July 2007
July is upon us; a month that is held in great esteem my many Americans, and rightly so. July marks the birth of our great nation. This July 4th, we will be commemorating our 231st year as a people set apart as the United States of America. There will be a multitude of varying celebrations from backyard barbecues with family and friends to lavish celebrations with fireworks, bands and dignitaries that will be televised to every corner of the nation.
Over the course of that week the petition, “God Bless America”, will be once again be heard as it’s sent heavenward. We, as a people, will all come together in various churches and other assemblies where we will hear patriotic sermons and speeches and sing patriotic songs asking God to “shed His grace” upon this nation. We pride ourselves on being a nation founded on the Judeo-Christian principles of our faith. The same faith that enabled our fore fathers and mothers to brave the harshness of a strange new land to form a nation that believed that all men and women are created equal and born with a set of basic rights that enabled them to reach the fullness of their true God given potential. My question today is do we still really believe that?
I recently read an essay in USA Today by Tom Krattenmaker entitled “A Pious Nation?” In that essay he opened with these words… “Though the United States is considered a deeply religious country, a glance at America today reveals a society divided by wealth and poverty, tainted by violence and often oblivious to the common good. A country of believers? Perhaps. But saying is one thing, doing quite another…” Those are stinging words. But they sting because there is an air of truth behind them. Are we a pious nation? The word “Pious” is sometimes used interchangeably with the word “religious”, but it means something different. Pious suggests showiness, sanctimony, and even hypocrisy – a gap between words and actions. I’ll leave that for you to decide.
What that essay brought to mind for me was the air of piousness in the American church today. Although the essay was directed at American society at large, it is becoming more and more evident that the church has become a reflection of that society. One of the biggest downfalls of our American society is that it has lost its sense of community. We were once a people; now we’ve closed ourselves off. We have become a nation of isolated individuals. We have become more interested in meeting our own individual wants than seeking to find our identity in community and ensure that the needs of others are taken care of; we no longer seek the common good. We, the church, have turned our backs on our own social principles for so long that many who sit in our pews don’t even know they exist. Take a few minutes sometime and read that section of the United Methodist Book of Disciple; it is a book that we all should have, although many don’t.
It has been said, and rightly so, that the church is the only organization that exists for the benefit of its non members. Many churches across the country are in decline because they have lost their focus and are no longer relevant to the needs of the communities they are in; they no longer offer hope through compassion and service to people who desperately need hope. They become social clubs, focused entirely on self maintenance with no time for the work the Gospel calls us to. I have read that many churches that are healthy, expend more than half their budgets on outreach and evangelism. They find areas in the community that they can meet needs and then they roll up their sleeves and get to work for the kingdom of God. Are we a social club or a mission station for Christ? Which do we want to be?
Our mission statement at the Union City United Methodist Church is “To love God, love one another and make disciples for Jesus Christ.” Making disciples for Jesus Christ is the soul purpose of the church; it’s why we exist. Making disciples for Christ is at the heart of everything we do in the church. It’s the litmus test of every mission, every class, every meeting, every job and every committee; everything we do. Sometimes we forget.
As we go about our celebration of Independence Day this year take a moment to think about what that really means; is our freedom the right to do what we want or is it the freedom to do what’s right in the eyes of God? Pray for our nation and the diverse melting pot of people who make it up. Pray also for our church and for the vision and the power through God’s Holy Spirit to be all we can be, both individually and corporately, as the church; the community of the people of God.
Grace and Peace, The Rev. Rob Hughes
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O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing