SPECIAL DAYS: Independence Sunday

June 30, 2002 - Lesson: 1 John 3.14-18

Sermon Title: A Vision for America

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INTRODUCTION:

A journalist assigned to the Jerusalem bureau takes an apartment overlooking the Wailing Wall. Every day when she looks out, she sees an old Jewish man praying vigorously. So the journalist goes down and introduces herself to the old man.

She asks: "You come every day to the wall. How long have you done that and what are you praying for?"

The old man replies, "I have come here to pray every day for 25 years. In the morning I pray for world peace and then for the brotherhood of man. I go home have a cup of tea and I come back and pray for the eradication of illness and disease from the earth."

The journalist is amazed. "How does it make you feel to come here every day for 25 years and pray for these things?" she asks.

The old man looks at her sadly. "Like I'm talking to a wall."

  1. We have to contend with a number of different walls
    1. 9/11 was a wall.
      1. The wall confronted us with our vulnerability.
      2. The wall challenged our self-concept of ourselves as Americans.
      3. There were a number of ways to respond.
      4. Our government took the way that appeared to be the most appropriate.
    2. The 9th Circuit Appeals Court in a three-member panel ruled that the phrase, "under God," used in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional.
      1. This is a wall that challenges our concepts of the separation of church and state.
      2. The church was the most vital when it was the enemy of the State.
      3. The church was the source of spiritual power when it had to defend itself against the attacks of non-sympathetic religions and rulers.
      4. How we will continue to meet this wall is a continual challenge.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. To meet successfully the walls that are thrown up in our path we need a vision of ourselves, and a vision of America.
    1. Katherine Lee Bates can provide us with a starting point with the poem that she wrote "America the Beautiful?"

SONG: AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

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 pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!

America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!

America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!

America! America!
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

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  1. These words were written by Katherine Lee Bates during the summer of 1893.
    1. She took a long trip into the heartland of America.
      1. She was from Falmouth, MA, "down on the Cape."
      2. There were three experiences that influenced the writing of America.
        1. She visited the Columbian Exposition in Chicago and saw the dream planner's depiction of a city of the future.
          1. An alabaster city.
          2. Dazzling in classic beauty
        2. She viewed from the top of Pike's Peak Colorado's "purple mountain majesties" (The Colorado Rockies).
        3. She saw the "fruited plain" and the distant "amber waves of grain" of Kansas and Nebraska.
    2. Filled with the beauty and the appreciation of God and country Katherine Bates wrote of what was and what she hoped would be.
  2. I don't think we are any better nor worse than we have been.
    1. We are not more lawless than we ever have been.
      1. We have more people.
        1. We have the same percentage of good people.
        2. We have the same percentage of bad people.
      2. More people compounds our problems.
    2. I don't think we are more apathetic than we have been.
    3. I don't believe that we are any less civil.
    4. I do believe that we are less rooted in principle and values.
    5. We have an ethical dilemma.
  1. It is important on this Fourth of July Weekend to ask ourselves how we got here and where are we going?
    1. We got where we are because people held to a set of personal and community values.
      1. A willingness to work had to achieve a long-term goal.
      2. A determination to work in a spirit of kindness and agreement.
      3. A high level of social and corporate civility.
      4. With cooperation for the common good.
      5. An appreciation of talent and ability.
      6. A personal respect for, and appreciation of those who sought to lead and establish policy.
    2. It appears that much of the early spirit of America has been lost.
      1. Lost partly through ignorance.

CBS News reporter asking people what the Fourth of July meant to them.

Majority answered in terms of food and drink and fireworks.

It is a day for personal enjoyment

Only two people mentioned the celebration of a nation's birth.

Perhaps that is understood, but only perhaps.

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  1. How are we going to hold on to what we the people have created?
    1. How do we go about creating an appreciation of who and what we are?
    2. How do we create a desire to maintain and expand the principles of freedom?
  2. We must learn to cherish the values that lead to our greatness.
    1. What values are we taking about?
    2. There is a considerable amount of confusion about moral values and absolutes.
    3. Two recent studies demonstrate that a large number of people have come to believe that there are no absolute moral values.

Princeton Religion Research Center

In an age of relativity in science and religion, most Americans think there are few moral absolutes about right or wrong--the situation dictates their answer.

For example: The justification for snitching an apple or a loaf of bread might be conditioned by the needs for food; or the need to lie to protect someone's well-being.

That modified "situation ethics" a sometimes controversial notion in the churches, is affirmed by 69% of US adults, says a recent report by the Princeton Religion Research Center in Princeton, NJ.

Others disagree. Although most americans affirm the moral relativity principle, the big majority--70%--still say it's important to so what God or the Scriptures tells them is right.

At the same time, of the 91% who say religion is very important in their lives, 63% still reject the concept of moral absolutes, contending such standards depend on the situation....

On a related question, people are more divided about how they determine truth.

43% say their own personal experience is the most reliable guide to truth, while 34% say they rely on the Bible or religious leaders.

16% rely on parent's teachings, while 7% rely on science and 6% on the media--television, newspapers and books.

Younger adults--those under 30 are most prone to rely on their own experience as the yardstick of truth, 47%. Only 22% of the younger group rely on the Bible.

The Barna Report said much the same thing.

72% of 18-25 year-old's said there was no such thing as absolute truth.

    1. What we are witnessing is the result of a value--neutral educational system.
    2. Truth than becomes relative and unrelated to any commonly acceptable moral standard.
      1. When this happens we lose our moral center.
      2. We find ourselves dealing with the confusion that currently afflicts us.

Katherine Lee Bates saw this possibility and in her poem urged the understanding of the source of our strength and the remedy for returning to the values that led to the establishment of a great nation.

"O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!

America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!"

      1. Confirm your soul in self-control.
      2. Thy liberty in what? Law!
    1. If our problem is ignorance; how can God mend ignorance?
    2. If our problem is lack of self-control; how can God create self-control?
    3. How can God help us to find our liberty in law?

"O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
 Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!

America! America!
 May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!

    1. Gold is refined in the white-hot heat of adversity.
    2. Adversity has its own lessons to teach.

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CONCLUSION:

  1. In this day when it appears that our beloved values are threatened by forces within and without, it's up to us to teach the vision enunciated by Katherine Lee Bates.

I Will Do More (1)

I will do more than belong-- I will participate.

I will do more than care-- I will help.

I will do more than believe-- I will practice.

I will do more than be fair-- I will be kind.

I will do more than forgive-- I will work.

I will do more than earn-- I will enrich.

I will do more than teach-- I will inspire.

I will do more than give-- I will serve.

I will do more than live-- I will grow.

I will do more than be friendly-- I will be a friend.

1. The Mediator

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