Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
In this week’s gospel, King Herod begins to crack up as he remembers what he did: he had someone kill John the Baptizer and put his head on a platter to fulfill an open-ended promise to his daughter. Its a weird, tragic story, full of emotions and our own moral outrage.
This, however, is what kings do. They get people to kill other people. Does it really matter why? No. But the why in this case invites something else we might struggle with. And that is a more fundamental issue that can resonate for us now, especially this time of year: nationalism.
As Christians, we say there is only one king, God. There is only one kingdom, God’s. It isn’t enough that we claim to put God first and then celebrate our country like it is our own birthday, because there is so little of God in our celebrating. Here there is much more of an implied blessing from God than blessing of God. Much more manifest destiny and national exceptionalism. We aren’t to put God before our country and then pretend a devotion to country is never in conflict with God.
In 1960, people feared that a Roman Catholic president would put the church before the state. But it is the Christian’s lament that any Christian ever be president. For they will always put the welfare of the country before the reign of God; not because they swear an oath to do exactly that, but because most Christians already do that.
With love,
Drew