Our Pledge of Allegiance

Preached at Hanover Street Presbyterian Church

On July 4, 2004

By the Rev. Thomas C. Davis, III

Texts:

Jeremiah 29: 4-7

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.  But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Galatians 6: 7-16

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.  If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.  So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up.  So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.

Luke 10: 1-6

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.  He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.  Go on your way.  See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.  Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.  Whatever house you enter, first say, ?Peace to this house!'  And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you.

Sermon Text

"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."

Reading from the Bible and saying the pledge of allegiance to the American flag was a daily homeroom ritual when I was growing up.  Nobody protested then that it wasn't fair to all the children to read from Jewish or Christian scriptures.  Nobody objected to the phrase, "one nation under God," on the grounds that it favors a religious persuasion that should not be imposed in a republic that boasts of "freedom and justice for all."  But citizens are objecting now.  They are even legally protesting this ritual of allegiance, hallowed by long use.  Just last week the Supreme Court came so close to ruling on that issue.  The case was brought by a man who is separated from his wife and is quarreling with her about how their only child, a daughter, should be raised.  Her mother is a born again Christian, and her father, an atheist.  Thus, there were high religious stakes in this case.  The Justices observed that the wife has more parental responsibility than the husband (figured by her greater assigned hours of custody).  So, they ruled that he has no right to plead as his daughter's guardian.  Thus the Justices avoided a troubling matter, which you can be sure will arise again in this, the most religiously diverse nation on the planet: May our government legally require all its children to recite a pledge of allegiance which implies religious belief?

When this very fundamental issue of conscience arises again in our courts, it will surely unsettle many Americans, not just because the pledge of allegiance has become a quasi-religious ritual, but also because we will then be challenged to examine the widespread assumption that religious piety and patriotism go together like a hand in glove.  When I was a Boy Scout, the "God and Country" award was a coveted achievement.  None of my Scout leaders ever hinted that one's allegiance to God and one's allegiance to country might sometimes conflict.  They do, of course, but moral conflicts are always easier to spot in other peoples' houses.  For instance, I was born just at the end of World War II; and it was no stretch for me to recognize that German Christians ought to have known better than back that mad corrupter of their faith, Adolph Hitler.  It's not so easy to see our own faults.  Jesus taught that if you want to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye, you'd better take the log out of your own first, so that you can see clearly.  There are all kinds of logs, but few are more blinding or more destructive than the conglomeration of piety and patriotism.  In times of war, when nations feel most threatened, religious piety calls down glory from heaven to bless patriotic gore, and call it good.  "Praise God, and pass the ammunition!"  For many citizens, the love of God and the love of country get so entangled, they become inseparable.  "One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."  How good and holy that sounds!  For generations we have affirmed that notion, and enshrined it in ritual, to "bring up our children right."  However, a deeply important question, a moral question and spiritual question, still remains: Are we indeed one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all?

Our answer will depend upon whether we take that phrase as a description of the way things really are in our nation, or rather, the way we'd like them to be, through hard work and God's help.  The meaning of noble phrases in patriotic hymns must be similarly understood.  Yes, our beloved country does have purple mountain majesty, and amber waves of grain.  But alabaster cities undimmed by human tears it has not.  This is a dream, a dream that can inspire us to work toward it, but certainly not if we lie to ourselves that the dream has already come true.  Sweet love of country must be tempered by critical discernment, especially of our own house.  Otherwise patriotism devolves into chauvinism.

In his "I have a dream speech, Martin Luther King Jr. quoted from another patriotic hymn: "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.  Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims' pride, from every mountain side, let freedom ring."  King knew full well that that hymn sings both of the now and the not yet.  It celebrates some freedoms already won, but it also calls attention to other freedoms not yet won.  In our patriotic celebrations, we should emulate Martin Luther King Jr.'s prophetic discernment that avoids cynicism, but also the blindness caused by patriotic folderol.

No doubt about it--these are tough times.  When I was fighting in Vietnam, there were no front lines.  There was, however, a place to retreat to.  G.I.s called it "the world," which was pretty much anyplace but 'Nam.  Things have got much worse.  The whole world is battleground now.  There is nowhere to retreat to.  We are like sheep among wolves-- all of us--and the wolves aren't lying down.  A natural response to such dreadful stress is to withdraw, become suspicious of strangers, batten our hatches.  However, such a reactive response sets us up to be beguiled by demagogues who can easily manipulate us with patriotic jargon.  Such a paranoiac response decreases our ability to be critical thinkers, discerners of the truth.  What scripture calls us to do in such a dreadful time as this is to work for the good of the world in which we are not at home anymore.  The prophet Jeremiah admonished the Jewish exiles in Babylon: Work for the good of the city in which you are exiled, for in its welfare you will find your own welfare.  In other words, don't pull back.  Don't batten the hatches.  Get out there and mingle with the suspicious ones, for your welfare and theirs are all tied up together.

On this birthday of our nation's independence, and on this morning when we celebrate with joyful anticipation the coming of the kingdom of God around the table of Jesus, let me close with the words of Paul to the Christians in Galatia: "So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up.  So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all."