Psalm 130; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15
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!
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