When we were little children, we viewed our parents through an almost entirely positive lens. They could do nothing wrong in our eyes. When we became adolescents, we viewed our parents through an almost entirely negative lens. They could do virtually nothing right in our teenage eyes. And periodically during adolescence, teenagers will slip in and out of a childlike orientation toward their parents as they grow. However, if we had a loving set of parents, we matured to later realize as adults that our parents are basically good and decent people despite their various imperfections.
In a similar way, our United States of America has arguably been in its adolescent phase of development in recent decades as our national life has been marked by a great deal of adolescent-like negative angst about our national history and heritage. So while some view our USA as virtually doing no wrong in the world, there are many who now view our USA through an almost entirely negative adolescent lens.
Of course, the truth is that there is no such thing as a perfect nation. All nations have negative aspects to their histories and present realities. Yes our USA is not perfect, but our history and heritage are not a horrible travesty either. The USA has been, by far, and continues to be, by far, a great blessing to our world. Therefore, it is indeed right that we should have a healthy sense of patriotism for everything that is good and laudable about our national founding and history and heritage. While acknowledging the bad historical aspects, and learning from them, we uplift and give thanks every Thanksgiving for the good historical aspects of our nation above all else, and it is these many good aspects of our nation that our national symbols (especially the US Flag) point toward and represent.
As we are on the brink of the yearlong Presidential campaigning season for 2020, I believe it is important to be mindful of the fact that our national inheritance is truly a great good — although we have at times failed to live up to our highest ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers. I also believe it is important to remember that, as our two national mottos declare, “In God We Trust” and “E Pluribus Unum” (meaning “out of many, one”).
In his book Mere Christianity, the great Christian author and lay theologian C.S. Lewis wrote the following… “God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.”
As the people of the Church of Jesus Christ, we know this wonderful statement by C.S. Lewis to be most certainly true of both individuals and entire nations. So no matter what, we recognize that it is in God that we place our trust and hope, first and foremost, because our first citizenship is in God’s universal kingdom of grace and truth. As it says in Philippians 3:18-20… “For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
And we also ought to recall the following biblical admonition from Psalm 146:3-5… “Do not put your trust in rulers, in mortals, in whom there is no salvation. When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish. Happy are those whose salvation is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.”
The font of life and salvation is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, no matter the outcome of this next year within our national life together, let us always remember our first citizenship in God and our true salvation in, with and through our Lord Jesus Christ.
In God We Trust! Thanks and Praise Be to God! Happy Thanksgiving!
Together in Christ, Pastor Tim