Patriotism Sunday

I mentioned in my previous post about American religion, that some of the key features are self, capitalism and inclusivity. (I should note that that inclusivity only includes the currently fashionable groups to include. Terrorists are definitely out.) One other hallmark of American religion is flags!

I forgot how sick I get when I go into a church on the Sunday proximal to the fourth of July. The flags everywhere, the "praise to America" hymns, etc. I passed by a church on Saturday that had the sermon title on the marquee: "Happy birthday America/Independent of tyranny/Dependent upon God." I can only assume by the title that the tyrants are the British? Those feelings that the early Americans felt were presumably very different from how the Native Americans or the slaves or the Iraqis felt (feel).

I do have to grant the possibility that there was a bait and switch in there, much the same as at my church. Perhaps they were going to sing "happy birthday, America" (happy two hundred thirty-second birthda-ay), then talk about how the power of sin and death were broken through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and how we're all dependent on God to break free from that. But I kinda doubt it.

We walked in a bit late to my church, and they were mid-Introit. "God Bless America." I think I crawled out of my skin and ran back to the car. But somehow my corpse stayed. I'm thankful we weren't there for the "Organ Praise" which was "The National Anthem." There were two giant American flags hanging on either side of the sanctuary. (What does "sanctuary" mean again?)

But a mysterious thing began to happen. (I should have known something was up when I saw a bunch of foreign flags around the sanctuary.) We started singing songs that talk about God ruling over his creation. About how we're brothers and sisters with people around the world. About bearing each other's burdens. Singing the wonderful verses of American hymns that pertained to not America. (From "My Country, 'Tis of Thee": Not for this land alone,/ But be God's mercies shown from shore to shore;/ And may the nations see that men should brothers be,/ And form one family the wide world o'er.) Then the sermon title: "One World, Under God"! The pastor was preaching to the choir to me, but I think it might have been a significant message for many in the congregation.

I'll include the full text of the closing hymn, "O God of Every Nation":
O God of every nation,
Of every race and land,
Redeem your whole creation
With your almighty hand;
Where hate and fear divide us,
And bitter threats are hurled,
In love and mercy guide us,
And heal our strife-torn world.

Keep bright in us the vision
Of days when war shall cease,
When hatred and division
Give way to love and peace,
Till dawns the morning glorious
When truth and justice reign,
And Christ shall rule victorious
O'er all the world's domain.


Amen, amen and amen! I still get gander bumps when I think of the implications of this song. Please don't misunderstand me. I don't hate America. I enjoy the "freedom," convenience and relative sloth. I really do. But I feel like the real America believes the preceding hymn, that we should serve the world around us. I don't believe America is the kingdom of God or the church. However, it appears that most Americans believe that America is God's country (or for the secularists, that luck has shone so greatly on us that we're entitled to grind our boot on the rest of the world's neck). Yet we behave in the world exactly the way God detests. This is why the words of the prophet Amos apply so strongly to America, particularly these:
"Seek good, not evil,
that you may live.
Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you,
just as you say he is.
Hate evil, love good;
maintain justice in the courts.
Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy
on the remnant of Joseph" (TNIV).
We aren't the remnant of Joseph, but God will be with us if we seek good, not evil. And by "with us," I don't mean that we will win military victories. Because more than likely we wouldn't be fighting.

God bless the world.