Eighty-three years ago today an event took place that resulted in the establishment of Veteran's Day, November 11.  On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, an Armistice was signed that ended World War One, the "war to end all wars."  It had been a terrible few short years where millions of lives from dozens of nations were senselessly lost in thousands of miles of trenches all over Europe.  It was there a horrible monster called chemical warfare first raised its head to destroy human life.  And because World War One was followed by World War Two, then Korea, Viet Nam and a dozen other wars, November 11 became Veterans Day.

          The hundred years of the Twentieth Century gave rise to so many extremes.  Great medical advances saving millions came alongside the genocidal killing of millions.  Computers changed the world forever, but so did drug abuse.  World-class scholars and athletes were overshadowed by world-class fiends and terrorists.  The advancement of education in the west came with suppression of education in the east.  The great names of the past ten decades should have been Einstein, Churchill, Roosevelt and Billy Graham.  But even more remembered will be Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Tse Tung.  And now we have started the Twenty-First Century with the likes of Osama bin Laden and the extremists of Islam who have spread their religion to every continent or nation, always with the point of a gun or the edge of a sword.

          Last Wednesday thirty Lutheran pastors met here at Epiphany and heard the Iman - high priest - of the Colorado Islamic Society.  What I learned from his impassioned speech is that Muslims have little in common with Christians.  The forced submission of Islam has little to do with the free peace of God.  And we heard directly that Muslims do want to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of the world.  The Iman said over and again that Islam, Christianity and Judaism are one and the same;  all people just need to believe what the Koran teaches and they will be one.  But my friends, the god of Islam, the god of the Jews, and the Triune God are not one and the same, and we do not honor our God or other religions by glossing over the differences.

          Since the tragic mass murder of September 11, there has been a sort of good will expressed, a unity of all people as a reaction to the ugliness we all saw at the hand of terrorists.  This is good because it has helped diffuse hostilities that could easily be worse.  But it has resulted in many Christians adopting an oft easy-going ecumenical attitude that would combine all different faiths into one single homogenized new religion.  We hear it from people who are saying, "Isn't it too bad we're fighting each other since we all believe in the same god?"

          There are two problems with this statement.  First, it's not true.  The god of Islam, the god of the Jews, and the Triune God are not merely different faces of the same being.  They are three different gods, and One is right while the other two are wrong.  Secondly, it's a sign of disrespect.  Though the intention of combining all three may be seem a kind thing, it is disrespectful not to take seriously different concepts of the truth.  We are not the same kind of apple growing on different branches of the same tree.  There is a real tree with real fruit and there are fake trees with no fruit.  We believe in the Holy Trinity, that three Persons - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - are united in One God.  The Persons are different, but are of the same essence.

          The doctrine of the Trinity is perhaps the most neglected doctrine that we have and hold.  We assume it, we're baptized in the name of it, it's in all our creeds, and yet we rarely talk of it.  Why?  Maybe because we can't fully understand or explain it.  Maybe we just don't see why it's important.  It's one of those things we check off on our list of beliefs to be Christian, but it's not something that we wake up every day and then go to our knees about in prayer.

          And so we tend to shove it to the side - until all of a sudden we find ourselves in a discussion with a Muslim, who says to us, "Oh, you Christians claim to believe in one God, but really you believe in three gods."  And then we think maybe he's right, that there is really just one god with different names, Allah, Jehovah or Jesus - all about the same.  But don't believe it!  There is one and only One true God and all others are false!  Even logic tells us if there are three gods, they can't all be right.

          You may be wondering what this has to do with rendering unto Caesar.  As Christians we do believe in separation of church and state.  And after hearing the Iman tell us that Islam wants to unite the world under Allah, now I believe it more than ever.  It's not that state must be protected from the church, or vice versa, but that both are protected from undue influence upon the other.  As free Americans we cannot impose our beliefs on others;  each of us must be free to choose to believe as we desire.

          As Christians, we are citizens of two kingdoms - the Kingdom of Grace and the Kingdom of Power.  The Kingdom of Grace is the umbrella of God's love that touches every part of life;  it's our citizenship in heaven, and our authority is the Word of God.  The Kingdom of Power is our citizenship on earth as Americans.  Our authorities here are the laws of Constitution and state.  We live as free people in both kingdoms, yet we have responsibilities and obligations to both.  We must acknowledge and honor God and His laws, and we must also obey civil laws unless they conflict with the Christian faith.  When civil law goes against God's Law, then we follow the words of St. Peter, "We must obey God rather than man." (Acts 5:29)

          We also have responsibility and obligations as citizens of the Kingdom of Grace.  We are to be regular in our worship and prayer, loving God above all and loving our neighbors as ourselves.  Just as the price of freedom is constant vigilance, so also the price of Christianity is constant faith.  We are God's servants, called on to live and love as ambassadors of Jesus Christ.

          In these days of a hidden yet real war, we rally to support our nation.  We are proud to fly the flag and may get emotional singing patriotic songs.  Our strong support of national leaders is evident in their high approval ratings.  State and federal leaders have set aside petty differences in a wonderful show of unity against an evil and invisible enemy.  We're rendering unto Caesar with our soldiers and our wealth and our obedience to law.  When this business of terrorism is over - and I pray it is over soon - we will all, young and old, be veterans, veterans of a nation held hostage by those who hate us.

          But what does it mean when we sing, "Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war"?  Is there a conflict with having flags in our church?  In this affluent society it is a struggle to follow God's will.  Resisting temptation makes us veterans, not of foreign wars, but of internal wars, those daily struggles to do what is right and avoid what is wrong.  You and I are veterans of the cross, with many battles under our belts, some outside of us, but most within our hearts.  The devil, the world and our sinful self seek to tear us away from the grip of God's grace.  Thanks be to God we are not judged merely by our temptations, even though we may occasionally fall.  Thanks be to God we are judged by our faith in Christ.  In Him each day is a new start.  By faith in Him, we are forgiven because He gave His life for us on the cross.

          During my first year in college I had to room with two other guys, and fortunately we all were fairly good housekeepers.  Upstairs, however, were two fellows who didn't clean their room even once during the year.  Cans, pizza boxes, books, paper and dirty laundry were everywhere and they could never find their homework.  We used to call their room the Concordia swamp.  If you live with others, you have to have some order.  The difference between a river and a swamp is that a river is confined within its banks while a swamp is not.  Because a river is confined and channeled, it has life and power and is useful.  Life without some restriction is a swamp.

          You and I can never be truly free without rendering unto Caesar, bringing some order into the chaos.  May God always keep us free to be His forgiven servants.  Amen

Copyright © 2001 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.