Deuteronomy 6:1-9
1 Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, 2 so that you and your children and your children’s children may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
“In God We Trust,” he would say; “All others, pay cash!” Fortunately, I didn’t inherit my father’s punny sense of humor, but I can still remember the smile and the laugh when I was a little kid.
I’ve always trusted God a lot more than I trust myself or other people. Our nation has claimed the same, but times are changing. Those days of my childhood were soon after the war as the Greatest Generation returned and built the houses and raised the families. They deeply believed that God had blessed America with victory because we were such a good and moral nation.
The American Dream, Scouts, PTA, and many other groups saw no need to separate religion from daily life. Prayer and weekday religious education in the public schools demonstrated that Christianity was the norm – Protestant Christianity to be exact, because this was also before the first Roman Catholic was elected president.
In 1954, Congress inserted the words “under God” into the familiar Pledge of Allegiance as a sharp rebuttal to enemy Number One known then as “godless Communism.” Senator Joe McCarthy and others of his ilk stoked the fires of fear and our own Senator Margaret Chase Smith confronted him.
Anyone who took exception to this civil religion knew enough to keep quiet, except for the much-hated atheist Madelyn Murray O’Hair and her circle, whom many called “the antichrist.”
Those were that days when everyone agreed America was a Christian nation, and most suspected God was certainly an American. Those days are gone.
A lot of politicians have used stump speeches to tell us we should be very afraid, and how Christians are being silenced in our own country. I don’t question their sincerity but I also know they use their religious piety as a blunt weapon intended more to gain votes than to promote religious freedom.
I can’t get very worked up about external threats to our religious practices – to humanism and atheism and secularism. I’ve always thought it was our own responsibility to keep the faith lively and responsive.
I don’t think the greatest danger to religious people comes from outside the sanctuary but from within. We decide whether our faith is strong and vital or fat and flabby. We determine whether worship and service are vital or optional.
Today’s a good time to remember that “we the people” had better keep our eye on a deeper concern, expressed in the Pledge of Allegiance with the words: “liberty and justice for all.” Isn’t that what this nation is about? Many nations are founded on religious convictions and principles. Ours was founded on the deep belief that God is Just, and that God liberates us – from sin and oppression and fear. To me, no affirmation, no law, no principle in our land is more fundamental. The issue, of course, is not what we say, but how we live this conviction.
• When we turn a deaf ear to cries for liberty and justice;
• when we harden our hearts against immigrants and poor folks, and those who are pushed to the edges;
• when we put out to referendum the fundamental civil rights of these citizens or those,
• how can we claim any particular blessing from the ancient God revealed in Hebrew and Christian scripture?
The ancient words of Deuteronomy 6 tell us that Moses reminded our Hebrew ancestors, who were now finally settled in the land “flowing with milk and honey,” that their very survival depended on teaching their children, and keeping their story alive. They were an enslaved people, then a wandering people, and now a free people by the power of God. God has always been the God of liberty and justice.
After the Exodus the people came to live among others who worshiped different gods – who neither knew nor respected Yahweh. So Moses called out to the people: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might.” That center, that core, has defined the people of Israel from the earliest times. There are many other command¬ments but I believe none is more important.
We as Christians continue the ancient story, remembering that a young lawyer asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest. He repeated the wisdom of Deuteronomy, and then added “and love your neighbor as yourself – on this is based all the law and the prophets.” This kind of love for neighbor is summed up in the single word “justice.”
On this summer Sunday, this Independence Day weekend, what do we hope for as we gather here? We come to bear witness to the many ways God lives with us in steadfast mercy and love; God liberates us from the afflictions of heart and soul and mind; and God calls us to whole-hearted, passionate living… to love and to serve God above all other calls.
As we prepare to share bread and cup, we recall that this very meal is sign and symbol of the presence of the God who breaks down barriers, sets captives free, and calls us into fellowship as the beloved community, gathered around the common center of Jesus Christ.
By the grace of God we join this circle with great joy and promise. We’ve inherited this strong and good nation from generations who have tried earnestly to live in faith and to cherish this, our sacred trust.
If religion fails to flourish in the nation, we can’t blame activist judges, or atheistic politicians, or Muslim immigrants. We will have only ourselves to blame. And the greatest failure may be our laziness in the pursuit of justice and peace in God’s fragile, wonderful world.
As we mark the anniversary of our nation’s founding, let us together give thanks to our Creator, and pledge anew to live nobly, and more nobly still to strive for the common-wealth – one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.