1 Timothy 2:1-6 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,
At the very end of “The Ruin of the Roman Empire” by James J. O’Donnell he writes
Old errors are easy to re-enact — as fading empires, bereft of self-awareness, struggle again to use their old power to preserve themselves, and in so doing risk weakening beyond repair; as religious communities mistake their faith for destiny and find pretexts for behaviour that goes beyond even the unconscionable and imaginable. Today, as in the sixth century, a calm sense for the long view, the broad view, and a pragmatic preference for the better rather than the best can have a hard time overcoming the noisy anxiety of those who would transform —- that is, ruin — what they do not understand.
Civilization is a thing of the calm, the patient, the pragmatic, and the wise. We are not assured that it will triumph.
I would add in point of fact we are assured it will not triumph.
As we finish celebrating our independence it is important that we remind ourselves concerning exactly what America truly is, nothing more than a sand castle near the sea. As we pray in thanksgiving for the blessings God has given us through her, we remind ourselves that such blessings are earthly and of no more continuity nor of any greater importance than the rock from which they came. As we pray for God’s guidance to our leaders, we remember that they are no more than the many kings and leaders who have succeeded them, in Britain, in Rome, in Babylon. They are not wiser they are not mightier. They are men and as men they will fail. As we pray for God’s protection for the freedoms we enjoy we are reminded that our government is not heavenly and is not divine. It to proceeds from the thoughts of men and as such it is broken and crooked and disintegrating. Even as we both pray for it and thank God for it as we should let us remember what America is, one more vain attempt of man to produce paradise on this earth. America is not the Kingdom of God, America is not the Promised Land, Americans’ are not God’s favoured people.
But we are a people, we are a nation. Because of our wealth and our success we are tempted to think of ourselves as better, as beyond, even as a people MORE blessed by God. Our wealth and our success mean only that we are more adapt at selfishness, they mean only when we fail we will fall all the further. But because Christ died for yes even Americans, we know that though we are not Gods favoured people we are favoured by God as people. We recognize that though our wealth is not a sign of some special standing in the eyes of God, it is a gift from God, to be used in the service of God and neighbour. When we recognize that our land is just one more land, just one more nation among many, that may or may not be here tomorrow. When we remember that it is a temporary home as we wait for our final home and the coming of our true King, then we can learn to serve our land and our neighbours in praise to God. Then we learn not to live and serve for the sake of the “glory of America,” we learn not to live in pride as Ameircans, but in humility we serve in every way possible to be good citizens for the sake of our neighbours, in order that we might be of some service to them, in building a better land and a better community for their sakes, the sakes of those for whom Christ died. We pray not for America as a nation, but for America as a group of people that happen to bear the name American.
The men and women who serve in the military do a great and glorious service not because they are “American” soldiers but because they are willing to give their life in the defence of their neighbours, they are willing to die to protect me and my family, they are willing to endure hardship and danger not in the defence of some old piece of paper or a colored piece of cloth but in order that we all might live peacefully and quietly in this land. Truly they are worthy of our enduring thanks because they “stand on a wall” and say “nothing going to hurt you, not on my watch.” Those who serve in the military before Christ, honor Christ in their life as they give their life for their neighbour. May the Lord bless and keep them and prosper their work according to His will.
Those who serve as politicians, when they realize and understand that their duty is not to build and everlasting kingdom, is not to force men into obedience before the Lord, is not to create glories that will be remembered forever, but merely to serve their neighbour in their profession as politicians. Thus politicians from every corner of the earth when they seek to do what they can to provide fair and just laws, to promote peace, to encourage economic growth, to oppose crime, bribery, and corruption in every form that it takes, first for those who elected them and then also as much as it is possible for all men, honor the Lord in their life. And for such men we pray that the Lord would give them strength to endure, but that He would banish every evil person who uses his power to gorge his flesh and turns a deaf ear on the poor and destitute.
We honor the great American heroes of the past, and all the men and women who have lived and died for this land, not when we in pride raise a flag and say ahh what a great land they have created, but when we in humility seek to carry on the work they begun by doing whatever is in our power to serve our neighbor, to build nation, state, and community to the best of our abilities in peace, stability, and prosperity. We honor God when we in faith and love seek to build not glory but grace in our life and others. And we pray that God would give us hearts and hands and feet willing to do exactly this.
We thank the Lord for what we have even as we recognize that it is fleeting. We treasure America our land, but only because we treasure Christ who gave it to us. There is no greater tribute to Rome than the Coliseum, a broken hollow husk of what was once a place of empty useless entertainment. If we treasure America for America’s sake it to is nothing more. But we have Christ and having Christ the kingdoms of this world become what they ought to be communities within which we may live and serve Christ and our neighbour.
And therefore we confidently sing:
1. God bless our native land!
Firm may she ever stand
Thro’ storm and night!
When the wild tempests rave,
Ruler of wind and wave
Do Thou our country save
By Thy great might.
2. For her our prayer shall rise
To God above the skies;
On Him we wait.
Thou who art ever nigh,
Guarding with watchful eye,
To Thee aloud we cry,
God save the State!
All the blessings we have, whatever they are, God has given to us not because we deserve them, or because we are special but in His grace and mercy, and therefore we ask that in His grace and mercy He would continue to bless our land. And even when we fail to be the citizens that we should be we know that Jesus died for me as well as my neighbour, and has won for us redemption and the forgiveness of sins, so that when this nation sinks into obscurity and its wealth fades like chalk on a sidewalk we nevertheless have waiting for us that land which is beyond, where our one true faithful and loving king lives and reigns forevermore, to whom be power and might and glory forever and ever. Amen. Even so Lord Jesus come quickly. Amen