OK, so I have something to confess: I really, really dislike being at church on the Sunday closest to Independence Day, which happens to be today this year. If I have no responsibilities at church that morning, it is the one time of the year that I willingly stay home from church (along with Mother's Day, but since churches are getting better about the way they treat that in recent years, I do usually go now). The reason why is the mixture of church and state which inevitably happens in American churches on this day. Today we sang, "O Beautiful for Spacious Skies," and as I sang the lyrics, I realized that we were not singing this hymn to God, but rather as a paean to the United States, with a prayer, and a quite demanding prayer at that, for God to bless the country. Lyrics below:
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 impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev'ry 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 ev'ry 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!
My discomfort with this is immense, and the fact that this and other songs like it still make it into the most recent Lutheran hymnal makes me even more uncomfortable. God is supposed to be above all countries--our pastor today even made the point that it is equally possible to be a Christian in a dictatorship as it is in a democracy. And yet, he had no problem with singing this hymn.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't be involved in our country, or that we shouldn't love our country. I believe that as Christians, we have a responsibility towards the good of our country. What I am saying is that, in the sanctuary, we should be worshiping God and God alone. And for me, that rules out any of the so-called "national songs" that still manage to make it into the hymnal.
Thank God for the good things given to us in this country. But never think that God loves this country above all others, or that God is obligated in any way whatsoever to favor us above all other countries. Pray for the good of this country, but don't think that God will grant us all things just because we're Americans and therefore, God's peeps. And please, next year, think twice before singing national songs in church--read the lyrics beforehand and ask yourself, "Am I singing this to God? Or am I singing this to my country?" And if the answer is the latter, I ask you not to sing it in the sanctuary.
Sundays and Seasons suggests that if your church finds it important to acknowledge Independence Day that highlighting the second and third verse can point to the weak and the vulnerable. Personally I find this anthem the least objectionable when it comes to patriotic stuff sung in church. I like the prayer in the second verse, "God mend thine every flaw." But if I had my druthers, patriotic holidays and other secular holidays would barely get a nod in church if that much. And don't even get me started on the flag. But I generally give in because there are some hills I would die defending, this isn't one of them. I just caution folks not to let their patriotism slip into idolatry.
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