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Today, as you depart from Communion, you will walk by the Paschal Candle that has been burning in this sanctuary since the Great Vigil of Easter.
And you are invited to take a lit candle back to the pews with you, and then out of this building and into the world. The symbolism is simple: the flame moves, it travels, from Jesus the person to the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, who becomes our companion on this spiritual journey… a partner universally present to all, yet uniquely tailored for each one of us. This flame is a symbol of our Christian identity as Pentecost people. An identity put on at Baptism
It is with this light in mind, that I want to share with you a cautionary tale.
It was the summer of 1530. Augsburg, in southern Germany, the heart of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Charles V had summoned the princes of Germany to settle, once and for all, the religious turmoil Martin Luther’s Reformation had unleashed.
Luther himself could not attend, as he was in hiding, so his colleague Philip Melanchthon arrived with a document of twenty-eight articles, meant to show that the Lutherans were not heretics but faithful Christians seeking to live the Jesus life.
Charles V was not convinced, and the Catholic theologians rejected it. The conference ended in failure beginning 25 years of war; war in which God was pasted to the flag of each side. Lutheran princes and Catholic princes, each convinced that the survival of true Christianity depended on their military victory. Armies met armies, both in the name of the Prince of Peace.
After 25 years with bankrupted governments and people tired of fighting and dying, fighting and dying, finally, everybody just went home. That is often how wars end, even today.
But the leaders, having to justify themselves, on September 25, 1555 signed an armistice built on the organizing principle. Cuius regio, eius religio. Whose realm, his religion- meaning whatever territory you lived in, whatever prince ruled over you, his religion was your religion.
Catholic prince – Catholic people. Lutheran prince – Lutheran people. If you disagreed, you were free to sell your property and leave. But if you stayed, you conformed. Your relationship with God was no longer between you and God. It was about where you lived and who had power over you.
It was a peace, however, that couldn’t hold because you cannot legislate someone’s relationship with God. 60 years later war ignited again starting in Germany, but metastasizing across the continent leaving eight million people dead and large swaths of central Europe depopulated, and a lot of people DONE with Christianity.
It seems you cannot permanently fuse faith to a territory, or the Holy Spirit to a state, or God to a flag. It will always, eventually fail and fall apart.
Here is why – the Holy Spirit. Fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, the disciples were gathered in a room, afraid of Rome, a civilization built entirely on cuius regio, eius religio, emperor as god (in this case): whose realm, his religion! And then a wind came.
And fire came – not as a single flame set upon a single leader rather tongues of fire, dancing, distributed, particular to each person, yet bounded by no tribe, no language, no nation, no throne.
Crowds filled with the Holy Spirit poured into the streets: Parthians, Medes, Elamites. Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians. People from Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia. Egyptians, Libyans, Romans. Cretans and Arabs.
This list was not a who’s who of the ancient world, it was a theological claim; a statement, that every nation in the world, every language ever spoken, every person ever born all fall under a single jurisdiction, not Caesar’s, not any prince or priests, but rather under the jurisdiction of the Holy Spirit. Whose realm? God’s.
The only logic into which cuius regio, eius religio can fit legitimately is the logic of Pentecost: the Holy Spirit poured out upon ALL flesh. Whose realm? God’s.
And it is this Pentecost logic I want us to firmly know, and internalize, because it is a God pattern that we are called to name and live into right now; because it is the pattern some corners of power are pushing back against, seeking to double down on the failed idea that you can paste God to a flag. It is a silly notion that flaps in the face of the lessons of Pentecost. It always has been.
That said, the tension is particularly palpable today at the beginning of the 21st century; because there is always tension in the face of change… and change is the order of the day.
We know this prophetically and we know this practically. The prophecy stems from a man named Joachim of Fiore, a 12th century monk who I have preached about before. He claimed there will be three great stages of humanity’s relationship with God: the age of the Father, beginning with Abraham and lasting 2,000 years; the age of the Son, beginning with Jesus and lasting 2,000 years; which leaves us at the beginning of the third stage – the age of the Holy Spirit, which is where we are today.
This is the mystical timeline.
The practical piece of Pentecost logic has been unveiling slowly since the end of the 30 Year War in 1648, as science and its institutions of support began to fill the trust gap Christianity had squandered trying to paste God to a flag.
And what we find as we enter this Age of the Holy Spirit is the collusion between science and the Gospel… mutually supporting claims such as Parthians, Medes and Elamites, Egyptians, Romans, Cretans and Arabs are more than neighbors, they are the same.
Geneticists tell us that all people alive today, regardless of tribe, language, nationality, or race, share a common ancestry. The differences between human beings is vanishingly small. We are, beneath every surface distinction, one human family, irreducibly connected.
The uniformity is real. That is by God’s design. Now all we need to do is own the unity; the version of cuius regio, eius religio that actually works:
that there is one God, and every human being, without exception, is a full-fledged citizen of his realm. No armistice required. No princes negotiating the terms. No selling property and leaving.
Just the age of the Holy Spirit dawning, calling us to live into what we already are – one family, one flame, one humanity, whose realm is defined by God’s love.
That is the work before us as Pentecost people. That is why we must own and then articulate the core reality of Christianity, that it is, at its origin, constitutionally incapable of nationalism.
When Christians bind themselves to national boundaries or the power of particular political leaders, history has taught us that every time we seek to win the world for God through the power of the state it will always and ultimately fail because it goes against the lesson of Pentecost, and the prediction of Joachim of Fiore, and the reality of science.
Jesus is pretty clear about this: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also… so there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (Jn 10:16)
We may be sheep, but I like to think of us more as wicks made to hold the flame of Pentecost. Wicks ensouled at birth who through baptism choose to know their soul by knowing Jesus. Jesus may have other sheep, but at Baptism we claim the fold of Christianity and own our role as Pentecost people.
Cuius regio, eius religio has no jurisdiction unless it is the singular jurisdiction of God.
So here is what I am asking of you today. Take the candle. Carry it home. Let it sit on your kitchen table, or your desk, or wherever you will see it this week.
And when you look at it, remember: you are not a subject of any earthly realm, your God doesn’t flap on a flag, you are not defined by your tribe, your politics, your nationality, or your neighbor’s opinion of you.
We are Pentecost people; wicks made to hold the flame; citizens of the only kingdom that has never needed an armistice, because it was never at war with anyone. Cuius regio, eius religio.
Whose realm? God’s… the realm we all actually live in.