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28 June 2010

An Insight on Nationalism in the Church

As an American/Egyptian convert to the Coptic Orthodox Church, I am constantly seeking insight into the balance between living as a Christian in balance with national identity. This is a balance, that I find in my personal experience, is often a challenge in Orthodox Christian communities. In attending St. Barbara's Church in Chester, I was encouraged by the insights from Saint Paul found in the below sermon on the Epistle Reading (Romans 10:1-10) for the day, in which Saint Paul balances his love for his own Jewish heritage with his love for the Roman gentiles in the context of the Gospel.

Sermon on the Epistle Reading
From today's apostolic reading we learn, on the one hand, about St. Paul's love for his own Jewish people and followers of the old Law; and on the other, we hear explicitly that our salvation comes not through the Law but from Christ, whose followers we are in our capacity as Christians. There are two sets of distinct moral teachings resulting from today's first reading:

  1. As Christians and therefore as followers of Christ, we need to respect and love the nation through which we came into the world with a true and healthy sense of patriotism which must never degenerate into a nationalistic approach. St. Paul himself loved his own people and sho should we, each one of us, in our double capacity as children of the Church and also as children of our own nation. But as Christians we are obliged at the same time to love all people, because all people, irrespective of skin colour or language are our brothers and sisters in Christ, being made in the same image of God as we are ourselves. This is why St. Paul, while praying for his own Jewish people, nevertheless calls 'brothers' all Christian gentiles of Rome whom he wants to bring into the light and truth of God. The Apostle's example is therefore vividly clear: on the one hand love for his own people while on the other brotherhood to all peoples.


  2. Today's reading reminds us all that we all have, at our own disposal the means for personal salvation as well as for moral Christian conduct: the Church with its hierarchy, whereby we receive the necessary Divine and uncreated Grace of God, the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Tradition of the Church containing its own living memory of all that the Lord has done and said for our salvation, and the teachings of our Arch-Pastors who teach us the word of the Truth, i.e., Christ Crucified and Risen from the dead, Who lives and remains with us in the Holy Spirit to the end of the ages. Amen.