God's Last Words

Politically Incorrect US History

Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30

Once, in the 1820's, a little boy called Sam Grant was playing in the yard behind his house.  While playing, he accidently knocked over the outhouse.  Sam was upset and worried that he would get into trouble so he ran into the woods and didn't come out until after it got dark.  When he arrived back home, his pappy was waiting for him.  He asked suspiciously, "Son, did you knock over the outhouse this afternoon?"

"No, pappy," Sam lied.

"Well, let me tell you a story," said the father. "Once, not that long ago, George Washington received a shiny new axe from his father.  Excited, he tried it out on a tree, swiftly cutting it down.  But as he looked at the tree, with dismay he realized it was his mother's favorite cherry tree," his pappy paused." just like you, he ran into the woods.

When he returned, his pappy asked, 'George, did you cut down the cherry tree?”  

George answered, 'Father, I cannot tell a lie. I did indeed chop down the tree.' Then his father said, 'Well, since you were honest with me, you will not be punished. I hope you have learned your lesson, though.'” Then Sam's father asked again, "Did you knock down the outhouse?"

"Pappy, I cannot tell a lie any more." said the little boy. "I did indeed knock down the outhouse." Then his pappy spanked Sam until he was red, white, and blue. The boy whimpered, "Pappy, I told you the truth! Why did you spank me?"

The father of future President, U. S. Grant answered, "That's because George Washington’s father wasn't in the tree when he chopped it down!"

This past week we’ve been celebrating the July 4^th Holiday and our country’s birthday. Unlike the probably mythic story I just told you our country’s roots and founding were Christian and God fearing.

There are some in our country today who would deny the United States was ever a nation founded on the premise of Inalienable rights granted by a Creator, and that the manifestation of our Country’s greatness demonstrates the blessings from Almighty God. Many would rather forget the past because it is deemed politically incorrect today to be patriotic, nationalistic, or even believe America is “special.”

Of course if you don’t believe that then you can’t understand that our current tarassos (troubles), come from our turning our backs on Him in the thoroughfares and byways of this once great land that feared God.

Instead we have become a country of hyphenated individuals more concerned with entitlements than freedoms. We care little about what type of government we have and rather want government to serve only our own interests; each day we rely more on the government to provide us our daily “bread and circus” rather than do anything that actually matters morally or ethically.

Jesus knew that mentality. He knew about people’s desires to be entertained with the next newest thing, and how human loyalty and fidelity fly in the wind of celebrity and fashion trends. He spoke about it in Matthew’s Gospel, 11: 16-19, and verses 25-30:

“But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

209 years ago Francis Scott Key initially wrote a poem that was inspired by a battle and a war we seldom remember. The poem was entitled “When the Warrior Returns.” This poem, written to honor the Marines and Navy heroes of the Barbary war that was fought in Libya from 1801-05.

The war started when Muslims from the Ottoman Empire burned the U.S. Flag at the U. S. consulate at Tripoli and declared jihad on the America, just because we  refused to pay “a tribute” of 20% of the U.S. Budget to prevent American ships and sailors from being kidnapped and sold into the Muslim slave markets. (The entire world including England was paying it!)

The Ottoman Empire was considered the number 2 world power at the time. The end result was that the United States would defeat the two most powerful militaries in the world in its first twenty years of existence. Certainly not something you’d expect from a bunch of citizen colonists unless God had truly blessed us.

Think of our Star Spangled Banner, our National Anthem. The banner is where our national motto “In God we trust,” originates and gives us a glimpse of the original mindset of Americans as they celebrated these monumental victories 200 years ago.

Our anthem tells us three things Americans believed at the start of the 19^th century that are in doubt today: 1) God made America, 2) God rescued America, and 3) God preserved America!

There is no doubt that those who fought were empowered by God just as Joshua, Gideon, and David are in the Old Testament. There was no doubt that Americans knew that God was to be thanked for saving and assisting America in its fight.

We seldom sing all the verses to our Anthem yet the message is there and clear: It urges us to “Praise the Power that made and preserved us as a nation.”

Ironically, the founders of our country did one small thing that showed us where their hearts were: They engraved “In God we trust” on our money to be a reminder of where our priorities should lie.

Instead, our society and world now trust money and human ideas and experience before they’d even consider, let alone, trust God. The only option our country has is to remember the central theme of our national anthem:

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

Amen.

The Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key:

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!