“I’ve Been Wondering . . .” Why Is the American Flag Not Displayed?

Christopher Q. James

The following is an example of what I call “‘I’ve Been Wondering . . . ’: FAQs about Worship.” These are brief(ish) explanations about worship and our liturgical space that appear periodically in the worship bulletin of the New Hope Presbyterian Church, St. Charles, Missouri. 

Why is the American flag not displayed in our worship space?

The short answer to this question is “symbols matter.” We gather as we do each week to worship the triune God. We gather as Christians (or at least aspiring Christians), and we incorporate particular items to facilitate our worship. Pastor and theologian Gordon Lathrop calls them “holy things.” Water, bread and wine, and the Word are the primary holy things that facilitate our worship, and they are carried by the baptismal font, the Lord’s Table, the pulpit. These holy things are all symbols that point to something beyond themselves, and they enable us in our worship to enact the story of salvation. These holy things tell something about who God is and who we are as a result.

Not only what symbols we use but how we use them matters. There is seldom only one right way to use these symbols, these holy things, but the way a particular congregation uses them speaks to what it believes about God. And the way we use them also forms us, shapes us, and communicates what we believe. For instance, here at New Hope we have chosen to put our baptismal font in the middle of our space so that we literally gather around it when we worship. These waters that wash us and welcome us into the Christian faith stand at the very center because we are always being welcomed into the Christian community over and over again. Whether you were baptized a hundred years ago or just last week, these waters continue to welcome us and tell us we are beloved children of God. The Lord’s Table is on the same level as the congregation and set for a meal every time we gather to feed us on Christ’s very self as nourishment for our journey of faith. And the pulpit bears the book that contains our story as God’s people from which we hear over and again who we are because of who God is.

At times throughout the year we employ other items symbolically as well, all of which convey meaning. The Advent wreath grows in light each week as we anticipate the coming of Christ at Christmas. During Lent, we remove live plants and adorn the space with sticks to connote the dry wilderness of the Lenten journey as Jesus makes his way to Jerusalem and the cross. The Paschal candle is lighted at the Easter vigil to proclaim that the light that is Christ shines in the darkness of death and the darkness does not overcome it. Symbols matter. They tell us who we are and shape us into the people we aspire to be. They communicate the essential truths we hold most dear.

So back to that question about the flag in the worship space. Certainly, the American flag is an important, powerful symbol, but it has nothing to do with Christianity. The American flag (or for that matter, the flag of any nation) in worship alongside the holy things risks equating, however unwittingly, an unholy alliance between nationalism and religion that never leads anywhere good. Christianity is transnational and, as Christians, our citizenship is far broader than that of any one nation. We must always take care that the symbols we employ in our worship serve to form us in ways that unite us together with the church universal.