God With Us

Memorial Day 2012 - Reflection 3

And to the republic for which it stands, one nation… 

Because I use them so much, I pay attention to them.
Words, that is.
Because I believe that words matter.
And, our choice of words matter.
And, that the words we chose and the words we use both reflect and shape how we think and what we do.
So, I find myself wondering about this difference…
Do we think of ourselves as a country or as a nation? 

I am probably splitting hairs, but here is what I think.
A country is defined by geographic boundaries.
Longitude.
Latitude.
Bordered by this country or that ocean.
My backyard.
Your backyard.
A nation is defined by the people.
Black. White. Latino. Asian. African. Eastern European. Native American.
The United States of America is not one country under God,
But, one nation under God.
A people together.
From almost every continent and every country on the face of the earth.
One nation…
In it together…
Responsible to and responsible for each other.

Memorial Day 2012 - Reflection 2

The Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. We cannot consecrate. We cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — 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. 

As a child I loved history and found myself particularly interested in the history Civil War. Or, if you grew up or lived south the Mason-Dixon Line, the history of the War Between the States. So, when my family took a vacation and toured Pennsylvania, when we got to Gettysburg I was as excited as an 11 year old boy could be.  I wanted to stop and to read each plaque and to look at each monument and to stand for a moment on each hillside and in each field doing my best to imagine the scene. And, I had memorized Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address so I could stand where Lincoln had stood and to say it where Lincoln had said it.
Between 600,000 and 700,000 Americans died in that war.
More causalities than in any other war in which our nation has been involved.
While disagreement exists about exactly where and when Memorial Day began, no doubt exists that it began as a way to remember and to honor all who had died in that awful conflict. 

It was an interview that I saw on the news that recalled memories and got me thinking. In response to a question that was asked, a candidate running for a seat in the United States Senate spoke about wanting to be elected in order to represent the constituents in his home state. 
Yes, I thought…and no.

Of course anyone who is elected to any office or board needs to listen to the hopes and dreams and aspirations of those who elected her or him.  I understand that.  But leadership is something more, is it not?  It is not just representing “those back home,” but it is also stepping beyond that parochialism and taking into account and acting in the best interest of the whole. 
In the best interest of all of us, not just some of us. 

Abraham Lincoln’s words continue to resonate, and continue to raise an important question. Can a nation dedicated to the proposition that all are created equal continue to endure? A nation increasingly diverse and one that continues to struggle with the issues of race and gender and poverty and equality.
Such a dream…
Such a nation…
Requires not just representation
But leadership.

Memorial Day 2012 - Reflection 1

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 Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister and Christian socialist and first published in a children’s magazine.  It was not formally adopted by Congress as THE Pledge of Allegiance until 1942, in the middle of the Second World War.  Then, in 1954, with President Eisenhower who had recently been baptized and joined the Presbyterian Church in the congregation,George McPherson Docherty, pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C., preached a sermon arguing that our nation’s might “lay not in arms, but in its spirit and higher purpose.”  President Eisenhower responded to the sermon and his subsequent conversation with the Rev. Docherty and supported the legislation to add the words under God to the pledge.  

For many in the 1950’s, those two words under God embodied the optimism and hope of the time.  The major religious voices which helped to shape the moral conversation in our country were Paul Tillich and Richard and Reinhold Niebuhr and the Jewish scholars Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua Heschel.  Great thinkers and theologians and respected religious leaders. And, reflecting the spirit of that era, in 1958 President Eisenhower laid the cornerstone of the Interchurch Center in upper Manhattan in the area around the Riverside Church and Columbia University and Union Seminary.  

How different it is today.
Instead of bringing people together, those two words under God are pushing people apart. God has become a club to wield against others who disagree with your understanding of God. And, too often, a convenient excuse for violence against those whose ethnicity or religion or political views or gender run counter to your own.  Pat Robertson and Terry Jones and Anwar al Awlaki have replaced Martin Buber and Reinhold Niebuhr as the religious voices heard in the public square.  As a result, more and more of our neighbors, especially those under 40, are turning their backs on religion.  Somewhere between 20-33% have even set foot inside a church for any type of service and 44% of those under 30 say they don’t even believe in God. 

While I am not nostalgic for the world of the 1950’s, I do lament the change and believe that something more important that just organized religion, as you and I know it, is being lost.  What is being lost is an understanding of that which we know and name as God as common ground as we seek justice and work for peace and practice compassion in an effort to make our communities and our world a better and safer place for us and for all. 

A Prayer for Today

So we pray today not with our eyes closed,
But instead with our eyes wide open.
Look around this room.
Space made sacred by the hopes and dreams and prayers of others;
And, now made sacred again by our hopes and our dreams and our prayers.

If you want take the hand of the person next to you.
Allow that hand…
That touch…
To be a very human reminder that we are bound together in our care for each other and our concern for each other and in who we are to each other in the household of God.
And as you look around at each other remember this:
“You have never met a mere mortal.”  C.S. Lewis wrote.
No mere mortals here.
Nor perfect people either.
Just you and me…
Each of us and all of us
Very human
Doing our very best to find out way through life as it is for us.
Doing our best to live up to our daily responsibilities
And to hold onto God’s grand dream for us and for all. 

And, so it is that we pray, O God…
Linking our lives to Your compassion and Your care.
Remembering all whom we have named and all that we have named:
And so many more and so much more.
Please, O God.
And, Thank you.

Amen.

I Am Tired Of It Already

The Presidential campaign that is.
At a time when I long for and I think we need thoughtful, honest, civil, constructive discourse about the issues that face our nation, I am afraid it is just going to get uglier. The headlines in this morning’s New York Times confirms my fears. http://nyti.ms/JLbvU3

At a time when our country needs to come together, it is going to become more polarized.  At a time when we need political cooperation to solve our problems we are going to become more divided by partisan politics.  And at a time when so many find themselves in need - individuals out of work, schools laying off teachers, municipalities and governments struggling to provide basic services, social service programs facing increased need and decreased funding - we are going to spend millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars, on ads which only seek to smear one or the other of our presidential candidates.

It is immoral!
The language we use and will use is immoral.
Spending the amount of money we will spend in the way we will spend it is immoral.
Increasing the divisiveness that exists in our country rather than lessening it is immoral.

I don’t have million of dollars to spend, but I will add my voice to any effort which demands that our political process reflect the best of who we are as a nation, rather than the worst.