Wednesday, December 10, 2003

...to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. Luke 1: 69-75

Twenty-first century American Christians must surely affirm that we have been rescued from the hands of our enemies and may serve God without fear. Never in history has a nation been as richly blessed as we are. When cometh the blessing, then also cometh the question. Are we serving in holiness and righteousness before God all our days?

Nationally, we insist on crying poor. We shirk our United Nations dues. When we give aid, we tie it to purchases of dangerous weapons. The portion of our national wealth devoted to the assistance of other nations is 1/3 the portion Sweden gives. It is 1/2 the average portion for nations in the European Union. This from a nation that consumes a larger share of the world's resources than any other. We are the fattest pig and we are doing the least for those who starve.

The United States of America is not a nation in service to God. We use our wealth to assure our continued wealth; we deny assistance to end human suffering if we cannot identify some bit of national self-interest to be advanced by that assistance. Why is the ending of human suffering, standing alone, less than a compelling appeal to our national self-interest? If we were a Christian nation, there could be no more compelling call. And the fact that suffering cannot move our hand forces this sad conclusion: we are a nation in service to Mammon.

Woe betide a nation richly blessed which hoards its wealth, spurns the beggars at its gates, and locks its doors against the starving multitudes. It will not suffice to claim that we can't afford to help when any just person can see that we have more than anyone else. This nation is an edifice which cannot stand, which must in the fullness of time crumble and be swept away before the Reign of Holiness.

Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand,
Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against our land?
Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet 'tis Truth alone is strong,
And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng
Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all wrong.

Backward look across the ages and the beacon-moments see,
That, like peaks of some sunk continent, jut through Oblivion's sea;
Not an ear in court or market for the low foreboding cry
Of those Crises, God's stern winnowers, from whose feet earth's chaff must fly;
Never shows the choice momentous till the judgement hath passed by.

James Russell Lowell, The Present Crisis

Mark Bromley

All contents copyright 2003 by the Wisconsin Chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action. Permission is granted to United Methodist congregations, individuals and groups to reproduce and distribute this devotional without charge. All other use requires the advance permission of the editor.