I love logic grid puzzles. Maybe you’ve played around with these for fun (Brainzilla.com has a lot of them). If you took the Graduate Record Exam general exam to get into a graduate program, these made up the entire Analytical sections. Besides being good brain exercise, these puzzles reinforce one basic truth: Only one item (or person) can occupy a single ordinal space at a time. For example, if Alice is the fourth person in line, she cannot also be the first in line. Additionally, if that fourth space holds Alice, it cannot also hold Stephen. Only one thing, person, or value can be first.
Jesus says this. He says in Matthew, “You cannot worship both God and money because you’ll end up loving one and hating the other.” One or the other has to be first. If you look at the history of the Israelites, they got in trouble as a nation and with God when they tried to, what I call, “hedge their bets.” This was when they followed the law–sort of–and observed the high holy days but also enjoyed some Ba’al and Asherah worship, just to ensure they’d get the rain they needed for a good harvest. (Plus, the Asherah worship came with sex, so not exactly a hard sell for the Israelites.) They tried to give both Yahweh and the Canaanite deities equal footing, tried to put them both in first place.
Just like you can’t worship both God and money, you can’t worship both God and, well, anything else. Maybe you don’t think of it as “worshiping” something else, but there’s an awful fine line between “liking” something and idolizing something. I may like watching soccer, but when I skip church to be able to watch that particular match, then my enjoyment of the game has replaced my worship of God. Perhaps it’s “for the kids.” They love playing soccer, but what am I teaching them when I allow them to miss church to follow their passion? I’m teaching them that worshiping God within the community of believers isn’t that important.
If someone were to say, “I should always be number one! I should always get what I want before everyone else!” we’d likely look at them with the side eye, thinking they’re selfish. And they would be acting selfishly. The Word of God speaks against this type of mindset. In First Corinthians 11, Paul instructs the people of that church there not to take more than they need at the fellowship meal, to leave some for those who are less well off. There was a pecking order, where the higher class members got to go first through the line. If they took what they felt was their “right,” then there wouldn’t be any left for their brothers and sisters in Christ who were in line behind them.
The Bible teaches that it’s not about being first. God’s got that place already locked in. Jesus says that if anyone wants to be first, then they must be last of all. It takes humility to let others go first. Within community, we each take just enough to ensure that everyone has what they need.
So what does all this have to do with “America First”? The idea is selfish. If we are going to tout that we’re a “Christian nation” (we’re not, so don’t worry about that), but we’re acting in a way that blatantly violates the Word of God, then we are nothing but a nation of hypocrites. And if you’re saying, “America first,” guess who’s not first for you? That’s right. God can’t occupy a spot that you’ve placed something else into. Just like with a logic puzzle, only one value can occupy each ordinal spot, and if America is first, then God isn’t.
What I’ve observed the past few months is that a policy of “America not-first” has actually strengthened us as a nation. That big guy in the church community who thinks he’s all that and more and acts in selfish ways, believing he doesn’t need anyone, actually ends up suffering for the lack of community and interdependence. Sure, he may look tough and independent and strong, but he’s living apart from how God created him. On the other hand, the guy who is vulnerable and leans on people in his community may look weak by worldly standards but actually emerges as strong because he has the backing of all these other people.
We looked silly as the big nation that tried to act like it was all that. Trying to be independent means not being interdependent. Not only were we not helping other nations, we also weren’t accepting help from other nations, and this left us vulnerable. Yet, they didn’t forget us. Our allies waited and wondered. They wondered what happened to our little experiment in democracy and waited to see if we’d come back to the community. And, thankfully, we have. We don’t want to give of ourselves to our own detriment, but we also have to realize that we do need the help and support of our allies from time to time. It’s the same on the global scale as it is in each of our small communities. I, for one, feel better that we have rejoined our global community, for it is in community that things get done that hastens the coming of the Kingdom of God.
