A trip overseas usually means a turn to the Prayer Book. In Turkey for the past two years, we conducted Christian services in various Turkish hotels by relying upon either the morning or evening prayer service. For elders who are licensed to preach looking for a place to worship in a known tongue within a society where mosques were more frequent than whiskey bottles, the Book of Common Prayer came in handy.
And so it continues to do in places where they do (mostly) speak English — like Dublin. I went to evensong yesterday at the Church of Ireland’s cathedral in Dublin and once again was impressed that if the Anglicans keep to the Bible and the prayer book, they come out okay.
One of yesterday’s readings was God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:2: “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.”
About this Calvin has little to say on the topic of national greatness (or what some call exceptionalism, nationalism, or patriotism):
Hitherto Moses has related what Abram had been commanded to do; now he annexes the promise of God to the command; and that for no light cause. For as we are slothful to obey, the Lord would command in vain, unless we are animated by a superadded confidence in his grace and benediction. Although I have before alluded to this, in the history of Noah, it will not be useless to inculcate it again, for the passage itself requires something to be said; and the repetition of a doctrine of such great moment ought not to seem superfluous. For it is certain that faith cannot stand, unless it be founded on the promises of God. But faith alone produces obedience. Therefore in order that our minds may be disposed to follow God, it is not sufficient for him simply to command what he pleases, unless he also promises his blessing. We must mark the promise, that Abram, whose wife was still barren, should become a great nation. This promise might have been very efficacious, if God, by the actual state of things, had afforded ground of hope respecting its fulfillment; but now, seeing thatthe barrenness of his wife threatened him with perpetual privation of offspring, the bare promise itself would have been cold, if Abram had not wholly depended upon the word of God; wherefore, though he perceives the sterility of his wife, he yet apprehends, by hope, that great nation which is promised by the word of God. And Isaiah greatly extols this act of favor, that God, by his blessing, increased his servant Abram whom he found alone and solitary to so great a nations (Isaiah 2:2.)
No political theology there. And why should there be since the greatness of that promise lay not in the prospects of Israel or Judah as political or social entities, both of whom would decline after Solomon, self-destruct, and become doormats for either the Babylonians or the Persians? Surely the Israelites aspired to national greatness; they wanted a king, got one good and hard, and even had a brief run with Solomon and all his wisdom. But that didn’t work out so well. And God’s promise to Abraham of national greatness was still in play, no matter what came of the nation that took the name of Abraham’s offspring. It’s all spiritual, all the time.
Old Life 
Welcome to the British Isles!
You do know, don’t you, that you are likely to be using a sanitised version of the BCP? It’ll have a service marking the accession of the monarch, but I think it no longer contains services for the martyrdom of King Charles I, or for the anniversary of deliverance of the nation from the machinations the Gunpowder Plotters. (To aid you in further ruminations regarding 2-K and the ‘christianisationism’ of a past era.)
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Paul, we high maintenance Americans like sanitization.
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9 Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family….‘Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.”… 5 And he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself….
7 When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and cried aloud and said to them, “Listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, that God may listen to you.
8 The trees once went out to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ 9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees?’ 10 And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees?’ 12 And the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 13 But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?’ 14 Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 15 And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade, but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’
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This reminds me of, from Calvin’s discussion of Rahab, “We know that the love of our country, which is as it were our common mother, has been implanted in us by nature”, but I guess it’s not really related.
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RubeRad,
I think you (and Calvin) are pointing out an important distinction lost on most Americans, the natural love of a person for their home, the land and their people, vs. a love for one’s government and all its exploits right or wrong. Calling it love of country is confusing as most people think the Federal Gov’t is the country. A person that would not defend their family and neighbors is a vile person but a person who signs up to wave flags and support an empire right or wrong is probably worse.
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Reading Luke this morning:
20 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”[h]
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Doug: In your response to RubeRad, your sentence should read: “A person WHO would not defend HIS family or neighbors…” What was the name of that suspiciously inexpensive college you went to, again? LOL
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Richard,
Any relation to Racquel Zuelch?
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Darryl, after many years under the “higher life” influence outside institutional Christianity and then a few years in-the-wood-between-worlds, it was the BCP and occasional attendance at an Episcopal church that started me on the road to Reformed Christianity. Why? Because Cranmer’s liturgy has at its heart the doctrine of justification through faith alone.
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Sean, we can’t point to the glorious revolutions of 1567, 1689, and 1776 the way Kuyper did? OH NO!!!
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Erik: Sadly, no… Heh.
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The prayer of humble access and prayer for consecration of the elements in the service of Holy Communion is straight forward Calvinism.
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