6.30.24 "A Celebration of America" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Psalm 130; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The celebration of our nation … fire works, marching bands, hot dogs and ice cream … 

There is much to celebrate …

The Appalachian Mountains … the Great Lakes … the Grand Canyon … the high Sierras and the Redwoods … prairies, vast and deep, with endless fields of grain.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson … Betsy Ross and Abigail Adams … Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.

Boston, New York, and Philadelphia … Chicago and Saint Louis, San Francisco and Los Angeles … Alaska and Hawaii.

Not to mention:

Ovaltine, Oreo Cookies, and state fairs where everything is deep fried.

A land of invention and freedom … a land governed by the governed, leaders elected by the people … a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. 

The ideals and ideas of Democracy have forged some of the greatest human beings the world has ever known … our Constitutional Documents have inspired millions and lifted up the human soul - a model to follow, and dreams still to be realized.

A land of immigrants … people from everywhere, and all around the world.

On my mother’s side, the family leaves Silesia for America in the 1850s, settle on farms west of Sheboygan, Wisconsin … three sons drafted, to fight in the Civil War, for the Union.

My father’s father comes to America in 1905 from the Netherlands … he settles in Sheboygan, where he meets Nellie, his wife, my grandmother, also from the Netherlands  

From all around the world …

The dedication poem inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty says it well:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

There is no statement of purpose greater than this … no vision more grand, no dream so beautiful …

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

I love my nation.

I’m stirred by Old Glory and the “Stars and Stripes Forever” … 

Watching the Olympics, I see people weep when their national anthem is played, when their flag is raised … national pride, love of nation, part and parcel of the human story.

We know we belong to the land

And the land we belong to is grand!

Love … if it be love, requires understanding, patience, and dedication … 

People in love cross a threshold at some point in their relationship - they learn how to help one another, when the other is burdened … when the other has a broken heart … the struggle with the ineptitude and foolishness we all possess … for better, for worse … for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health …  

The Apostle Paul says it well …

Love is patient; love is kind; … love is not irritable or resentful; … love rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

To love a nation is to love the nation patiently and honestly.

Dishonesty is the root of nationalism - a perverted love that sees only a small part of the story … a form of egotism - me first, me best, me great … we call it narcism, in love with ourselves … truth falls away… what’s left is decay, dust, and death.

“God bless America!” is our prayer … but add to our prayer, God bless the Netherlands, God bless Taiwan … God bless the Koreas, North and South, God bless Hungary and Poland, God bless Nigeria and Ethiopia, God bless El Salvador and Brazil, God bless Vietnam and India, China and Russia … 

For God so loves - the world … 

The Apostle Paul says: Our citizenship is in heaven …  

A call to each of us to be mindful - to manage well our loyalties to land and nation … 

To be careful about our love … that our love be broad and full and kind … that we see the world through the eyes of God rather than our own eyes, often so small … to keep our love of nation, healthy and sober, living and sweet … our primary citizenship - in heaven, so that we can be good citizens of our land … or whatever land we happen to call home.

To love our nation is to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth …

The Pilgrims came here to practice their faith without fear … but it wasn’t long before the Pilgrims turned upon the Indigenous population, and decided that Indigenous people were not qualified to own this land …  

It wasn’t long before the slave trade commenced …

From about 1518 to the mid-19th century, millions of Africans - men, women, children - make the long voyage aboard overcrowded ships manned by crews from Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal, and France.

Upwards of 15 million people arrive here in chains. Upwards of 2 million die on the way.

We have yet to recover from this sadness … we fought a civil war … and of late, strident voices have found new opportunities to promote - White … Christian …Nationalism … a perverse mixture of bad politics and Christian gobbledygook … faith turned into a hammer rather than a helping hand.

As for me, I cannot abide with these ideas … they strike me as all wrong, contrary to the gospel I know, contrary to the love of Christ, contrary to everything I value, contrary to everything I love about America, from hot dogs to apple pie, and everything in between.

To love this nation, is to tell the truth:

We’ve been right; we’ve been wrong … we’ve been good, and not so good … we’ve fought good wars, and wars we shouldn’t have fought.

 We’ve opened wide our doors, and we’ve slammed ‘em shut … we’re still trying to figure out how to treat women … health care, abortion, equal pay … 

We’ve made progress with marriage rights for LGBTQ persons, and health care for trans-genders, but some in our midst want to turn back the clock … undo the progress we’ve made.

The progress we’ve made …  science and education, human rights and liberty … a land where all can practice their religion, their faith, without fear of torment or persecution … whatever one’s creed, race, or ethnicity … the American Dream.

The forever dream … reach high to the summits of human endeavor, make this nation safe for all peoples … honor the promise of the Statue of Liberty, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of our nation.

America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

Because my citizenship is in heaven, with gratitude, joy, and hope:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Amen and Amen!

7.3.22, "Patriotism and Hope: A History Lesson" Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 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] …

July 4, 2010 - "Challenge and Thanksgiving"

Jeremiah 29:1-14

Good morning, and Happy 4^th of July …

234 years ago, the Second Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence:

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

The war continued seven more years.

France and Spain came to our assistance.

Cornwallis surrendered at the end of 1781.

Preliminary articles of peace signed November 30, 1782

Full treaty: September 3, 1783.

It’s quite a story …

And we can be justly proud … and deeply grateful.

So get out the grill,

Light the firecrackers,

Head off to the beach …

Enjoy the show …

And a happy 4^th of July.

America is a great nation …

Great in vision and great in kindness and great in generosity …

The inscription on the Statue of Liberty says it well:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

The American experiment - remains unique …

A rare mixture of peoples and religions from around the world … e pluribus unum – one out of many.

Our political systems are second to none.

Though terribly messy.

Because democracy is a messy business.

I was a senate chaplain several times in Oklahoma.

Be there an entire week to open the Senate with prayer.

After prayer, I’d stay in the Senate a few hours to hear the debate and enjoy the protocol.

When evening came, when my senator-friend and I would go out to be entertained by lobbyists … steak and lobster all around the table …

Friday morning, the chaplain-for-the-week was given an opportunity to address the body, and I remember saying to the senators:

This is one of the messiest things I’ve ever seen.

And one of the most beautiful.

Democracy.

So very messy.

So very beautiful.

Don’t every try to clean it up.

Don’t ever try to get rid of the mess.

As long as it’s messy, we’re on safe ground.

Over the years, our nation has wrestled with some of the world’s most famous words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

“All men” it says …

There was a time when “men” was literal … no women allowed, except in the kitchen … but after decades of debate and struggle, women’s suffrage helped us get beyond gender.

There was a time when the word “all” was not so big as it is now.

There was a time when the word “all” did not include Native Americans … who were likely to be called “savages” …

The word “all” didn’t apply to people of color either … and we had to fight a Civil War to work out the details on what the word “all” meant.

In Los Angeles, 1943, the Zoot Suit riots:

A series of riots erupted between white sailors and Marines stationed throughout the city and Latino youth, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored.

African American and Filipino youth were also targeted.

Similar attacks against Latinos occurred in Beaumont, Chicago, San Diego, Detroit, Evansville, Philadelphia, and New York.

Earlier in the 20^th Century, Irish Catholics were attacked and beaten, and later on, Italians and Puerto Ricans fought it out on the streets of New York City … captured in the Broadway Play, “Westside Story.”

Only recently, have we worked our way through unfair housing laws … red-lined neighborhoods: unscrupulous agreements between bankers and white landlords and realtors.

Our own history here in California tells the tale:

Who can forget the wholesale detainment of Japanese Americans during WW2 and their dispersal to camps around the west?

In the years following World War II, African Americans were confronted with increasing patterns of housing segregation …

In 1955, William Byron Rumford, the first black to serve in the California State Legislature, introduced a fair-housing bill outlawing housing discrimination on the basis of race.

In 1963, the Legislature passed the Rumford Fair Housing Act which outlawed restrictive covenants and the refusal to rent or sell on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, or physical disability.

In reaction to the law, a well-funded coalition of realtors and landlords was determined to undo the law.

They immediately began to campaign for a referendum that would amend the state Constitution to allow property owners the right to deny minorities equal access to housing.

Known as Proposition 14, it was passed by 65 percent of the voters …

In 1966, the California State Supreme Court ruled that Proposition 14 violated the State Constitution's provisions for equal protection and due process.

In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed the decision of the California Supreme Court and ruled that Proposition 14 had violated the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution.

And I might add, Covenant Presbyterian Church decided to back fair housing … and when the news hit the streets, folks left the church over it.

But I wonder, can a Christian believe in anything but fair housing?

Can an American believe in anything but equal opportunity?

For freedom, Christ set us free, writes the Paul the Apostle.

For freedom, our founding mothers and fathers set the course of this nation.

We will continue to work our way through all of these questions … America has taken the wrong step sometimes, but more often than not, America has corrected itself and gotten back on the path of freedom and equality.

I celebrate with you today the goodness of America:

Education, freedom and research.

The Erie Canal and the Hoover Dam.

Irrigation and California’s Central Valley.

Powerhouse universities all across the land.

The Big Apple, the Windy City and Hollywood and Vine.

We are nation of natural beauty:

From the rugged coasts of Maine to the Great Lakes, the Mighty Mississippi, the Ohio and the Missouri.

The Smoky Mountains and the Rockies …

Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, the Mojave Desert and the Redwoods.

We are a nation of civil rights and freedom …

President Eisenhower sent a thousand soldiers to Little Rock to protect nine African Americans enrolled in Central High School …

Senator Everett Dirksen stepped across the aisle, earning the wrath of his GOP colleagues, to help President Johnson pass our nation’s landmark Civil Rights Legislation.

The Rev. William Sloan Coffin and the Freedom Riders … and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Bridge to Selma.

Just this past week, the death of Senator Byrd, who as a young man joined the KKK, and then later apologized for it, and went on to a fine career to help us define the word “all” in the biggest and best possible ways.

America has made tremendous strides in race, the rights of children - and equality for women … including abortion rights and free access to birth control …

One of the more pressing issues right now is marriage equality for lesbians and gays … I believe we will resolve this issue, as we have the previous questions of race and gender.

Another pressing issue before us is health care, and I believe we will work our way through all of this and see the day when all Americans have access to reliable and affordable health care, especially our children.

Issues of public transportation, immigration and environmental quality are huge, and I believe we will find our way on these matters, too.

I believe in America … I believe we have within us the means and the resolve to keep open doors open, and open a few more doors along the way.

But one more piece needs our attention this morning.

In the early 60s, I was a hawk … go get the Commies in SE Asia; bomb the daylights out of ‘em …

But I did some homework on our role in SE Asia after WW2, after the French were defeated, and I came to believe that our war there was a mistake, based upon a mistaken policy, the Domino Theory – crafted by John Foster Dulles, the son of a Presbyterian minister, by the way.

It was the early 50s, a time characterized by McCarthyism … Black Lists, suspicion, fear, children crouching under their school desks and bomb shelters in the back yard.

Dulles’ Domino Theory guided the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations into a costly war from which we are still recovering.

But hats off to President Nixon who helped us out of Vietnam.

And hats off to Nixon who tore down the walls of suspicion and fear with China and built bridges instead …

As much as I regret Nixon’s role in Watergate, he was a internationalist who understood, rightly I believe, that America is at its best when it builds bridges to the world.

During the tumultuous 60s, I remember a phrase hurled at war protestors, “America, love it or leave it” … remember that?

I always said, “I love America; that’s why I protest the war!”

Ever since the Revolutionary War, and with World Wars 1 & 2, Christians have been supportive of America’s foreign policy – in many a mainline congregation, we find memorial plaques honoring those who served and died in America’s wars …

Which reminds me …

A little boy was standing in front of one of those plaques when the pastor walked by … the little boy asked the pastor what it was all about.

“Young man,” said the pastor, “this plaque has the names of everyone who died in the service.”

The little boy replied, “Which service, the 8:30 or the 11:00 o’clock?”

War looks good on the History Channel, and after the third martinia, it looks even better … nations love to lionize the warrior and blow the trumpet … 

But in reality, war is hideous, and Christians, especially, need to think carefully about faith and war.

Because we follow the Prince of Peace.

And we say to one another every Sunday, “God’s Peace.”

Speaking for myself, I am a grateful America, pleased to call this land home – a land of spacious skies and amber waves of grain, majestic purple mountains and the fruited plain … from sea to shining sea.

I choke up when I see the Stars and Stripes in a parade … and hear the National Anthem played at the Olympics … and taps played at a funeral.

I get goose bumps and a lump in my throat when I watch a flyover of f-16s.

I’ll never forget seeing my first American cemetery overseas  … my Belgian friends drove me there … we got out of the cars and walked up a wide stone stairway toward a colonnade, and there, at the top of the walkway, spreading out before me, thousands of graves – white marble crosses and Stars of David - gleaming in the sun … not a blade of grass out of place.

I couldn’t speak – my throat choked with emotion …

A few years later, our whole family strolled among the ten thousand graves of Normandy, all of us moved beyond words … I found a young soldier’s grave, who died on the day I was born … I stood there, and I wept.

O beautiful for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years,

Thine alabaster cities gleam,

Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea.

Amen and Amen!