July 8, 2012, "Violence and Grace"

2 Samuel 5.1-4

The news is all around us.

The evening news, a mid-day report on our favorite radio station, the LA Times, the internet … journals and magazines …

No end to the stories, and most of them sad:

• Giant corporations manipulate stock prices.
• Famous movie star gets a divorce.
• Unrest all around the world.
• Muslims blow up a church.
• Christians burn down a mosque.

We shake our heads.

Shed our tears.

Offer up a prayer:

Have mercy on our troubled world, O God.

Bear with us, we pray.

Keep loved ones safe.

Bless our leaders with patience and vision.

Deliver us from evil.

An excellent book about Los Angeles in the 20^th Century … L.A. Noir … by John Buntin … weaves a tale of violence and grace around two characters: Chief of Police, William Parker and Mobster, Mickey Cohen (some of you remember their names and the headlines they generated).

My daughter gave me the book because she knows how much I’m interested in the places where I live … I’ve always made an effort to understand how and why a town looks and feels and lives like it does … and every place is different … and every place has its story!

Yet there’s a common thread to every story; certain themes emerge all the time: violence and grace … the dark side of life, and the bright light of hope … things going to hell in a handbasket and folks joining hands to make things better.

Violence and grace.

Mobster, Mickey Cohen, would kill without a second thought - it was a part of doing business.

He said in an interview years later, I killed no men that in the first place didn’t deserve killing.

Cohen’s nemesis was Chief of Police, William Parker. If you drive downtown, you may well pass the Parker Center, named after Chief Parker.

Cohen and Parker battled for the soul of the city.

As I read Buntin’s book, I kept saying to my wife, What a sad story.

At every turn of the page, graft, corruption, greed, people playing for power.

Movie studios and actors, mobsters, reporters, politicians, attorneys and bankers, and the police - everyone in someone’s pocket … everyone buying or selling influence … no one clean.

Mickey Cohen was kind to friends, generous with folks who worked for him, and he loved dogs. 

Chief William Parker was often mean-spirited, bigoted, and given to heavy drinking.

Even the worst are not always bad … and even the best are not always good.

But here we are.

I love Los Angeles … I ride the trains and take the bus … an amazing city of many cultures and languages, hopes and dreams.

From the ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier to the tall pines in Big Bear - we live in an amazing city.

I suppose we could say It’s a miracle that Los Angeles survived as it did.

What with all the violence, grace abounds!

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

In 1853, seven years before the Civil War, the Rev. Dr. Theodore Parker, an abolitionist working to free this nation from the evils of slavery, wrote: I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

These words were likely the inspiration for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said: The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.

The Bible is honest … 

And always hopeful.

Images of hope abound:

• Let my people go.
• The Promised Land.
• The lion and the lamb lay down together.
• A child leads them.
• Justice rolls down like water.
• The new heaven and the new earth.
• Perfect light and no more tears.

Paul the Apostle writes to the Christians in Rome: where sin increased, grace abounded all the more [Romans 5.20].

God is not going to be defeated!

God’s purpose prevails.

The arc of history bends toward justice … to what is good and true and right … that which sets us free and gives us life … out of the house of bondage, out of the land of Egypt … through the wilderness, mana in the morning, water from a rock … until we find our way home!

That’s the story Samuel tells - grace, like a golden thread, woven into the dark tapestry of history … grace, like a cold beer on a hot day … grace, like a loved one’s smile at the end of a tough week … grace, like the love of our LORD Jesus born into dangerous times.

The opening chapters of 2 Samuel are neck-deep in blood.

The death of Saul.

The young mercenary killed by David’s servant.

War between Israel and Judah.

Abner murdered by Joab.

Saul’s son, Israel’s king, murdered by his own men.

They bring his head to David, and meet the same fate.

2 Samuel 3 says: The war between Saul’s house and David’s house was long and drawn out. 

Is there is any hope in any of this?

Any light?

Any grace?

2 Samuel 3 … a grace note: David kept getting stronger, while Saul’s house kept getting weaker.

It has to be David.

He’s not perfect … far from it … David sins with the best of them.

But he’s a man after God’s own heart.

David remains a man of deep loyalty.

If ANYTHING can be said about God, God is loyal.

Loyal to the creation God loves so dearly.

Loyal to the creature that bears God’s image.

Loyal to the dream that one day this creature will get it right.

So loyal, that God will do anything to make it work … even die on a Roman Cross, despised by his enemies, abandoned by his friends.

In the long and terrible drama of redemption, the loyalty of God … 

God doesn’t give up, no matter the cost.

God’s loyalty on every page of the Bible.

We call that loyalty Grace.

Amazing Grace … the purest grace of all.

When the Son of David is born in David’s little town … angels sing to shepherds in the hills; wise men from the east follow a star … the Anointed One is born.

The Anointed One renders unto the Father a great loyalty … the loyalty of love … a love rich and pure, a love big enough to fill every dark hole in the universe with light.

A love I can never give to the Father, so Jesus gives this love to the Father on my behalf.

For all of humanity … every last one of us - and even more: for all creatures, great and small … 

The Leviathan of the Deep, and the creepy-crawly critters of the night … 

The hawk flying high in the morning sky, and the zebra dancing across the plain … 

For all of creation - the Son of David is born.

Yes, there is violence, and plenty of it.

And there is grace, even more.

Grace, mercy and peace.

Glory to God.

And to the Son of David, eternal praise.

Amen and Amen!

June 24, 2012, "There Will Be Blood"

1 Samuel 17.48-51

We all love a good story.

Big bad wolves.

A wooden puppet who becomes a real boy.

Cinderella and her prince.

And, of course, David and Goliath.

Stories teach us valuable lessons:

Believe in ourselves, and we can do anything.

No matter how big the problem, we can solve it.

Use what we have, and if we have only a stone and a sling, use them with all our might.

Courage conquers every enemy. 

Truth wins out.

Faith triumphs.

All of this and more.

In one of the greatest stories of the Bible.

David and Goliath.

But if read it only as a story, we miss the big picture.

David and Goliath is a somber reflection on the price of victory.

Much of what we have in the Old Testament was compiled during the Babylonian Captivity … 

586 years before Jesus, Babylon’s armies swept down upon Judah and Jerusalem like a Tsunami - destroyed everything … tore down the Temple, stone-by-stone … carried off to faraway Babylon Judah’s teachers and leaders.

By the rivers of Babylon—

      there we sat down and there we wept

      when we remembered Zion.

The people in Babylon try desperately to put together the shattered pieces of life and hope.

Why are we here? 

Why were we defeated?

Why has this heathen nation prevailed over the Holy City and it’s Temple?

Where is God in all of this?

Who are we?

What shall become of us?

Did we go wrong somewhere?

Before we go any further, let’s turn to Jesus.

The Garden of Gethsemane … the mob in the night, led by Judas, to take Jesus away.

A disciple draws his sword and strikes the High Priest’s slave, cutting off his ear … 

Jesus says, Put your sword away. 

And then tells the world a truth the world never wants to hear: Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.

In Babylon, the people try to figure it out.

I’m sure they remembered what Samuel said to the people when the people cried out for a king.

Do you want a king? Samuel asks.

Let me tell you how kings behave!

And when the people hear it, they still cry out in one voice, Give us a king!

We want a leader who will lead us in battle and secure our safety.

We know what we want, and we want what we know. 

God says to Samuel, Give them what they want!

There will be blood, but give them what they want!

For nearly a thousand years, Israel lived by the sword … from the Battle of Jericho to Jerusalem’s defeat at the hands of Babylon … a thousand years of triumph and sorrow, life and death … good kings, bad kings … treaties signed and treaties broken … constant warfare to expand the boundaries of the nation, protect what had been gained, and regain what had been lost!

The power of the sword is mesmerizing.

I don’t know about you, but when I see a display of military might, I get goosebumps.

Donna and I were driving through the upper reaches of Death Valley a few years back, when, in the distance, a small speck on the horizon, and it wasn’t long before the speck became a plane, flying fast and low toward us, and suddenly it veers toward the road, right over the car, mighty and roaring … it passed us quickly and then beyond us … 

Thrilling.

Dramatic.

Inspiring.

The power of the sword … humankind mesmerized by the sword … ever since Cain kills Abel … humankind strives against one another for dominance and power … vast armies on the move, great ships on the high seas … in the modern era, the latest technology, weapons of unimaginable power, weapons of mass destruction.

The power of the sword!

David’s first entry into Israel’s life - by the sword.

Goliath was no lion threatening David’s sheep.

No bear growling in the night.

Goliath was a man.

A large man, to be sure.

Well-trained and ready to fight.

But a man, nonetheless.

A human being.

Did Goliath have a family back home?

A mother who loved him?

A father proud of him?

Brothers and sisters who honored him?

Fellow soldiers who admired his bravery?

What about the Philistine soldiers?

All of them, human beings.

Families back home.

Families who loved them.

The sword is blind to all of that.

The sword doesn’t care.

The sword kills without regard.

The sword knows only two words: Friend or Foe?

1500 years later, Jesus says to the people of his time, descendants of David and the people of Judah: Love your enemies … pray for those who harass you … so that you will behave as children of your Father in heaven.

What does Jesus mean by love?

Something emotional? Sentimental? Mushy-gushy?

Jesus means right behavior, fairness, even kindness.

Jesus makes it clear when he describes his Father’s behavior: God makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous.

Jesus offers us weapons of the soul, not a sword for the hand!

The sword fails … 

Those who live by the sword, live by the sword only for a time … and, then, death catches up … whatever the purpose, high-minded or mean-spirited, those who live by the sword die by the sword.

David’s kingship was soaked in blood.

It’s all there for us to read … the folks in Babylon have done us a great service in telling the whole story.

Was David a man after God’s own heart?

Yes, David loved the LORD, and served the LORD.

But David was a king, and kings go off to war, kings wield the sword, kings love power, and power always loses its way.

Those who live by the sword … die by the sword.

Israel lives by the sword, and then falls to the larger sword of Assyria.

Judah survives by the sword, and then falls to the larger sword of Babylon.

Babylon lives by the sword, and then falls to the sword of Persia.

Then comes the sword of Alexander the Great.

To be replaced by the Caesars, Pontius Pilate and their legions - the Roman Empire.

Then the Byzantine Empire … then the Holy Roman Empire of Northern Europe … the great seafaring empires of Spain and Portugal and The Netherlands and Britain … the Ottoman Empire throughout the Middle East and North Africa … Empires have come and gone in every part of the world … Russia, Africa, India, China, Japan - in various times and ways, kings and queens, rulers and potentates … and now, for a time, the burden and blessing of Empire has fallen upon the United States of America.

Empires live by the sword.

Our military spending is highest in the world - 711 billion dollars in 2011 … China at 143 billion … Russia at 71 billion.

Some months ago, I said to you, “The greatest challenge facing Christians around the world is violence.” Violence against women and children … school-bus bullying … road-rage … the spirit of vengeance … dissing the poor … and war … violence wears many faces.

Especially violence in the name of god!

Empires always use god, or the gods … every nation believes in god, in some form or other … the divine is invoked to bless the sword and bless the hand that wields it.

Every soldier fights for god and country … every soldier prays … while the people at home pray for victory.

Christianity, as we know it, comes out of 1800 years of Empire and war … Christians fought Christians … Christians colonized and enslaved peoples around the world, … Christians cheered the sword and sent their children off to war … and there stood the clergy, with holy water and prayers … all for god and country … 

There will be blood … David begins his journey to greatness with blood … and blood flows across the pages of Israel’s book.

In Babylon, now, defeated and dispirited, God’s people search for meaning … and ask hard questions:

Was there too much blood?

Too many swords?

The love of war and conquest?

A telling review of David’s life from the Book of Chronicles - it’s right here; in the Bible: God forbids David to build the Temple … and why?

God says to David: You’ve shed much blood and waged great wars. You won’t build a temple for my name because you’ve spilled so much blood on the ground before me.

God closes the book on war and conquest when Jesus is born … the Promised Land reaches its final chapter when angels sing to shepherds in the field.

A savior is born in David’s City, they sing … but no David is he; David’s story comes to a close … a new story birthed in Bethlehem.

We have much to learn from King David, no doubt.

Even more from Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Amen and Amen!

November 13, 2011, "Downs and Ups!"

Judges 4.1-7

Today, we mark Veterans’ Day … celebrated on Thursday, 11.11.11, with ceremonies at Arlington Cemetary, precisely at 11 AM.

11.11.11 … some folks get excited about numbers - on TV this week, all of sorts of numerologists and fortune-tellers, but days and weeks and months and years are just so much passing time, the rising and setting of the sun … we assign numbers, arbitrary numbers, to help us keep track of time.

Numbers are fun.

My birthday is 7.7 … and that’s the name of a drink, if you will … for years, Doc McCrory and I sent cards to each other - he was 7.7, as well … and then, as is the case with numbers, he reached the end of his calendar.

So I no longer have a 7.7 birthday partner.

When I was in Normandy, France a few years back, we went to the American Cemetery … Ten Thousand graves … powerful, emotional … I walked row upon row and found what I was looking for … the grave of a young man who died on the day I was born - July 7, 1944 … I took a picture and made some notes, but I’ve lost track of them.

I remember standing there … thinking: as I was coming into the world, he was leaving … my family welcomed me with joy; his family wept.

There a lots of ways to write history … and no matter how we write it, war is very much a part of the human story.

We know how to kill one another.

And we never seem to run out of reasons for pulling the trigger.

Sometimes there are good reasons … and sometimes, it’s all too confusing … and sometimes human beings just go to war because we don’t know what else to do.

Israel’s story in the Bible is no different.

Page after page - the spilling of blood … 

From Cain’s murder of his brother Able to this very day, the dogs of war roam the earth devouring us.

As we celebrate Veterans’ Day, we do so with thoughtfulness.

Rightly, we honor our Veterans … 

And rightly, we pray for peace.

And more than prayer, we wage peace.

Because we are followers of the Prince of Peace.

We must always be reluctant to call for arms.

If we must send young women and men to war, then let us do so with sorrow.

If war is part of the human story, so be it.

But let us be mindful:

If America has been in the right at different times, and I believe it has been, I also believe that America hasn’t always been right … if America has been a nation of peace, and we have been a nation great for peace, we have also been a nation of war … 

As Christians, we need to be thoughtful.

Careful.

And wise, when it comes to war.

Our story this morning is simple … 

Israel failed to live up to its own story of goodness and faithfulness, so Israel, per God’s judgment, ends up under the thumb of King Jaban and his army, a powerful army with 900 iron chariots, commanded by Sisera.

After twenty years of oppression, Deborah the prophet, summons Barak and tells him to marshall the troops and prepare for battle, because now is the time for victory - God will deliver Israel and free her from King Jabin.

And then the fine print: It won’t be Barak who wins the day, but a woman.

Whoa!

Like a fingernail on a chalkboard … a woman?

Yes, a woman, without sword or shield, without chariots and soldiers.

The nations meet in battle, as Deborah said they would … Israel prevails; Sisera flees to friendly territory, or so he thinks, and seeks refuge with a family

After some refreshment, Sisera lays down to sleep; he’s exhausted. 

Jael, the woman of the household, covers him with a blanket.

When he falls asleep, she takes a tent peg and a hammer, and does him in … 

When Barak arrives - was he following chariot tracks? … how did he know? … anyway, Barak arrives, and Jael shows him Sisera’s body … and the story becomes a national story - a great poem of Israel’s struggle - her sin and defeat, her prayers and deliverance … and a women of the tent, Jael, takes the only tools she has, and wins the day for Israel.

With Veterans’ Day and the story of Deborah, Barak, Sisera and Jael, we give thanks for God’s presence in our muddled world, God’s love at work in ALL things.

Bloody as it was.

That day, the tide turned for Israel.

King Jabin was defeated.

And Israel was free of tyranny.

With the only tools available to Jael, she saved the day.

All of us can save the day.

Little moments … big moments, when God hands us an opportunity to build something good, to help someone, to make this a better world.

Like our story, things are never entirely clear or clean.

We do the best we can … with the tools we have in hand.

And God is at work in ALL of it.

That’s the real story behind every story.

God at work in ALL things.

In the mess and confusion … the sad and the broken … and the wars we fight … 

Our story from Judges is never a warrant for war.

It is our assurance, however, that in a world often violent and dark, opportunity comes our way to win the day and make the best of a hard time.

Hats off to our Veterans … and encouragement to those who seek peace … and three cheers to those who are not afraid to act, like Jael, to cease the moment and win the day for good!

And to God be the glory. Amen and Amen!

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!