Yog^sothoth
May 8th 2003, 08:57 PM
God Bless America
By Rev. Mark S. Peake “Pilgrim” (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/member.php?action=getinfo&userid=20)
Since the events of September 11th, and more recently in these days following the advent of War in Iraq, there have been little signs popping up everywhere: in windows, on bill-boards, on bumper stickers. You can’t drive down the street with out seeing the simple prayer “God bless America.”
My reaction to this sudden outpouring of religious sentiment was at first skeptical--I wondered if people really meant it. I wondered if they had prayed for God’s blessings before the 11th. I suppose that in some way I resented this sudden appeal to something that for me had been a life long commitment.
I think we all feel this way when something we have long held in high regard suddenly becomes fashionable to everyone. We react with this misplaced ownership. And in this case, my ownership was highly misplaced. Although I have to admit that in at least one instance I was justified. I read of a “God Bless America” sign posted just below a sign that read, “Live nude dancers!” I think in that one case a healthy skepticism was a legitimate response.
But in general, what I now realize is that people are not trying to claim something that was the soul property of the church, whatever church that may be. What they are doing is turning their faces upward to look at a hope that is God’s alone to give, and God in fact offers it to all of us. It is not the pastors to own, or any particular church’s property, it is something that is owned by all who are created in the “image of God,” and as far as I can see, that is all of us.
Another concern I had is that we were somehow saying America had some sort of very weird claim on God that no other people had. I asked myself, “Are we really saying that God wants us to go kill people?” Again I realized that what people were doing was not claiming God as an American citizen, but rather with genuine hope, calling up to a God that has been present in our lives from the moment history began.
And so I look back to the Sunday after September 11th and our sanctuary which was quite possibly more full than it had ever been; I look back to the Prayer Service that the Island ministers put together the night of the 11th and remember all the people of this community coming together to pray and heal; and as I look back I realize that our prayer for God’s blessings on America are genuine and appropriate. But those prayers are only good if we follow them with something more.
What I pray for and what I call us all to is the continued commitment to that prayer. Let us return to church Sunday after Sunday and pray with each other again and again. We must remember that people are looking at God and considering the eternal questions in ways they have not in a very long time. So along with our signs, “God bless America.” Let us redouble our commitment to faith and to communities of faith so that our very lives become signs that proclaim the fact God has already blessed us!
God bless America! Indeed, God bless all God’s children everywhere!
300
TheologyWeb thanks Pilgrim for being a faifhful Quasi-Super Moderator :wink: and supporter of this site and one of our first members.
By Rev. Mark S. Peake “Pilgrim” (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/member.php?action=getinfo&userid=20)
Since the events of September 11th, and more recently in these days following the advent of War in Iraq, there have been little signs popping up everywhere: in windows, on bill-boards, on bumper stickers. You can’t drive down the street with out seeing the simple prayer “God bless America.”
My reaction to this sudden outpouring of religious sentiment was at first skeptical--I wondered if people really meant it. I wondered if they had prayed for God’s blessings before the 11th. I suppose that in some way I resented this sudden appeal to something that for me had been a life long commitment.
I think we all feel this way when something we have long held in high regard suddenly becomes fashionable to everyone. We react with this misplaced ownership. And in this case, my ownership was highly misplaced. Although I have to admit that in at least one instance I was justified. I read of a “God Bless America” sign posted just below a sign that read, “Live nude dancers!” I think in that one case a healthy skepticism was a legitimate response.
But in general, what I now realize is that people are not trying to claim something that was the soul property of the church, whatever church that may be. What they are doing is turning their faces upward to look at a hope that is God’s alone to give, and God in fact offers it to all of us. It is not the pastors to own, or any particular church’s property, it is something that is owned by all who are created in the “image of God,” and as far as I can see, that is all of us.
Another concern I had is that we were somehow saying America had some sort of very weird claim on God that no other people had. I asked myself, “Are we really saying that God wants us to go kill people?” Again I realized that what people were doing was not claiming God as an American citizen, but rather with genuine hope, calling up to a God that has been present in our lives from the moment history began.
And so I look back to the Sunday after September 11th and our sanctuary which was quite possibly more full than it had ever been; I look back to the Prayer Service that the Island ministers put together the night of the 11th and remember all the people of this community coming together to pray and heal; and as I look back I realize that our prayer for God’s blessings on America are genuine and appropriate. But those prayers are only good if we follow them with something more.
What I pray for and what I call us all to is the continued commitment to that prayer. Let us return to church Sunday after Sunday and pray with each other again and again. We must remember that people are looking at God and considering the eternal questions in ways they have not in a very long time. So along with our signs, “God bless America.” Let us redouble our commitment to faith and to communities of faith so that our very lives become signs that proclaim the fact God has already blessed us!
God bless America! Indeed, God bless all God’s children everywhere!
300
TheologyWeb thanks Pilgrim for being a faifhful Quasi-Super Moderator :wink: and supporter of this site and one of our first members.