Dear Friends in Christ:
O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,
for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed his grace on thee,
and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.
O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!
America! America! God mend thine every flaw;
Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law!
Those words were penned by Katherine Lee Bates, a poet, writer, and professor of literature at Wellesley College. The poem, later set to music for the hymn we will sing this Sunday, was written after Bates climbed Pikes Peak by wagon and mule with fellow teachers in the summer of 1893. Looking out over the mountains and plains, her words remind us of all for which we can be thankful as Americans.
But when you read Bates’ words closely, you can see that her words do not describe the way America already is; they are a prayer for the way America should be. Bates was a tireless social reformer who sought to support all those who did not receive “equal justice” or experience “true brotherhood:” women, people of color, immigrants, and the poor. She helped to found a settlement house in her community and worked for global peace as an advocate of the League of Nations after World War I. She knew that there were flaws in America, and in the world, badly in need of mending.
Jesus told a parable of two brothers who were asked by their father to work in the vineyard. One son said he would not, but then later did go and work in the fields. The other son immediately said “yes,” to his father, but then never showed up. “Which of the two did the will of the father?” Jesus asked. The obvious answer? Not the brother who said he would, but the brother who actually did the work.
Patriotic ideals are great; but actions to realize those ideals are far more important. May we sing and pray Bates’ prayer this week. In turn, may we be a people who don’t just celebrate the ideals of America on July 4, but who for the rest of the year, do the work so that those ideals are lived out in our common life, and experienced by all people. Finally, may we recognize that the idea of a nation is always a human construct, not a divine creation. After all, when you look at the earth from space, you will never see those national borders over which so much blood has been spilled. All that you can see is one globe filled with the diverse variety of God’s children, all of whom are created by God and loved by God.
God bless America – and God bless this whole world!
See you Sunday,
Carter Lester
Interim Lead Pastor
