Self-Emptying Power

Many churches in the small country towns where I grew up have large wooden boards af xed to the back wall. On these boards are recorded, usually in faded yellow-gold text, the names of soldiers who died in the World Wars. Often the names are listed directly under the words For God, King and Empire.
This kind of memorializing seems incongruous to me. Aus- tralia was a very new country with a small population when these wars occurred. We also have a long cultural suspicion of authority that goes back to the convict era. Remembering those who died in con ict is common and occurs in many countries —but to encompass that tragedy and violence under the British king and empire grates against the slightly rebellious Austra- lian spirit. Certainly many of the soldiers criticized the British hierarchy. More terrifying to me, however, is the blasphemous co-option of the God of Jesus Christ into this kind of memorial- izing. Using God to justify war is a distortion of our faith.
In Matthew 10 we read not of the establishment of grand kingdoms and empires but of a movement that will face perse- cution, usually enforced by the governors and kings. The con- fronting reality of Christian discipleship is that it puts us at odds with many human institutions—including our good citizenship to the state. Following Jesus demands an ultimate loyalty that makes everything else secondary. In the ancient world, Chris- tian faithfulness was met with persecution. Perhaps, however, in the so-called “Christian West” we have faced a more insidious problem. The state has generally not persecuted the church but rather co-opted God for its purposes. War and sacri ce in the name of God, king, and empire? Or forgiveness, peace, and sal- vation through God alone? We cannot choose both.