I did a funeral yesterday for a man who had been in the Navy during the late 60s, but had eventually been honorably discharged and lived the rest of his life in general anonymity. Generally speaking all said he was a good Christian man, well loved by his family and friends.
Out at the gravesite I did the standard committal service...a few scriptures and a prayer. To the Lord we commit this man. In doing so we proclaim that for a Christian the cross has the last word, in that though we know his body is now dead, he will arise one day with Christ. At least, that's the way we Christians would have it to be.
As I finished my brief remarks, though, the navy honor guard did their standard routine that they do at the end of all funerals for honorably discharged veterans. There was no gun salute, but there was the playing of taps (from a thing that looks like a bugle but is actually just a loud boombox held up to a man's lips, kinda silly but oh well) and the folding of the flag, its presentation to the family, and the thanksgiving on the behalf of the nation to the widow.
The nation got the last word in, as they do in so many of these funerals. We ask them to attend funerals and have the last word, even trumping what the preacher may say.
It again makes me think of the symbolism by which we do things in our country. Whether it was the church down the street from where I lived in the days after 9/11 that put a big American flag on top of the cross that sat atop their building , or a right-wing pastor that speaks of God's Plan For America regularly in his sermons, or whether it is having the last word at a funeral by speaking of service to a nation (rather than his life as a Christian), we subtly (or not so subtly) proclaim that we believe in America First. Sure, you can talk about Jesus and his salvation at the funeral in the church and the hope you have at the gravesite, but it's America and its flag that has the final say.
Why, then, are we so surprised that many 'Christians' are more about their idea of America than they are the kingdom of God?
