Freedom Starts with a Fire” a Sermon Delivered by Rev
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“Freedom Starts with a Fire” A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell at Myers Park Baptist Church on August 30th, 2020, the Twenty-fifth Sunday of COVID-19 from Exodus 3:1-15 It all started with a fire. When was seventeen years old, my brother Andrew and I went to a Christian youth revival at Independence Arena, now called “Bojangles’ Coliseum.” The revival was called “Acquire the Fire” and it was sponsored by Teen Mania Ministries and their founder, evangelist Ron Luce. My brother and I went with the youth group from our church and we were energized by loud music from Christian rock bands like Audio Adrenaline and The Newsboys. We sang the Sonic Flood song “Light the fire, in my weary soul. Fan the flame, make my spirit whole.” When the altar call came my twelve- year-old brother Andrew was the first to respond, and I was so moved by his decision that I followed right behind him. Together on the floor of the Coliseum we made a profession of faith and we dedicated our lives to following Jesus, but neither of us with any idea where it would lead us. My faith has changed in tremendous ways since “Acquire the Fire”, but I’m not so cynical as to discount the fire of the Spirit that ignited me that day with a powerful sense of calling—a calling I did not understand at the time—a calling I have been trying to figure out, and discern, and live into ever since. It was a calling that led me into my first career as an infantry officer in the US Army because I wanted to help and protect people and serve the cause of freedom. I remember the military imagery Ron Luce used at “Acquire the Fire” to describe the “spiritual warfare” we were engaged in, appealed to me. He said, they were trying to “raise up an army of young people who would change the world for Christ.” It’s not hard to imagine how a young and impressionable white boy from a rural community who was enamored with police offers, and aspired to become a soldier, might get the wrong idea. When I was seventeen I had a lot in common with Kyle Rittenhouse, the white boy from Antioch, IL who drove to Kenosha, WI armed a semi-automatic weapon and opened fire and killed two people who were peacefully protesting the murder of Jacob Blake at the hands of the police. As the saying goes, “The shooter may have been apprehended, but the killer is still at large!” I must wonder, “Who’s the real killer?” Kyle Rittenhouse was certainly no innocent child. He is a terrorist and is actions were calculated and horrific, but what are the forces that took a young white boy from Illinois and transform him into a murderer? 1 We know about his obsession with the police, his involvement in their cadet program, and his passion for the “blue lives matter” movement. We know about his love for guns and the Confederacy. We know about his hope to be a combat Marine. We know about his admiration for the President. And we know about his desire to be a vigilante protecting local businesses. All this alone would have been enough to radicalize a young white boy for violence, but what I am curious about is his faith—his spiritual and moral formation. I want to know who his pastor is, what church he went to, and what sermons he heard growing up, because just like with Dylan Roof, somewhere along the way we failed this child. We did not train him up in the Lord. We failed to teach him how to love his neighbors. We failed to teach him the truth about Jesus and justice—God and peace. We told him a lie about God and country. Now you might be thinking, “Kyle Rittenhouse is a deranged extremist and a mentally ill lone wolf. What does he have to do with me? It’s not my fault he loved the police, listened to Trump, got a bunch of guns, and then killed a couple of protesters. It’s sad and tragic, but what does it have to do with me?” You’re right. What Kyle Rittenhouse did is not our fault, but he is our responsibility. Hear that again: It is not our fault, but it is our responsibility. He’s not a lone wolf. He’s our son, he’s the kid down the street, our daughter’s boyfriend, the boy in our neighborhood, at school, or church, the kid on the football team. He’s just another white boy growing up in America, and that means he is our responsibility. We cannot turn away and say that he is somebody else’s problem. Kyle Rittenhouse was raised in a specific American tradition—one that masquerades as a form of Christianity but has nothing in common with Christ. It is a tradition that conflates faith in Jesus with faith in America—a tradition that confuses freedom in Christ with freedom for violence and war. And as followers of Jesus, it is our responsibility to stand against anything that misconstrues the mission and message of our faith. In their book, Taking America Back for God, Andrew Whitehead and Sam Perry define Christian Nationalism as “a cultural and ethnic framework that idealizes a fusion of Christianity with American civic life, and assumes nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism.” This week the Vice President appealed to the deadly tradition of Christian Nationalism in a speech where he butchered Hebrews chapter 12 and rewrote his own version of the Bible where he replaced Jesus with America and the cross with the flag, proclaiming, “So let’s run the race marked out for us. Let’s fix our eyes on Old Glory and all she represents. Let’s fix our eyes on this land of heroes and let their courage inspire. And let’s fix our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith and our freedom.” 2 The only faith in the Veep’s translation of the Bible is to idolize America and worship the flag. It’s the equivalent of telling the Hebrew people to idolize Egypt and worship the Pharaoh, or idolize Babylon and worship Nebuchadnezzer, or idolize Rome and worship Caesar. This is Empire Christianity at its finest, the epitome of Christian Nationalism, and it is the tradition of enslavers and occupiers. The Christian Nationalism that undergirds the Vice President’s blasphemous use of Hebrews 12 is the answer to a stunning question posed by scholar William Cavanaugh at the beginning his book Theopolitical Imagination: “How does a provincial farm boy become persuaded that he must travel as a soldier to another part of the world and kill people he knows nothing about?” We could ask a similar question, “How does a white boy from Antioch become persuaded that he must travel as a vigilante to another state and kill people he knows nothing about?” It all starts with a perverted vision of faith and freedom. Who we put our faith in and what we mean by freedom will determine whether our path leads to violence and death or justice and life. Have we put our faith in God or the Empire; God or the emperor; God or Pharaoh; God or Caesar; God or King, God, or the President? Are we perusing freedom from the Empire or freedom for the Empire? The biblical tradition of Israel, Jesus, and the early church was always about faith in God against the Empire—and freedom from imperial power, not the other way around. In the biblical tradition, freedom always starts with fire. Elijah called down fire from heaven. Jeremiah said there was a fire shut up in his bones. Malachi prophesied about the “refiner’s fire.” John the Baptist said Jesus would baptize people with fire. The church was born from the fire of the Spirit that descended upon the apostles. Freedom, liberation, deliverance, and salvation always starts with fire. “It only takes a spark…” the old campfire song goes, “to get a fire going…that’s how it is with God’s love!” God’s love is an all-consuming fire hell bent on freedom and release. The story of God, and God’s people, is a story of liberation, and it is a story that begins with fire—the fire of a burning bush that was not consumed. Moses was already a free man living in Midian when he saw the fire. He had a nice life as a shepherd, a new wife named Zipporah, and if he played his cards right he would inherit a good portion of his father- in-law Jethro’s land. Moses lived a truly pastoral life, and could have lived out the rest of his days in peace and freedom tending to his goats and enjoying his wife, far out on the reach of Pharaoh, in the wide open space outside the empire of Egypt. Moses wanted nothing to do with Egypt; he had bad history there. Remember, Moses was a killer. He saw an Egyptian police officer beating up a Hebrew slave and he killed the soldier and hid the imperial agent in the sand. Moses he was wanted for murder in Egypt by the Pharaoh! 3 But Moses had put all that behind him and was living a peaceful life—that is until he saw the fire and had an encounter with YHWH, “I AM that I AM;” the God of existence itself—Creation and New Creation—Life and Liberation—Faith and Freedom.