Isaiah 66.10-14; Luke 10.1-9
In May of 1984, I made my first journey overseas … with a clergy group, for a few weeks of study at the University of Leyden, The Netherlands …
Of Dutch ancestry, I was terribly pleased to be a part of this clergy study group … we landed at Schiphol airport … I was overwhelmed with a feeling of coming home - a remarkable moment, one I’ll never forget.
After my return to Oklahoma, I gave a sermon wherein I reflected on the notion of patriotism …
I recall the sermon, and the question:
What does it mean to love one’s nation?
I noted the claims of some pundits, politicians and preachers - “we are the greatest nation on the face of the earth.”
“We are a very large nation,” I said, “with a powerful military, a gigantic economy, a cultural influence reaching around the world.”
But I’m uneasy about “the greatest.”
Of my trip to the Netherlands - a small nation of 17 million people … a nation with a proud history - a nation of ships and commodity dealers … considered in the 16th and 17th centuries to the richest nation on the face of the earth - comfortable, safe, nutritionally sound … money and tulips, ships around the world, wealth pouring in, trade and commerce, the first stock exchange, the first maritime insurance … power and glory - the Dutch Golden Age.
The Netherlands then, and still today, a nation of freedom, and welcome … a nation of liberty, religious tolerance … and it’s noted by those who study such things, Dutch children are some of the happiest children in the world.
I love what President Biden said at Walter Mondale’s memorial service, May 1 of this year:
We’re the only nation founded on an idea. Every other nation in the world is based on geography, ethnicity, religion, race. We’re founded on an idea. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, including the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.”
Ideas that create us, ideals that compel us, hope that guides us, courage that leads us.
We are unique in this matter … and that’s worth saluting …
I love my country.
I love the flag.
I believe in America ...
There is much good in our story, and the not-so-good, too ...
The destruction of Indigenous Peoples, the enslavement of Africans, the war with Mexico, a Civil War over slavery, denying women the vote - the KKK and lynchings… the Chinese Exclusion Act, the internment of Japanese-Americans during WW2 … on-going racism, anti-Semitism ... too much John Wayne ... too much religious bigotry ...
It's good to know such things ... lest we get carried away by the good stories, of which there are plenty …
Our founding documents, the Bill of Rights; Lincoln and the Civil War ... the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments ... the bastion of Democracy to defeat fascism and militarism in WW2 ... Social Security, Medicare, the GI Bill, the Great Society - public education ... public and private universities ... freedom of religion, separation of church and state ... much good … and it's good to know these things, lest we become disheartened by what still needs to be fixed.
Right now, our nation is engaged in a serious conflict of competing ideas … ideas that drove us once to Civil War … ideas that continue to divide us.
As a Christian, I’m deeply concerned for my nation …
Jesus cared about his nation … the prophets cared for their nation … so did Moses and Aaron, Miriam and Hannah … they worked day and night to achieve justice, when others sought dominion and power - they told the whole truth when others told half-truths … the put their lives on the line, because they loved their nation.
I love my nation … I care about the truth … the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.
Love of nation is never blind … nationalism is blind … that’s why nationalism is deadly … patriotism has its eyes wide open; nationalism has its eyes shut tight. Patriotism talks wisely; nationalism shouts wantonly.
White Christian nationalism, rampaging through the land … a blind love, which isn’t love at all … it’s obsession, fixation, and it’s frightened …
I’m concerned - there are some in our nation who seek the end of human rights … we’ve seen a stacked Supreme Court end a freedom of choice for women, a freedom that has existed for 50 years …
It is the first time in American history that a right has been taken away.
There have been times when rights were not granted, but once granted, they are established law.
But now, a right has been taken away.
And I’m concerned.
Some call for further rights to be stricken:
~ the 2015 decision affirming same-sex marriage … in some parts of the land, questions about interracial marriage are coming up again.
~ one senator called for a review of the 1954 decision outlawing racial segregation in our public schools.
I’m concerned … I’m a Christian … a follower of Jesus Christ.
I’m concerned that fascist undercurrents are running fast and furious in our nation … that which we defeated in Europe and in Asia in WW2 is now raging again within our own borders …
Fascism you say?
Yes, fascism: “a political philosophy, movement, or regime … that exalts nation and often race above the individual and … stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”
There are some in America who want this!
Jefferson Davis did.
Andrew Carnegie, with his “Gospel of Wealth,” thought it a good idea.
Fr. Charles Coughlin and aviator Charles Lindbergh thought it a good idea.
Many a capitalist in America thought Hitler had it right.
The president of Texaco Oil Company supplied Franco in Spain with all the oil he needed to defeat the Spanish Republic, while the Western Allies closed their eyes to the bombing of Guernica.
We shouldn’t be surprised when fascism rears its ugly head … it’s an easy answer, but it’s also a lie … and it always ends badly.
Those who would take us down the fascist road take us down a well-traveled road, a road to suffering and collapse.
I love my nation.
I salute its goodness.
I speak of its failings.
With love, and with tears.
My country ’tis of thee.
Sweet land of liberty.
Long may our land be bright,
With freedom's holy light.
I will fight with all my might to preserve - our liberties, our freedoms, our rights …
I will do all in my power to expand - our liberties, our freedoms, our rights …
I will not stand idly by while pundits, politicians, and preachers proclaim lies and promote fear …
Christ did not tolerate distortions of the truth.
Nor did he tolerate those who preached hate and fear.
Christ proclaimed the year of the LORD.
The Jubilee …
Freedom and hope.
For all God’s creation.
We can do no less.
As those who follow Christ.
Today, we remember our patriots … real patriots, honest and true patriots … women and men of sound conscience who lift up the great ideals of equality and freedom … women and men who defend our nation, who put their lives on the line for our liberty … great leaders who bless our land with vision and faith, who abide by their oath of office, who know the difference between right and wrong … millions of faithful Americans, now, and then, whose graves dot the landscapes of Europe, Asia, and here at home - true patriots who give their lives that others might live.
In a time when some seek to destroy our nation, to take away our liberties, deny our rights, it is good, it is right, it is important, that we remember those who paid the price, the price to defend our freedoms.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Hallelujah and Amen!
[Taps] …
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