“One Nation, Under God”

A Sermon Preached by

The Rev. Jean Niven Lenk

at the

First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

At the risk of showing my age, I want to share with you how the day began every morning in the public elementary school I attended as a youngster.  Once my classmates and I had settled into our chairs, the teacher would direct us to fold our hands, bow our heads, and say together the Lord’s Prayer.  Then we would stand and face the American flag, put our hands over our hearts, and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.  We would finish up by singing a verse of a patriotic song, such as America the Beautiful or the Star-Spangled Banner.

As time passed, and I grew older, things changed.  When prayer in school was outlawed in 1962, our prayer time became a “moment of silence.”  As I progressed through junior high and high school, we sang patriotic songs less and less, and eventually even the Pledge of Allegiance was recited only sporadically, usually at assemblies or on “Flag Day.”  Once I went off to college, I went literally decades without saying the Pledge of Allegiance; it wasn’t until I started attending my children’s school functions that I had the opportunity to say it again.

Well, the Pledge of Allegiance has been in the news a lot over the past several years, ever since a California father brought a lawsuit claiming teacher-led recitation of the pledge violated religious liberty and was, therefore, unconstitutional.  While legal precedent makes reciting the pledge voluntary, the father – a self-professed atheist – did not want his elementary school-age daughter to be subjected to having to listen to the phrase “under God” in the oath.

I thought we had heard the end of this controversy last year, when the U.S.  Supreme Court dismissed the case on a technicality, but just a few weeks ago, the case resurfaced with new plaintiffs in California, and once again, a judge has ruled that reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional.  And it provides us an opportunity this morning to look at what it means to be “one nation, under God.”

We are a nation that was built on a belief in God.  John Winthrop told the colonists longing to reach the shores of the New World: "We have entered into a covenant with God for this work.”  The Declaration of Independence concludes with these words:  “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.”

Our founding fathers could not have imagined the complexity of our nation today, but their genius has stood the test of time.  This human genius, inspired by the God under whom they sought freedom, led them to frame the Constitution and Bill of Rights so as to give power to the majority, to protect the rights of the few no matter how unpopular their opinion, and to give honor to our Creator. 

As the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the framers of the Constitution established a new nation built on religious freedom, liberty, and justice for all, they could see the parallels between the Pilgrims and the ancient Hebrews: a small group of refugees, given freedom, placed in a bountiful land, and called by the God who gave them those things to use them to make a difference in this world.  The founding fathers borrowed language and images from the Bible, especially the Exodus story, to describe what was happening in America; the phrase “a light to the nations” is from the prophet Isaiah[i] and “a city set upon a hill” is imagery from the Gospel of Matthew.[ii]  In fact, Benjamin Franklin proposed that the seal of the United States show Moses with his rod raised to part the Red Sea, while Thomas Jefferson suggested that the seal show the children of Israel walking across the desert with a cloud leading them by day, and a pillar of fire by night. 

A Time magazine cover story last year entitled, “Faith, God and the Oval Office,” noted that “It’s only natural that a country founded by pilgrims would never let its politics wander far from its faith….”[iii]  Throughout the history of our country, virtually every president has talked about God at one time or another.[iv]  “George Washington ad-libbed the line ‘so help me God’ at the end of his swearing-in, and Thomas Jefferson extolled Jesus as the most important philosopher in his life… Abraham Lincoln… called the Civil War God’s punishment for the sin of slavery” and said that as president, he was often driven “to his knees ‘by the overwhelming conviction that [he] had nowhere else to go.’”[v]  And in his inaugural speech in 1961, John F Kennedy noted, "The world is very different now.  And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe – the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.” 

Over the course of your life, how many times do you think you have said the Pledge of Allegiance?  And as you have recited its familiar words over the years, how much thought have you given to the phrase “one nation, under God”?  I estimate that in my lifetime, I have probably said the pledge over 2,500 times.  And yet, I have to admit that, even though I have believed in God all my life, I have not seriously considered what the words “one nation, under God” really mean.  How ironic that the recent controversy over the pledge has happened because an unbeliever, an atheist, has taken seriously – albeit from a negative standpoint – the words “one nation, under God.” 

And so…what does it mean to be “one nation, under God”?  Does being “under God” mean that the United States is under God’s protection more than other countries?  That God will favor Americans over people of other nationalities?  It is true that we are an immensely favored nation.  We have wealth, resources, and liberties that probably most people in this world couldn’t even imagine.  But is that because God likes the United States better than other nations and Americans better than citizens of other countries? 

Such a position in not supported by scripture.  In Genesis we read that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”[vi]  The Gospel of John[vii] tells us that “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…”  For God so loved the world… not just the United States, not just Americans.  God doesn’t pick favorites – whether it’s an individual, a people or a nation.  All are equally created and beloved by God. 

And so…what does it mean to be “one nation, under God”?  Where are our loyalties to lie?  What are our actions to be? 

In this morning’s Gospel lesson, we see Jesus being directly challenged about the allegiance one should give to God and to the state.  His enemies hand him a coin with the Roman Emperor’s face on it, and they ask Jesus whether or not people should pay their taxes to the government.  Jesus responds to that challenge by saying, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's.”  In other words, Jesus is saying that both our God and the country we are part of have legitimate claims upon us; it is up to each Christian to distinguish for him or herself what appropriately belongs to each of these.  But when the claims of God and the claims government directly conflict, Christians are to follow their higher allegiance, which is to God.

And how do we show our allegiance to God?  We find the answer in these words from Deuteronomy[viii]; we are "To fear the Lord [y]our God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord [y]our God with all [y]our heart and with all [y]our soul."  If we are to consider ourselves "under God," then God is to be the one to whom we give our primary allegiance.  Deuteronomy goes on to describe God as impartial,[ix] as caring for the widow, the orphan and the stranger.[x]  And if we are to be “under God,” then we too are to render impartial justice, to welcome the stranger, and to protect and care and provide for the most vulnerable among us.

When Christians pledge allegiance to the flag and say the words "one nation, under God,” it means that we place our nation, even all the nations of the world, under the love of God.  If God is just – and God is – then America is called to be just.  If God is forgiving – and God is – then Americans are called to be forgiving.  If God is faithful – and God is – then we are called to be faithful.  The words “one nation, under God” remind us of whose we are, and of whom and what the real power of this universe is – not any one country, not any one leader, but the Maker of heaven and earth.

The Bible says that there is a day coming when God will establish God’s nation, but it will not be achieved through the reign of any country here on earth.  The Kingdom of Heaven will be established by the love-filled, justice-seeking, gracious power of our compassionate and forgiving God. 

“One nation, under God.”  Rather than eliminating these four words from the Pledge of Allegiance, let us claim them and start living them out by putting these words into action.  If we live out these four words in the way God intends, then we will be able to fulfill the final five words of the pledge.  We will be able to become “one nation, under God” that lives in such a way that there is “liberty and justice for all.”  Amen.