thought I would get a
slogan to shout. The answer that came was quite different:
“We have a lot to do”. Has God forgotten Africa? Not yes,
not no. “We have a lot to do.” “We – God’s people, the
church of Jesus Christ – we have a lot to do.”
Truly, you are a God who hide yourself, O God of Israel, the
savior, for you do not want just lip service, but life service.
You do not want empty pledges and high-sound words. You
want deeds of love and mercy. You want Kingdom actions.
You want integrity and compassion. You want justice and
righteousness.
God is hiding Himself, and using whomever He may, to wake
up His people. And when we wake, it is to the tasks of
justice and freedom.
III
So finally, I want you to know that God is hiding Himself in
order to call us to something very important. God is hiding
Himself in order to focus us on our central calling. Even
though God hides Himself, He does not leave Himself
without a witness, and so calls us to be who we are, without
apology and yet without arrogance. God calls us to help the
world see what He is doing and what He is offering. God is
calling us to our central tasks: evangelism and of missions.
Brothers and sisters, I am not bent out of shape over a
couple of words in the Pledge of Allegiance, particularly
words inserted in the flag-waving fifties. I am not concerned
about court decisions that are intended to protect the rights
of minorities. I do not join those who feel a need to be
defiant and to wrap themselves in flashy piety.
But what does bend me out of shape is the indifference of
Christians to the spiritual plight of this nation. How can we
think that a few words spoken with hands over hearts will
accomplish anything, if we are unwilling to reach those hands
over back fences or open up those hearts to our neighbors?
God is calling us to share His message of salvation. That is
the way America will become what God intends her to be, not
with noisy gongs and clanging cymbals, not with parades and
publicity rallies, but with the hard, grueling task of witness.
I’m concerned about this.
I am concerned about the indifference of Christians to the
spiritual plight of this nation, and I am concerned about
indifference and even hostility to the cause of missions.
There are whole denominations who have invented reasons
not to do missions anywhere. There are other groups who
say they are doing missions, but who would rather argue
theological points so that they can find an excuse not to do
missions here in the Nation’s Capital! It bothers me that in a
world where Islam is on the march and secularism is the
religion of the western world, we want to take care of
ourselves first and let the others eat the scraps! I’m
concerned about that.
l will tell you, on the basis of the Word of God, what I can
pledge allegiance to today. Oh, I can pledge allegiance to
the flag of the United States of America, and I have no
trouble either using or not using the “under God” phrase. I
know what God is about.
But I would far rather pledge allegiance to the God who tells
me to preach His word, in season and out of season, that all
may know of His love.
I would far prefer to pledge my allegiance to the God who so
loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever
might believe in Him would not perish, but would have
everlasting life.
I pledge my allegiance to the God who commissions me to
go to all nations, teaching them to observe all the things He
has commanded.
I pledge my allegiance to the God who is Lord of all nations,
in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and who is
working out His purpose, whether I can see it or not.
I pledge my allegiance to a hiding God, who at this Table
hides in this bread as a sign of His human flesh. I pledge my
allegiance to a hiding God, stripped of wealth and shorn of
dignity, the one from whom we hid as it were our faces, for
there was no beauty in Him that we should desire Him. I
pledge myself to the one whose cross is driven hard into the
heart of the world to tell us that He suffers along with us.
The God who used a Pontius Pilate, a Herod, a Judas to
bring us salvation. To Him and to telling His story I pledge
my allegiance.
I pledge my allegiance to a hiding God, who at this Table
hides in this cup as a sign of His blood poured out, spilled as
a sign of His sharing in the suffering of all humanity. I pledge
my allegiance to a hiding God, who in Christ Jesus feels the
agony of Africa, the anxiety of Asia, the error of Europe, and
the afflictions of the Americas. I pledge allegiance to a hiding
God.
I pledge my allegiance to be faithful in my witness,
comprehensive in my compassion, tireless in my mission.
Above all, I pledge my allegiance to a hiding God who uses
even me, even you, as He used Cyrus of old, to bring about
His purposes of justice, liberation, and salvation.
I pledge my allegiance to a hiding God.
