Sermon Tone Analysis

Our theme for 2022 is “Begin Again”

Last week, today and next Sunday I will be preaching on “Hot Topics”

I have been doing this for the last three years - giving you the opportunity to tell me what you would like to hear me preach on.

It can be a question, an issue or a passage of scripture that you have not understood.

Today’s question came to me, not as a sermons suggestion but as an actual question.

Someone asked, “Why don’t we have an american flag in our church?”

I thought it would be good to devote a sermon to the topic.

This happened after our July 3 service where we opened with a video explaining the origins of “the star-spangled banner” by Francis Scott Key.

We then began the service by singing “the star-spangled banner.”

After the service, someone suggested that when we redo the platform, we should include an american flag.

Another person asked, “why don’t we have an american flag?

The short answer is because there wasn’t one here when I got here.

I said I would think about it.

My purpose this morning is not to agree or disagree, but to help us think about that question and what it means for us as a church.

The flag is a symbol - we should consider what it symbolizes and that it may symbolize different things for different people.

We also need to thing about how we as a church relate to civil authorities and to national identity.

And lastly, but most importantly, does having a flag in the church mean that we worship the flag?

Or does it somehow inspire our worship of God?

What does the flag symbolize?

When you see an american flag, what thoughts come to mind?

Does it make a difference where the flag is being displayed?

If it on a public building?

If its on someone’s clothing?

If it’s draping a casket?

Flags can be political, but not necessarily.

Flags can be festive, but not everyone thinks so.

Flags can be sacred, but not in the same way that the cross is sacred.

The flag is a symbol of national pride.

The United states color are red, white and blue.

Red stands for courage and sacrifice.

White stands for purity and innocence of intentions.

Blue stands for justice, perseverance and vigilance.

The red and white stripes are for the original thirteen colonies and the fifty stars are for the fifty states

Has The United States always exhibited those characteristics?

Of course not

It’s not courageous to involve ourselves in foreign conflicts and then suddenly pull out as we did in Afghanistan.

The US has not shown purity of intention when it is manipulating currencies and foreign markets to keep imported goods cheap.

And as far as justice, we have our own civil rights issues and economic disparities to work out.

But does the fact that we do these things imperfectly mean that we should not be reminded to strive to do them well?

The flag is to be a symbol of national pride, but to some it is a symbol of hypocrisy.

It is right that we should confess our hypocrisy, but does that mean that we cannot display the symbol of what we should be?

The flag should be a reminder of the values that unite us.

It should also remind us of where we have failed

But that should not discourage us from renewing our faith and our focus on what is right.

But does pride in our flag mean that we think we are better than everyone else?

I certainly hope not!

Some have used the term “American exceptionalism” as if that means that we are supposed to be better than other countries.

American exceptionalism is the belief that America is essentially different from other countries because it was founded on different principles.

It does not mean exceptional in the sense of better, just different.

That was certainly true at the founding of our country.

When America was founded, we were the only democracy.

Whether or not it is still true today depends on how we conduct ourselves.

But the point is not that we are better, but that we are different.

I think every country should be proud of their own unique heritage.

National pride does not mean that we disparage other countries, it means that we embrace our own unique identity and calling as a nation.

I like it when I see flags of other nations displayed in a church alongside the American flag to remind us that we are a global community.

Loving your neighbor and loving yourself are not mutually exclusive.

A healthy pride lifts others up as well.

The flag is a reminder of sacrifice.

I saw a lot more displays of the flag after 9/11.

It was after terrorism came to our own soil that we began to really appreciate our military, our first responders and those who sacrifice for our freedom.

I don’t think that I ever thought of thanking someone for their service before that time.

But since then, we are remiss if we fail to do so.

The Bible says that self-sacrifice is the ultimate expression of love.

Love is God’s character.

Selfishness is the nature that we are born with.

To learn to sacrifice means overcoming the instinct for self-preservation.

Those who serve the public learn to live for something greater than themselves.

Whether is is a fireman running into a burning building.

Or a policeman putting themselves in harm’s way.

Or a soldier going behind enemy lines to take out a threat.

Love is sacrifice, which brings a higher meaning and purpose to life.

I only wish that more of our government officials, who declare themselves to be public servants, lived sacrificially.

The flag stands for freedom.

If there is one American ideal that stands above all of the others it is this idea of freedom.

One of the things that was ( and to some degree still is) unique about America is the idea of individual rights and liberties.

Most countries of the world and certainly those from which the first settlers came had social classes.

You were rich or poor, privileged or servile based on what situation you were born into.

I still travel in countries where people think this way.

Everyone has their lot in life.

The key to contentment is to accept whatever is your lot.

Don’t think that you are anyone special and you won’t be disappointed.

But the idea of freedom is based on the idea that each person is created by God with inherent value the right of self determination.

Its a biblical idea based on the concept of truth.

The truth that Jesus is talking about is knowing who you are as a child of God.

Freedom is not the idea that anyone can just do whatever they want.

Freedom is the idea that everyone should be allowed to become all that God created them to be.

This is from the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That

to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The purpose of government to a free people is that it should ensure that free people respect one another to remain free.

Of course there are systems that need to be maintained to ensure that we can live together peacefully and in harmony.

Of course we have laws and obligations as citizens to provide for the common good.

But it is also possible, and the founders of our country knew it, that those who are given power to serve the people might use their power to serve themselves.

And I believe that is where, at least some of our founders, realized that the success of the country is dependent on the degree to which we acknowledge God.

What is the relationship of the church to the state?

After a long list of grievances and attempts to resolve such, the Declaration of Independence concludes with an invocation of Divine blessing.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do... declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, ...And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The United States has Christian roots.

I recently had a friend who posted on Facebook that there is no mention of God in the founding documents.