[Dailydevo] Daily Devotion Thursday February 1, 2007

[bludwig at zlc-aa.org]

Daily Devotion Thursday  February 1, 2007

 

The devotions this week are prepared by Pastor Ludwig. He looks at more
favorite hymn phrases.

 

Onward Christian Soldiers St. 1

"Onward Christian soldiers, Marching as to war,

With the cross of Jesus Going on before,

Christ the royal master, Leads against the foe;

Forward into battle, see his banners go!

Onward Christian soldiers, Marching as to war,

With the cross of Jesus Going on before."

 

As a child, we sang this hymn at least monthly in church.  I remember that
we sang it on my confirmation Sunday as the closing hymn while my eighth
grade class marched out to form the receiving line. Unlike most old favorite
hymns, this one seems to have completely fallen out of favor.  After the
Vietnam War, a generation of Americans lost their stomach for war and
Christians avoided any language that sounded militant or militaristic. This
is perhaps not a bad outcome. In retrospect, this grand old hymn seems more
reminiscent of Western empires (the composer lived in 19th century England -
"the Empire upon which the sun never set")  than the Kingdom of God (where
Jesus teaches us to love our enemy and pray for those who persecute us).

 

For far too many centuries the cross of Jesus has been carried into battle
ahead of Christian armies or invoked as the reason for a "just" war. In
truth the cross is not an ensign of a nation's just cause for war, but a
sign of human cruelty that has been trumped by the grace of God who, in
Jesus Christ is Lord of forgiveness and life, not warfare and death.

 

There is however a daily battle which we must fight in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It is the battle against our own inner fear or anger.  It is
the battle against all of the "isms" that reside inside us.  We
instinctively judge the character of a person by her gender, place of
origin, or color of skin or clothes they wear or the odor of their body or
the age of their body.  We must indeed lift high the cross as we confront
our own prejudices.  As Lutherans are wont to say, "We must daily die to sin
and rise to newness of life."  Fight the good fight my friend!

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