In
1 Samuel 8, the people of Israel demanded a king. In doing so, they divided authority and
influence in Israel between the priesthood and the kingship, effectively erecting
a wall of separation of church and state.
It worked pretty well----- for a while.
In
1 Samuel 9, God chose Saul of the tribe of Benjamin to be the 1st
king of united Israel. Saul was anointed
by Samuel, the great prophet and priest.
In 1 Samuel 10, Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit and confirmed the
hand of God on him by prophesying alongside the sons of the prophets. In chapter 11, Saul showed decisive leadership
and a heroic heart by bringing the tribes together to rescue the besieged town
of Jabash Gilead. He even showed a
merciful heart by pardoning a hardline group who had initially refused to recognize
his right to the throne (1 Samuel 11: 12,13).
By this demonstration of mercy in the midst of military power Saul even
won over Samuel, who had been anything but enthusiastic about this whole
make-us-a-king thing.
Then Samuel said to the people, “Come,
let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there.” So all the
people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord in
Gilgal. There they made sacrifices of peace offerings before the Lord, and
there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. (1 Samuel 11: 14-15)
The
king was doing good things on his side of the wall, and the church (the
priesthood) was doing good things on its side of the wall. The system was working just fine.
But,
then.
When
we get to chapter 13, Saul reaches over the wall of separation and takes it
upon himself to offer a sacrifice that only the priest could offer. (Think of it like an unordained state
governor deciding to offer communion or a line of presidents dictating Christian
theology.)
The
state just up and occupied territory that was supposed to belong to the church. The state moved the wall and pushed the
church farther back.
But
there was a reaaaally good reason: it was
a matter of national security.
And Samuel said, “What have you done?”
Saul said, “When I saw that the people
were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days
appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then
I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not
made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt
offering.” (1 Samuel 13: 11-12)
See? Saul HAD to (he felt “compelled”) take a
little more control of the religious establishment because he was losing public
support for a military campaign.
Thank
goodness, that kind of stuff doesn’t happen in modern America. [Insert emoticon for sarcasm here.]
In
chapter 14, King Saul declared a fast in the middle of battle and then accused
the people of sinning when God didn’t immediately answer his prayer for
direction in battle (1 Samuel 14: 24, 37, 38).
So,
King Saul, head of state and commander-in-chief, was about to kill his own son
Jonathan for eating a spoonful of honey without permission. And this was despite the facts that (a)
Jonathan didn’t know about his father’s stupid order to fast while running
around in he desert fighting Philistines; and (b) Jonathan had overrun an
entire Philistine base with only his armor-bearer as back-up; and the armor-bearer
didn’t even have a sword. (1 Samuel 13: 22; 14: 1-14)
Oh,
and if you read chapter 14 carefully (verses 31-33), you’ll see that EVERYBODY
broke the fast and Saul knew it. So,
the only reason he was tripping about “sin” was that he was embarrassed and
angry that GOD had the audacity to keep him, the freakin’ king of all Israel,
waiting on the answer to a prayer.
The
state pushed the wall back a little further.
In
chapter 15, Saul just flat out disobeyed God.
Why? Because it was better for
the economy.
Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I will
punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the
way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and
utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them.”
But Saul and the people spared Agag and the
best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was
good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and
worthless, that they utterly destroyed. (1 Samuel 15: 1-3,9)
And
then, with a straight face, Saul declared this his DISobedience was actually
what God wanted.
Samuel asked Saul, “Why then did you not
obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil
in the sight of the Lord?”
And Saul said to
Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on
which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly
destroyed the Amalekites. (1 Samuel 15: 18-20)
By
what possible logic could the king conclude that doing the opposite of what God
had said was the same as having obeyed
the voice of the Lord?
Saul/
the king/ the state decided that public opinion determines what God REALLY
means. The state/ the culture decided
that when the expressed Word of God conflicts with the opinions, economic
interests, or national security priorities of the state then they can just
change what God’s Word means.
And
they push the wall back farther and farther.
What
was meant to be a wall of separation between the church and the state
inevitably becomes a wall of confinement around the church.
When
the state can outline the constraints of speech in the pulpit but the pulpit has
no right to speak in state facilities or on matters of the state, then the wall
between church and state has become a wall around the church---- a very, very
small and continually shrinking wall.
And
don’t misunderstand what or who “the state” is.
The state is not just the collective of duly elected and appointed officials. The state is the nation, the country itself.
Look
around and you’ll see that the church is being shut out from the life of the
country itself. And where the church or
churches do have great influence, it is often as mere mouthpieces for the
political agenda of other “parties.”
Let
me make it plain.
T(And
oh, the theological acrobats used to try to make the capital gains tax into a
crucial heaven-or-hell spiritual issue.)
Whatever. I’m right.
November
2011 Mormonism was a cult. January 2012 when Romney was about to win the
nomination, suddenly the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was just
another Christian denomination of our brothers and sisters.
And.
The
progressive, urban (Black) church hasn’t composed an original thought on social
issues since Reagan’s 1st election.
We have parroted the Democratic party platform even when candidates’ positions
and personal morality was so absolutely the opposite of what God’s Word says.
We
have been so afraid to divide the vote that we wrongly divided the Word of Truth. And now, we have the audacity to do, say, and
endorse the opposite of what God expressly said, and do it all in Jesus’ actual
name. (Yes, I’m talking about homosexualty,
but doggone it, I’m talking about a whole lot of other stuff too.)
The
American church in all its various branches has become institutionalized behind
our tiny wall. We have developed
spiritual Stockholm
syndrome, and allied ourselves with the very forces that have pushed
Christianity to the fringes of American society.
Wake
da’ crap up, church!
Ya’ll
been locked up too long.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon
Me,
Because He
has anointed Me
To
preach the gospel to the poor;
He has
sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To
proclaim liberty to the captives
And
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set
at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4: 18-19)
Stop
begging THEM to pull down the wall.
Climb over it.
Put
down the talking points and get back to the Word of God. Speak truth to power, beginning with the
power for which you usually vote.
Or,
don’t.
But
I guarantee you this because this is the way it’s always been: the state will
not stop shrinking the wall, not until they have completely crushed you with
it.
Then King Saul said to the guards who stood about him, “Turn and
kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with
David, and because they knew when he fled and did not tell it to me.” But the
servants of the king would not lift their hands to strike the priests of the Lord.
18 And the king said to Doeg, “You turn and kill the priests!” So
Doeg the Edomite turned and struck the priests, and killed on that day
eighty-five men who wore a linen ephod. 19 Also Nob, the city of
the priests, he struck with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children
and nursing infants, oxen and donkeys and sheep—with the edge of the sword. (1
Samuel 22: 17-19)
Anderson T. Graves II is a
writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II
is pastor of Miles
Chapel CME Church (5220
Myron Massey Boulevard) in Fairfield, Alabama; executive director of the
Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural leadership development for the
National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves
