NOTE

This work originally served as a resource for leaders of a local congregation facing questions about the placement of the U.S. flag in the sanctuary.

INTRODUCTION

God gathers his Church around the Word and calls this community to order its life in accord with his Word. If the Church decides to order its life around other priorities and according to other criteria, it becomes a community other than the Church. The question that faces a congregation regarding the placement of the U.S. flag in the sanctuary is the question of whether or not that congregation will order its life in accord with the Word of God.

CHURCH

I. The Church is the community that the Father gathers around his Word.
II. The Father calls the Church to encounter his Word and to proclaim it so that the Holy Spirit draws others to encounter it in turn.
III. The Church encounters and proclaims God’s Word within worship in audible, visible and tangible forms.
IV. The Church’s focus upon God’s Word distinguishes it from other communities.
V. The Church’s focus upon God’s Word dictates the criteria of its decision-making.
VI. The Church makes its decisions by asking, “How would this decision enhance or impair the Church’s proclamation of the Word?”
VII. The Church’s responsibility to God is to make decisions that enhance the proclamation of the Word while avoiding decisions that impair the same proclamation.
VIII. The Church makes its decisions about worship, in particular, according to these Word-centered criteria.
IX. Decisions about the places the Church uses for worship are decisions about worship.

SYMBOL

X. A decision whether or not to place any national symbol, and in particular, the flag of the United States of America, in places dedicated to worship, is a decision about worship.
XI. The flag is an object to which people ascribe a variety of symbolic meanings.
XII. These meanings include: “The flag represents freedom;” “The flag represents support for the nation’s military;” “The flag represents patriotism;” and “The flag represents a history at least partly described by discrimination and domination.”
XIII. Symbols with multiple meanings cannot speak with only one meaning.
XIV. Any flag, as a symbol, cannot speak with only one meaning.
XV. The question then becomes, “Would the placement of the U.S. flag, a symbol with multiple meanings, in spaces dedicated for worship, enhance or impair the Church’s proclamation of the Word?”
XVI. When people in worship view the flag and take it to represent freedom, it speaks a message consistent with the Word.
XVII. The freedom this nation gives to people derives from the freedom God gives by conquering death through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, represented symbolically by the cross; this makes the flag, as a symbol, both derivative and redundant.
XVIII. When the flag speaks of respect for the military it speaks of honoring a vocation some people accept as part of their lives as Christians.
XIX. Christians find their primary vocation or calling in baptism, the symbol of which is the font; other Christian vocations flow from this primary vocation.
XX. When the flag speaks of patriotism it speaks of a loyalty to country that may conflict with faith in God.
XXI. When the flag speaks symbolically of a history and practice of discrimination and domination it speaks at odds with the God who embraces all people as his children and grants them liberation from bondage through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
XXII. Thus, at best, the flag speaks a message that is both derivative and redundant, and at worst, a message that conflicts with the Word.

DECISION

XXIII. This leads the Church to answer the question, “Would the placement of the U.S. flag, a symbol with multiple meanings, in the space dedicated for worship, enhance or impair the Church’s proclamation of the Word?”, by saying, “Placement of the flag in the sanctuary would, on balance, impair the Church’s proclamation of the Word.”
XXIV. Thus the Church ought not place the flag in places dedicated to worship.
XXV. If it is the intention of a congregation to live faithfully as a local community of the Church, it ought not place the U.S. flag in its space dedicated for worship.

CONCLUSION

This decision is one of asking how best to proclaim the Word, a decision of discerning the Spirit and not one of tallying votes. Essentially, what the members of a congregation say and do in their gathering for worship is their sermon as God’s people. This sermon, indeed any proclamation, does not derive its content from votes to determine popular opinion, but from prayers to seek the will of God.