Statues and Flags

Rather than a Scripture reading today I want to offer a few thoughts regarding statues, flags, and monuments.  This is the fourth of July weekend, and over the course of the past 5 – 6 weeks now there has been all kinds of divisiveness going on.  Statues and monuments have come down; flags are changing; and people have either celebrated or demonized those who have taken those actions.  At a speech at Mount Rushmore our president derided those who have removed statues calling them "angry mobs,  trying to tear down statues of our Founders" and "deface our most sacred memorials."

I wonder what does Jesus think of statues we have removed.  Flags that have been taken down? I can’t say for sure. I think of Joseph Heller’s humorous thought in his little book God Knows where he envisions King David in heaven complaining about Michelangelo’s statue of him in Florence: “It doesn’t look anything like me” he says. 

There are beautiful statues, and then some really not so beautiful ones of Jesus himself.

We are a polarized country, and there are some who celebrate the removal of statues and some who are mortified by it.  Some say "Symbols matter!" Others say,  "It’s just a statue."  I remember a certain delight we all experienced when Saddam Hussein’s statue was pulled down. 

When we witness assaults on monuments, and the reflex to save them, what we see isn’t so much about this or that statue or person. It’s rage at a whole world that has failed us – on both sides of the divide. Half of us are afraid that the world we’ve known and treasured is crumbling around us; the other half are afraid that the world they dream of will never actually dawn. If we just fix this, or save that, we'll hold off all we fear.

My question is one I think Jesus would ask us: How do we reflect on public images and their hurtful or helpful impact on people?  How do we preserve history while understanding why and how it matters? History matters. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, reminding us that the most common word in the Bible for “sin” is to “forget,” declares that “the guardian of conscience is memory… Civilizations begin to die when they forget.”

Should we forget Robert E. Lee? When his statue came down: many were glad, many were miffed. Was he evil – as a person? Or in the cause his life was defined by? By all accounts he was a noble genius – who fought to preserve southernness, including slavery. He was a pious person; but who symbolizes the systematic oppression of black people more than Lee?

Does seeing a statue of Robert E. Lee traumatize people? Some, yes. Famously, the Sunday after the war ended, Lee alone responded well when a freed slave walked to the altar of the St. Paul’s Episcopal church in Richmond, Virginia. Other worshipers were appalled, but Lee knelt next to him at the altar. Not surprisingly, this story is disputed. Should we learn about him, and ponder such a life?

The truth is, all people are deeply flawed. If we remove all statues of people with some embarrassing flaw, we’ll have no statues. Abraham Lincoln – rather than wanting to incorporate blacks into American life – wanted to send them to another country.  Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. The Boston Tea Party was looting, the wanton destruction of somebody else’s property. Martin Luther said and wrote some very awful things about the Jewish people.  The history books are jammed with anti-Semites, racists, philanderers, oppressors. Nothing but us broken sinners down here, O Lord.

I totally get that symbols can be hurtful, and can insidiously prop up what is not of God. We have good cause to abolish some symbols. In Germany, if you raise a flag with a swastika, you go to jail. Yet in America, we say the Confederate flag is freedom of speech. But we agree as a democratic people that not every freedom of speech can pass. Nudists can’t express themselves in public. And I’ve found that some of the people who wave a confederate flag and claim freedom of speech rage against a ballplayer taking a knee during the National Anthem.

Does Jesus favor taking the knee or standing at attention?

I feel sure Jesus wants us first of all to dig beneath the surface and confess we are all broken. We are all hypocrites. We all have blind spots. And then that no image or statue will save us, or destroy us. As the Bible says over and over again, the only image of God’s goodness we can trust is the image of God in Jesus, and the image of God in every person. It’s in me, in you, in the other person you think is amazing and the one whose viewpoint drives you crazy. 

Let’s pray:  Lord, as we celebrate our countries independence this weekend, remind us that we are all broken.  There is much that we have to love and celebrate about this country that we live in, and there is much that falls short of your ideals for us.  In the midst of everything, remind us of the promise we receive in Scripture – that our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are awaiting a Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord, in whose name we pray.  Amen.