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On the Love of God and Country Sunday July 4, 1999 Douglas S. Long North Raleigh United Church I've not traveled out of this country often, but doing so is always a revelation for this Southern bred boy. I remember when Denise and I were in language school in Mexico studying Spanish in order to work with Habitat for Humanity in the Mexican hinterland. All the students were asked to introduce themselves in our first large gathering. Most were from Europe, a few Canadians… and when it reached the turn of an older fellow I had already learned was from Chicago beside me, he introduced himself as John Smith from America. "Ahh" said the Director in his heavy Spanish accent, "I am from America too. Mexico is in the Americas." The students laughed. The man blushed. "Well, I'm a North American," replied the Chicagoan. "Mexico too, is in the North American continent." The students laughed again and the fellow beside me was quickly becoming the ugly American. "Well then," the fellow was clearly irritated "I'm from the United States!" "My friend," again came the reply, "I am as well. Estados Unidos (United States) de Mexico." America, Americas, may God shed grace on us all. In my perfect world, the Fourth of July would never fall on a Sunday… and I could more easily avoid topics such as the one I feel almost forced to address today. Because though it is not a religious celebration, in truth and practice, the Fourth of July is often treated as such… and so today I wade into the swirling and dangerous waters of God and Country. I think, first, of two well known quotations in this regard. I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just. -Thomas Jefferson (Perhaps, given recent revelations, had Jefferson envisioned DNA testing, he would have trembled publicly for himself a bit as well.) I should like to love my country and still love justice. -Albert Camus I with Camus on that one. For there are times when I do not love my country because I do love justice. …and there are times when this country, as all countries, fall short of the ideals it professes. There is another quote, this one attributed to Union General George Steadman. He was, according to the probably apocryphal story, addressing his troops just before the battle that some call the second battle of Manasses and others the second battle of Bull Run. General Steadman apparently had some misgivings about the outcome of the battle. "Gentlemen, " he said, "I want you to fight vigorously and then run away. As I am a bit lame, I am going to begin running now." Now, I hope you folk listen carefully to what I have to say because, it wouldn't be too terribly difficult to misconstrue some of what I have to say... and, unlike General Steadman, I do not have the advantage of a head start.
In the American and Southern and Baptist culture I was raised in, it was obligatory for the minister, on the Sunday closest to July the Fourth, to preach a sermon on patriotism. When I was in College I worked as a youth minister at a church which designated that particular Sunday as "God and Country Day." Of course, what they meant, and what we all understood, was God and America Day. Usually, a politician was invited to preach and the theme was always the same… complete devotion to God and complete devotion to our country was inseparable.
Not that I'm not patriotic, mind you, and not that I don't believe God's truth and the truth in the stated ideals of our country overlap greatly. But the really troubling part of it all for me, was that the country was equated with God, and vice versa. We were God's chosen and all parts of our national structure including our military forces… all parts of our national structure, were agents of the One True God. America was God incarnate. The promised land of the present. No other country garnered the favor of the God of all history like our country.
What does it mean to love God and Country? A bumper sticker summarized what I was taught as a child.... 'America... Love it or Leave it.' It took a while, many years actually, for me to understand the shortsightedness of such a slogan... If you really love America, then you hold it accountable to God, and you take responsibility for your part in its shortcomings, and you work hard to right the wrong.
Do you remember Amos?... There is a morality more 'just' than the vote of the majority.
After the Israelites had defeated the British (or Syrians or whoever) and become the pre-eminent power of their world... after the reign of David and Washington, Solomon and Lincoln... after a couple of wars that involved the entire known world left Israel still powerful in the land... after the rulers and rich folk of Israel had become fat and happy and complacent ... after all this.... and in the midst of all this ... a voice arose from the countryside... a voice that identified the opulence of the rich idling their time away wondering how to amuse themselves, a voice that knew the poverty of the people of the land, struggling to eat and clothe themselves... struggling to exist...) This was a voice that ran counter to the popular tide and vote, a voice from God... the voice of Amos to the people in power... in power for a while.
Said Amos to those who believed they were God's chosen: "You think that God is only on your side, but you have ignored the poor, you have trampled the ordinary person. And you have fallen to the belief that God does not also speak to the Cushites, and Mexicans, the Philistines and the Serbian. You have grown fat and complacent in your affluence, Israel. …and God is watching.
Amos, representative of all the best of the OT prophets, marches into the financial and political centers of the country during the height of a booming economy and unprecedented military stability, Amos marches into their Washington and Wall Street and proclaims… "There is a higher authority. There is a morality higher than the vote of the majority. Listen people of Israel, your first sin is that you have ignored the poor among you. Your second sin is that you believe you have a corner on the love of God. Wake up from your sloth and self concern. Be people of God.
Abraham Heschel refers to prophets like Amos as "morally mad." The morally mad prophet seeks justice and liberty for all. (or, we might say, 'liberty and justice for all.' I've heard that phrase before.)
What Heschel goes on to explain is that concern for justice is not a human concern we project onto God; rather, concern for justice is a divine trait, and to the degree that we embody justice, God takes form within us. Our task then, is to imitate God. The OT prophet understood that the only way to do so in the context of a majority gone awry, was to appear 'morally mad', for the very sake of the people, the country, you love.
When God and country are equated, God is always short changed. And in the process, so is the country, for it is not held accountable to its highest ideals.
When God and country are equated, held as one…
There is, somewhere roaming the oceans of the world right now, a single submarine with destructive powers beyond belief. A Trident submarine, not the only in its class, but this one, somewhere deep within the waters of the world, equipped with enough Nuclear firepower to destroy hundreds of millions of people, this is one seems particularly poignant to me… for it is named The USS Corpus Christi... Corpus Christi… No doubt, named for a city in Texas… but it is a Latin phrase familiar to many of us… Corpus … Body… Christi… Christ… the Body of Christ…. The USS Corpus Christi is literally, the USS Body of Christ... The Body of Christ does not belong to any single country… and it is certainly not a machine of mass destruction. Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain, wrote a short work that his daughter and others who read it discouraged him from printing, for it would be regarded as sacrilege. A friend, so moved by the piece asked Clemens if he would print it or not. "No," Clemens replied. "I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead men can tell the truth in this world. It can be published after I'm dead." …and it was. It's entitled The War Prayer and is a very short piece, the whole of which can be read aloud in 10 minutes or less. I want to summarize a portion of it for you and read the last of it. The setting is a time of great excitement and patriotism when the country was readying itself for war. The bands were playing, the flags waving, the young soldiers in their fine uniforms marching through the streets to the accolades of their proud families and countrymen. "…in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country and invoked the God of battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause.." Now as Twain weaves the tale, it is in the setting of a passionate service of worship the day before the young battalions would leave, that the rest of the story unfolds. The church was filled A war chapter from the OT read. Then an organ burst shook the building and the invocation was said in unison: …And then came the 'long' prayer It was a passionate and moving supplication that the Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers and aid them in their patriotic work, help them crush the foe, and grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory. While the prayer continued, a stranger, clad in a long robe, white hair to his shoulders moved into the sanctuary, up the aisle and beside the still praying minister. At the conclusion of the prayer… "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!" …The stranger touched the startled minister and motioned for him to step aside, which he did. Spoke the stranger to the rapt congregation: "I come from the throne- bearing a message from Almighty God! He has heard your prayer, spoken and unspoken, for you have uttered more than you are aware of. Both prayers have reached the ear of the One who hears all supplications. You have heard the spoken prayer. I am commissioned to put into words that which you have prayed silently. Listen! Hear that prayer now." "O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle- be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, Help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; Help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; Help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; Help us to lay waste to their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; Help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; Help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, And who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen. The prayer now finished, said the stranger to the congregation: "`Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits." …and there was silence. The story concludes with a single sentence. "It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said." But we know he wasn't a lunatic. He was filled with moral madness and all the sense of true divinity. Today is July the Fourth, and we can celebrate for the seeds of liberty and justice are strongly planted in the American ideal, and for that I truly give thanks this day of Independence, but we are yet to live into that liberty and justice for all completely. And for that… Christ bids us strive… not just where our borders end… for borders and boundaries are fashioned by humans. To really love your country, is to hold it firmly, and lovingly accountable to the justice that is God... Which will land you squarely into trouble sometimes. But the bottom line is that there is a higher authority to which we are accountable.
Jesus said it this way.
So today, and everyday, I want all of you to go out and love your country... and when you get in trouble for it you'll know you did it right. And that's the gospel. Amen.
Scripture introductions for July 4, 1999 (These passages were introduced and read prior to the sermon.)
Our three passages of scripture this morning focus our thoughts on issues of the eternal God and the temporal institutions of humanity. More pointedly I've chosen them to help us struggle with our relationship to God and country.
Psalm 59:1-2,11-13 Psalm 59 is representative of many other Psalms, but importantly not all Psalms and certainly not all the Biblical witness. Hear the words of the Psalmist who demands God's wrathful power upon his enemies.
Amos 1:1-2,2:6-8, 9:7-8 The setting for the next passage will take a few moments to explain.
The land of Palestine, the present day Middle East, has, throughout human history, always been a bottleneck for trade routes between the continents of Europe, Africa and Asia. 2800 years ago, during the first half of the eight century BC, due to the lack of threat from other powers, and because of the trade routes that funneled through their land, a rich merchant class developed...' The wealth was not distributed equally however. Many were desperately poor and powerless.
The prosperous citizens of Israel interpreted the nation's prosperity as a sign of God's favor and looked for even greater favors to come. Priests and prophets at the sanctuaries benefitted greatly from the lavish offerings and they were not inclined to do or say anything that might dampen the mood of confidence and exultation.'
So with the status quo priests and prophets paid off by the wealthy coming to the Temple... praying that God would continue to bless their country... the true voice of God was silenced.... Until… a renegade prophet, a shepherd from the country, spoke with the thunder of a God not to be silenced. In a stunning passage, the prophet acknowledges that, in terms of God's favor, Israel is not categorically different than the Philistines or Cushites, their long-time enemies. Hear a portion of the words of Amos.
Luke 9:51-56 Jesus doesn't talk a lot about nationalism. There is the famous passage about rendering to God the things that are God's and to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Of course the import of that passage is that all things belong to God and therefore all things are to be rendered to God. And of course, there is the plain and contrary to the ways of the world teaching to 'love your enemy.' But even Jesus' disciples couldn't swallow this. Old ways, and old understandings of a god who is only our God die slowly. Hear this exchange of Jesus and his disciples, yet another clue to our understanding of God and country. |
Contact Doug Long at (919) 844-6661 or
send e-mail to: doug@northraleighunited.org |