America at 250
One Nation Under God?
On July 3, 1776 John Adams, later to become the second President of the United States of America, wrote to his favorite correspondent, his wife Abigail Adams, to inform her that the Continental Congress had voted in favor of independence from Great Britain on July 2, a day that he believed of epochal significance. He wrote:
I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. -- I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. -- Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.
In the end, it was the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, that would attract all of the pomp, parade, and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other. But Adams was right that the moment would be commemorated with celebration. In this brief excerpt Adams mentions God twice, and he uses the religious language of deliverance, devotion, and glory. It is worth asking the question, then: how might we reflect on America at 250?
On the one hand, it is entirely appropriate to celebrate the nation. But we gravely misunderstand what such celebration ought to be if we turn our celebration into worship. Adams and many of the other Founders of the country believed that God was indeed guiding them toward what is right, even though it would be costly. From the very beginning of our nation, our common story has been draped in religious language. But the Founders were also clear that it was the ideals of the nation--the "self-evident" truths "that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; and that among these rights are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"--it was these ideals that were worthy of honor and reverence, not the levers of power. This is the grand and bold vision of humanity that informed the Founders--one in which all humans are created equal, where no one is born better than another. That's why this nation has always upheld birthright citizenship, for instance. And because humans are created equal by God, the Founders saw a vision of a society in which all were guaranteed access to life, liberty, and the chance for happiness. It is this vision that is America.
How do you celebrate your birthday? Certainly there is likely to be celebration, because as both the Gospel and the Founders recognize, every human life--yours included--is of value. You've made it another year around the sun. You are here, you are alive, together with us. That's worth celebrating. But if you're like me, you might also spend some time taking stock of your life--Are you accomplishing what you had hoped? Are you working toward your goals? Are you growing into the person you are still hoping to become? What task remains undone? What part of your vision unfulfilled? What part of your story still unwritten?
We should treat the "birthday" of the nation no differently. America is not a reality to worship. America has always been a vision, a horizon that beckoned us onward. The vision of the Founders, reiterated by many great patriots throughout the last 250 years, remains unfinished. More than that, many of us have become so lulled by our own sense that we were inevitably moving toward that vision that we neglected the fact that we can also grow forgetful of its purpose. We can, in the name of the vision, betray the vision. We can, in the name of the dream, create a nightmare.
The Declaration of Independence is a great American document, and I encourage you all to read it. Thirty-four of its fifty-six signers were Anglicans who would go on to be some of the first Episcopalians. But so is the speech of Frederick Douglass given on July 5, 1852, "What to the American Slave is the Fourth of July?" Douglass's speech reminds us that the vision of the nation was unfinished in his time. I encourage you to read it also. Douglass, like Dr. King after him, was able to praise America for its vision, and boldly point out its failings. He does not mince words, the institution of slavery betrayed the very ideals for which Adams and Jefferson, Washington and Hamilton, and so many others were willing to sacrifice much. As the nation turns 250, those of us who call ourselves Americans ought to have the same resolve the Founders had--that no flag or allegiance is owing to empty power. Allegiance, sacrifice, and honor are due to the triumph of justice, of liberty, of what is right--higher than the laws that are written.
And all of us this points us, ultimately, beyond the nation. In Isaiah 2, the prophet receives a word from the LORD:
The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more.
O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord!
This is the vision that the American vision gestures toward, but it is not a vision for America only, just as the vision of Isaiah was not for Judah only. All the nations will stream to God's house to learn God's ways. "And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more." The nation of equality, liberty, and justice points, at its best, beyond itself to the peaceable kingdom of God. And that is worth celebrating with pomp and parade. But the celebration ought to spur us to greater resolve not to glory in the nation, but in the humanity it fosters. And when it no longer fosters the best in us, when in the course of human events our memory fades, it is our duty to bring ourselves to account, to recall our sacred purpose and the barely guessed-at purposes of God for our nation.
The flag bows to the cross. The American nation must one day give way to the coming kingdom. Until then we do well to uphold the vision of the founders as a mirror we look into 250 years on, and ask ourselves: do we worship the teetering project that remains unfulfilled, do we give reverence to this imperfect nation, or will we have the courage to continue to build a nation, in all the light that God may shed, toward greater justice, greater liberty, greater equality for all people? Will we serve our nation with prayer and reverence for what is right and good, or will we succumb to the temptation that this is as good as it is likely to get?
As America turns 250, I have no way to know what lies ahead. But I celebrate and honor the noble ideals of the nation, even when the reality does not meet those expectation. And I will continue to pray that whatever grace God has in store for us will be made manifest, and that the grand vision of the founders will meet the grand hopes of our God and lead us to the life, liberty, prosperity, and happiness we all long for.
Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace. Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for the Nation, BCP, p. 258)
