One Nation Under God? America at 250

 

Today marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States and for many Americans this is a moment of uncertainty and even mourning over the listing ship of democracy. Some are choosing not to fly the American flag today or to display it upside down as a distress signal. 

There are also plenty of patriots who are enthused about the current administration and convinced that whatever stormy waters the country is experiencing, all will be well.

Among this happy throng are millions of conservative Christians who are convinced that they are in the midst of a revival of Christian values. In recent days some of them are hailing the phrase "one nation under God," claiming it is enshrined in the Constitution and must be upheld  It may be a sign of the times that this claim is "fake news."  The phrase is part of the Pledge of Allegiance although it wasn't added until 1954. This was during what is termed the Red Scare, a few years of madness when Senator Joseph McCarthy convinced much of the American citizenry that the communists were plotting against democracy in the country. Tens of thousands of people lost their jobs or were blackballed during this conspiracy theory. 

One current right-wing Christian leader credits Trump with "doing more for religious liberty than any other President in U.S. history” and there are plenty of others who share this sentiment. Of course, this liberty doesn't seem to include Christians who hold different values from Christian Nationalists or those from other religions. This sure comes across as idolatry to me, but what do I know, I live in the 51st state. 

I have family members in the States and those who are most pious are the ones who seem to be okay with what I consider an alarming drift away from both democracy and the teaching of Christ. I believe in the separation of church and state but they can complement one another. From my side of the border I'm not seeing this. 

We can pray for those who are determined to uphold democratic values in the United States. We can pray for those whose religious values, including Christians, lean toward compassion and equality. Without them its hard to imagine the United States holding together for another 25 years, let alone 250, 

The BBC "Comes to Jesus"

 

                                                              Jesus Walks on Water Icon 

1. Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear;
   Things I would ask Him to tell me if He were here;
   Scenes by the wayside, tales of the sea,
   Stories of Jesus, tell them to me.

I had to chuckle in a "Dad joke" way when I saw the Variety opening "The BBC is experiencing a 'come to Jesus' moment." The venerable British Broadcasting Corporation is creating a four-part series about the life of Jesus of Nazareth to be released in 2027. 

According to the BBC's news release: 

Ambitious new landmark series on the life and world of Jesus Christ announced

Jesus Christ is one of the most recognised and influential figures in human history --  yet what we know about him comes from remarkably few sources.

This ambitious series will bring life and focus like never before. With new historical research and insights, there has never been a more compelling moment to re-look at the evidence and follow the path of Jesus' life to map  how he sparked a revolution that continues to impact our lives 2000 years later. 

                                                          The Greatest Story Ever Told film, 1965

Is it just me or is there a gosh golly "Greatest Story Ever Told" feel to this introduction?  That's okay, I have a high tolerance for talking heads documentaries so I hope I can watch it and not be disappointed. 

There was a in-depth series by PBS back in the late 1990s called From Jesus to Christ and I recall it being worthwhile. It's still available online so I may take a look. And I'll continue to read my New Testament where I have regular "come to Jesus" moments. I might even re-watch The Life of Brian. 

The Sound of God on Fogo Island

Musician Jake Nicoll appraising the pipe organ in St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Fogo, Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada. Photograph: Noah Bender

I was pleasantly surprised to see an article a few days ago in Britain's The Guardian about organ music in rural Newfoundland. And I was delighted to see that one of the organs that the group of musicians headed by Michael Cloud Duguay visited was on Fogo Island and historic St. Andrew's Anglican Church. The title of the piece is: A sacred kind of sound’: inside a solar-powered journey to preserve the music of church organs.

This team showed up at old churches in various communities preparing their solar-powered mobile studio to record instruments "both humble and monumental, whose complex systems of keys, stops, hand cranks, foot pedals, bellows and reeds were designed to vibrate the air around them until it approximates the sound of God" to quote from the article. 

Remarkably, I have literally been inside the pipe organ pictured above through a low, almost concealed door just to the right of Jake Nicoll's outstretched arm. I have written in the past about first looking inside the organ 45 years ago when I was a United Church minister in Carmanville,  across Hamilton Sound from Fogo Island. 

At that time the wind chest was still human-powered. There was a long history of boys from the congregation enlisted to pump the bellows, getting a message from the organist to get ready for the next hymn or anthem. There is even a gauge to indicate whether the pressure level was too high, too low or in the sweet spot. Over the decades those kids signed their names to indicate they had been in that role.

       Red spire of St Andrew's Church with Brimstone Head, looking toward Change Islands

We continue to visit Fogo Island most summers when we are staying on nearby Change Islands (see map). We take the ferry over to pick up groceries, go for a hike, and, if possible, stop in at the beautiful church. 

A few years ago we popped in and were soon joined by an older guy who turned out to be the custodian. i explained our experience of decades past and his face lit up. He had been one of the boys tending to the wind chest for the organ and took us to see his name amongst the many. 

May I say that the music played in the five outport congregations I served on my first pastoral charge after ordination did not bring to mind the phrase "the sound of God." More often "the wrath of God." 

 I am pleased that the Fogo church organ has emerged from the fog for a moment in the musical sun. 

A Canada Day Unlike Any Other?

 

This is a Canada Day unlike any other in my lifetime, having been born in the mid-1950s. I am  old enough that I was well aware of the adoption of our new Maple Leaf flag and when I spent time in Europe  as a nineteen-year-old that flag was sewn on to my backpack. Times and awareness change so while I'm still proud to be Canadian I'm also aware that "our home on Native land" might be an honest and necessary change to our national anthem.

Canada Day 2026 will be celebrated with an awareness that our closest neighbour can no longer be construed as "our best friend whether we like it or not", as the quip goes. The disrespect and outright hostility exhibited by the US administration makes America an existential threat to our wellbeing and sovereignty.

Prime Minister Carney has countered these realities with legislation and proposals that will expedite our security in many facets of our national life, including infrastructure. There was a timely opinion piece in the Globe and Mail on Monday with the title: Canada needs to invest in nature as infrastructure. 

The authors argue persuasively that as a nation we can't dismiss what I would call caring for Creation as vital to our health and independence. They term it differently, of course, and here are a few paragraphs: 

Anastasia Mourogova Millin is a founder of Ombrello Solutions and DanSa Capital Innovation.

Jeremy Guth is director of conservation programs at the Woodcock Foundation.

Nina-Marie Lister is professor of urban planning and director of the Ecological Design Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University.

This spring, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the Force of Nature strategy, followed later by the Canada Strong Fund. While the two are separate initiatives – the first to protect and enhance the country’s biodiversity, the second to stimulate investment in Canada’s economy – they are, in reality, closely integrated. Nature is the primary vital infrastructure on which Canada’s economy and its future depends. We need new investment tools to finance its permanence.

We are all familiar with grey infrastructure – roads, bridges, sewers, pipelines, rails – and Canadians especially are equally aware of the critical value of nature. Without biodiversity (the basis of nature), there is no foundation for our economy, which relies on pollination, food, forests, soils, and clean water. Biodiversity is also our best natural defence against climate change. But what we often miss is the direct value relationship between nature, private assets, and grey infrastructure.

What follows iin the piece wise and to my way of thinking as a Canadian and a Christian absolutely necessary for our future.

We aren't declaring "elbows up" much anymore and that's probably a good thing. It was a patriotic slogan for a particular moment but hockey metaphors can become tired, eh? 

 I figure we should sing "God keep our land, glorious and free" with a renewed fervour (with a U) and awareness that this land, "from sea to sea to sea"  is a gift from the Creator for all. We can woof all we want about the threat posed to Canada by America but we need to ensure that this land is abundant and livable, a force of nature, through the choices we make now for generations to come. 

A Covenant Before the Creator

 

There are a fair number of United Church congregations which include a Land Acknowledgement before or within their worship services each Sunday. They are not all the same but all of them recognize that the land on which we meet is a traditional territory of an Indigenous community that existed prior to colonization. To a degree these acknowledgements are also a recognition that we are all Treaty people with rights and responsibilities. The Treaties made between Indigenous peoples and the representatives of the British Crown were intended to be reciprocal rather than capitulations by First Nations and Inuit and Metis peoples. 

The language used in these treaty agreements suggest promise relationships akin to biblical covenants and they are based on sacred trust. I came upon a recent piece by Indigenous writer Brandi Morin about the separation question on the impending Alberta referendum with the powerful header you see, above: 

A Covenant Before the Creator: Why Alberta's Treaties Cannot Be Broken

The historical record shows the Creator was invoked as a a party to every treaty signed on Alberta land. A referendum cannot undo that

Morin goes on the describe the central place of Creator and Covenant language in the original treaties and that ignoring them is messing with God. I can't quote Morin's article at sufficient length but I'm grateful that she opens up this conversation. 

As National Indigenous History Month draws to a close we might all delve deeper into the meaning of our Treaties and Covenants. As a Christian denomination that attempts to take Truth and Reconciliation seriously we need to listen and learn and respond whenever these covenants are undermined or broken. 

Here are a few lines from the article among many that are thought- provoking: 

This land was never surrendered. It was shared. Before God. With God watching. 

Much of mainstream society has drifted away from the Creator- Indigenous peoples, by and large, have not. The relationship with Creator remains central to who we are, how our nations govern, and how we understand our obligations to one another and to this land. That is not a relic. That is a living reality. And it is precisely why what was sealed in ceremony on those treaty grounds still holds.

As Good as Gold

But knowing their hypocrisy, [Jesus] said to them, “Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it.” And they brought one. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this and whose title?” They answered, “Caesar’s.”  Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at him.

    Mark 12 15-17 NRSVue

 When Peter said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the children are free.  However, so that we do not give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.”

    Matthew 17: 26--27 NRSVue

I'm definitely showing my age when I admit that as a kid finding a nickel or a dime meant sugary treasure at the corner store. In the early 60s even a penny bought three black balls. Did we like black balls? It didn't really matter because they cost so little.

Children of that era figured out quickly that coins were valuable and paper money was wealth. When the one-dollar "loonie" was introduced almost 40 years ago it felt that we were going backward initially, then we all got accustomed to both loonies and toonies. We have moved ever closer to a cashless society anyway, using cards and devices to make our payments in even the remotest of settings. Our eleven-year-old entrepreneur granddaughter accepts e-transfers for her crocheted creations although she still hits up Grandpa for folding money from time to time. 

I'm intrigued by a new exhibit called As Good as Gold outlining the history of money in this country. According to the Globe and Mail article: 

Most of us don’t carry a lot of cash in our wallets these days, given the ubiquity of credit and debit transactions. Change feels like a dead weight. But an exhibit by Toronto-Dominion Bank, which features currency used over the past 230 years, offers a rare historical glimpse into a world that is slipping away. 

As Good As Gold: The TD Bank Currency Collection is an exhibit held in – where else? – a steel-reinforced vault at the bank’s headquarters in Toronto. It includes early pre-Confederation promissory notes from merchants, grocery stores and lumber companies, dating as far back as 1790.

The first Canadian currency arrives in 1851, when each dollar was backed by gold. From there, paper notes become increasingly ornate to reflect their nation-building role in establishing trade, trust and commerce.

Cool. As I read about the exhibit I wondered about money in the New Testament and realized that even though peasant cultures tend to be barter based there are a fair number of money and cash references, including the warning above.

We do depend on moolah to make our societies function and some amass staggering amounts they will never actually see while others beg on street corners or play instruments  behind open instrument cases for cash. Churches may be heavenly minded but they are down to earth in seeking financial support and, yes, many have made generosity easier in a number of ways. And we're told that God loves a cheerful giver!

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully  will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

                         2 Corinthians 9: 6-7 NRSVue

 Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.  And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

                          Matthew 14: 14-16 NRSVue 

                                           Elon Musk becomes a trillionaire (briefly) earlier this month 

Embracing Church of the Wild

 

1 Teach me, God, to wonder, teach me, God, to see;

let your world of beauty capture me.

Praise to you be given, love for you be lived,

life be celebrated, joy you give.

                                                                Voices United 299

church

1. a building for public Christian worship.

2. public Christian worship of God; a Christian religious service.

Early yesterday morning we headed out in our kayaks onto the Bay of Quinte, an arm of Lake Ontario. We checked that the wind speeds were low, the temperature was perfect, and it was simply a glorious summer day. We paddled for just over an hour before the bay became busier with motorboats and fisherfolk, enjoying a stretch of shoreline with only a handful of residences. We saw plenty of creatures including blue herons, ospreys, egrets, a green heron, kingfishers, a beaver, a deer, and turtles. We love it along here and the risk of being out on bigger water is moderate.

As regular readers will know, we consider spending time in the natural world as sacred and we do so as often as possible in every season. We have done so over the course of 50+ years and we hope to continue doing so as long as our general health and the grace of the Creator allow us to do so. My aged joints grumble a lot more now getting into the cockpit of my boat than they once did but I'm not prepared to stop just yet.

Is this "church"? Some would say no, emphatically, and certainly the congregation was small in terms of humans, although "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Matthew 20:18. There was a heavenly, watery host when other species were counted in. We often offer praise, perhaps a recalled verse from a Creation hymn, and we have a brief physical ritual of acknowledgement of the Creator we engage in. There is no building but each space is a templum, using the definition of dedicated to a deity, place of divine worship, sanctuary, shrine, temple. 

                                                                          Photo: Ruth Mundy

There is a book Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred. The author,  Victoria Loorz, is passionate and persuasive in speaking about the formation and  transformation which unfold in the natural world. She is a founder of the Wild Church Network with a growing number of wild churches, committed to worshipping en plein air. 

The natural world -- that world where we already belong -- is an alluring invitation into the sacred, into a relationship with something larger. And that very sacred presence invites us into the wild. The whole process is holy. It is a dynamic, a reciprocity, a loving conversation, a relationship -- one that includes me and you and God and the whole wild, alive world. 

I love inspirational church architecture, old and new, but more and more I chafe at supposedly sacred spaces that don't even give a hint of the glory of Creation. How did we ever get to the place where it became either/or for our worship gatherings and we shut out the outside world with stained glass windows? Some modern church structures have no windows at all. 

This morning we attended worship 10:30 at Trenton United and it was a meaningful service. Before we did so we drove to North Beach Provincial Park and were there for the opening at 8 AM. In the solitude we went for a swim and listened to a loon calling from across the bay. Both experiences fed our souls. 

                                                                     Photo: Ruth Mundy