Why is The Star-Spangled Banner even in our hymnals, you might ask?

The Star-Spangled Banner isn’t present in all or even most hymnals.  My collection is about half and half.  The group which contain this patriotic song consider it a hymn.  The ones that don’t apparently consider it a secular song.

Before we’re quick to judge The Star-Spangled Banner as a song exalting a war-time footing that has no place in the Christian world, there’s something you should know.  There is a second verse in the hymnals we never sing.  Most people don’t even know there’s a second verse at all.  I don’t think I’d go too far out on a limb suggesting that no school teaches the second verse since it speaks directly of God and also no one sings it before the Super Bowl, even as one of the myriad ways of trying to do a creative rendition.

Wait, but there’s more. 

There are actually four stanzas, only two of which show up in our hymnals and one of which we sing.  The halves and the half nots.  The four stanzas are recorded here and below.  There’s a reason why we overlook the four stanzas.

Francis Scott Key, the author of the lyrics to The Star-Spangled Banner is reported to have been a devout Episcopalian, a competent lawyer, and a slave owner.  He was a supporter of the Democratic President (and slave owner) Andrew Jackson and used his position as Jackson’s Attorney General (1833-1841) to suppress the abolitionists (whose cause he would eventually come to join, assisting with the freeing of American slaves.)  Verse three’s reference to “the hireling and slave” are considered evidence of the British practice of hiring freed slaves to fight against their former masters in the War of 1812.

All I can say is that war, overall, is an ugly business.  On many different levels.

I can understand why a manly warrior-type of song presents a strong national protective image as contrasted with America the Beautiful and its lovely imagery.  I can see why a song which is immensely difficult to sing but sounds virile (with all the bombs and smoke and that Energizer-keep-on-fighting theme) might cultivate an aura of steadfastness and victory.  Think of it as the anthem equivalent of the “man movie” with car crashes, explosions, and a good guy hero to explain its popularity.   And okay, the Bible has lots of wars in it.  I got that, but is The Star-Spangled Banner really fit for a hymnal?

There’s no getting around it for me: Key’s poem Defence of Fort M’Henry  serving as the lyrics to The Star-Spangled Banner makes me wonder why it’s in any of our hymnals.  The idea that one out of four isn’t bad doesn’t cut it for me. 

Unlike the accusation made against me by the social media troll, I am not a blind patriot.  I’m Christian first.  Any patriotism and affiliation with any political party is a distant second, and a very distant third.  Therefore, I will sing The Star-Spangled Banner because it is presently our national anthem (with the acknowledgment that what presents as victory to the world and victory in Christ are two different things).  I wouldn’t recommend it for praising God in church.  Key’s other hymns, Before the Lord We Bow and Lord, With Glowing Heart I’d Praise Thee  are far lesser known, are included in none of my hymnals, which is ironic because they are far more Christian.

For the sake of continuity in our patriotic “hymn” series, enjoy this version of The Star-Spangled Banner from the 2009 Super Bowl performed by Jennifer Hudson. 

O! 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 through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! 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, O! 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.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry 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!

As part of my patriotic hymn series, especially in light of the hotly argued and very divided election before us, consider these words Before an Election by Reverend Peter Marshall, who twice served as Senate Chaplain (1947-1949).

Before an Election appears as hymn #689 in Hymns for the Family of God.

Lord Jesus, we ask Thee to guide the people of this nation as they exercise their dearly bought privilege of franchise.  May it neither be ignored unthinkingly nor undertaken lightly.  As citizens all over this land go to the ballot boxes, give them a sense of high privilege and joyous responsibility.

Help those who are about to be elected to public office to come to understand the real source of their mandate–a mandate given by no party machine, received at no polling booth, but given by God; a mandate to represent God and the truth at the heart of the nation; a mandate to do good in the name of Him under whom this country was established.

We ask Thee to lead our country in the paths where Thou wouldst have her walk, to do the tasks which Thou hast laid before her.  So may we together seek happiness for all our citizens in the name of Him who created us all equal in His sight, and therefore brothers.  Amen.

Marshall spoke many words of wisdom and witticisms during his tenure as a preacher and chaplain.  America needed a preacher like Marshall and the world needed him even more.  You see, his ministry began in 1931, less than 5 years after his setting foot on Ellis Island as a 25 year old Scottish immigrant with 2 weeks worth of money to his name.  While he began by digging ditches in New Jersey, God was preparing him to deal with the United States and its place in the world.  Marshall’s ministry at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C and in the Senate was steadfast through WWII and lasted until 1949 when the Korean War was about to begin.

America–indeed the whole world–was in turmoil.

To a nation reeling from war after war, Marshall’s consistent words of Christian affirmation captured the attention and hearts of a Senate which had commonly ignored such invocations and prayers before Marshall arrived.

His style was confrontational and convicting even while endearing his audience to him through a visible and audible sincerity of passion and non-ecclesiastical manner.  He was among the most familiar preachers in America at that time and his sudden death from a heart attack at the age of 46 claimed him at the peak of his career and popularity.

According to Electric Scotland,

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Dr. Marshall preached to the midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. At the last minute, he felt led to change his prepared sermon. Within the hour, the Class of 1942 learned of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. The sermon he preached was “Go Down, Death.” This was the first of Dr. Marshall’s dramatic, powerful, and prophetic sermons during World War II that his son, Peter John, published after the September 11th attacks in “The Wartime Sermons of Dr. Peter Marshall”.

Among his most notable and pithy quotes are:

“Give to us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for—because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.”– in a prayer offered at the opening of the Senate session, dated April 18, 1947

“The world has enough women who know how to be smart. It needs women who are willing to be simple. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right than socially correct.”–from a sermon entitled Keepers of the Springs preached in the 1930s

“Teach us what freedom is. May we all learn the lesson that it is not the right to do as we please, but the opportunity to do what is right. Above all, may we discover that wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”–Opening of the Senate day, April 24, 1947.

The next patriotic hymn I’d like to share is America the Beautiful, lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates. Bates was born as one of four children of Congregational minister, William Bates, and his wife Cornelia Frances Lee (an educator). Katherine’s father died when she was a child, but her mother instilled in her the value of education.  She graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, among the first institutions to provide education for women. It is there that she would receive her education, progress to teach English, and eventually rise to become the head of the English Department.

Katherine Lee Bates is best known for her poem, America the Beautiful which was first published in an issue of The Congregationalist in 1895. Among her many poems about her travels and teaching at different locations, America the Beautiful recounts her visit to Colorado’s Pike’s Peak and the breathtaking view of majestic beauty she wanted to capture in words.

Over the next decade or two, she worked to perfect the poem and it was set to a few different melodies. In 1926, a contest was held to create new music for the poem, but the hymn Materna by Samuel A. Ward had already secured the mantle of official tune which is still used today.

For a short period of time after Bates’ death, an effort was made to have this hymn as the national anthem of the United States, but the Star-Spangled Banner prevailed.

Yet, this hymn has the heart of the American people, recognizing God’s creative hand of blessing. 

It stands apart as a tribute to what is beautiful in America–both the natural and the spiritual: the skies, the prairies, the mountains, the goodness, the brotherhood, the shining seas, the pilgrims, the freedom, the wilderness, the submission to God for mending our national flaws, the soul of a nation under self-control with fullness of liberty, the heroes, the sacrifice, the nobleness, the trust in God, the patriot dream of a place that is beyond this world to which America–as its free and best Constitutional self–truly points.  Or at least, it did…

Enjoy this version by The Hillsdale College Choir while reading through Bates’ poem (original in this link, as it is typically recorded in our hymnals, below).  This video brought me to tears, why exactly I can’t explain, only that it captured somehow my love for this country, my gratitude to God for it, and my desire to honor my God by appreciating all the beauty He sees and He gives from the farthest reaches of nature to the inner space of the Christian soul.

O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stern impassion’d stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness! America! America! God mend thine ev’ry flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine Till all success be nobleness, And ev’ry gain divine!

O Beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam,  Undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

While preparing for the next installment of patriotic hymns, I came across the social obligations of a Christian.  Oh, I consulted a variety of hymnals, most of which I’ve picked up at second-hand stores.  No one seems to want them anymore but me and a thrift store is about the only place one can find a historic type of hymnal locally.

In America, many people used to own a hymnal.  But that was a time long ago, it seems. 

One of the hymnals I have came courtesy of the Rosenberg family if I enjoy the inscription correctly.  It’s called Hymns for the Family of God by Paragon Associates Inc. (Nashville, TN) dating back to 1976.  The Gaithers were on the editorial board.  Stuff like this intrigues me.

Anyway, hymn #691 isn’t a hymn at all.  It’s a short patriotic note by the Reverend Billy Graham.  The Social Obligations of a Christian looks like this (right) and I transcribed it into a design of my own (below).

In a day when many Christians are conflicted about how to engage with our culture, particularly in an election year, to me it was a gentle and welcome reminder that my obligations to God don’t end as I leave the narthex and exit the church building to the world outside.  Our obligations are to each other, too.

We are to be in the world, but not of it.

Someone on social media recently attacked my character and passed judgment upon (1) my skin color and that of my friends, (2) my desire to point to the full Gospel and the full truth instead of to superficial things like feelings and cafeteria truth where you can take only what you want, (3) my inability to be omnipresent and omnipotent, doing all things for all people, and wait for it …(4) my patriotism since I had posted photos of flags for the 4th of July and Memorial Day.  (Good grief, some people.  Quick to judge and apparently, slow to view the level foot of the Cross.)

I decided to respond, not to the individual, but here…by rolling out patriotic hymns from our historic Christian hymnals.

Many of our hymnals contain what are called patriotic hymns, and in the United States, these hymns express gratitude to God for freedom, for the sacrifice others have done laying their lives down for their country, and for the beauty of this land we call America.  All of these things–liberty, personal sacrifice, and appreciation of this amazing creation–are biblical ideas and honor God to whom they ultimately point.

America used to be better at pointing to God and to the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  These days, it seems a generation’s lens only records the worst and produces selfies.

For many decades our churches had hymnals in our pews, but there has been a change.  Pews of the common man as a faith community are gradually being removed in favor of individual chairs with no written record of praise to hold in our hands while we sing, with one voice, our gratitude and praise to God.  I’m not sure that’s such a good thing.  Rubbing shoulders with our fellow man gives us connection as the Body of Christ.  Sadly, the audible word is soon forgotten–in one ear and out the other–but the written word has an enduring legacy, a lasting quality, and a depth of meaning that says it was worth putting into print.

My Country ‘Tis of Thee was first titled America by its author and Baptist minister Samuel Francis Smith.  It is known both for its words and its tune which is the same as God Save the Queen (the British National Anthem).  Yet, even with that poke at the original Brexit (the colonies declaring ourselves to be the independent United States of America), the Gospel shines clearly in the lyrics even if the name of Jesus isn’t mentioned.

To a Baptist minister who wrote it and to the Bible-believing and Word-studying Christian who sings it generations later, we cannot help but remember

• that God delivers out of the slavery and oppression of this world and delivers us into glorious liberty that was perfected in Him.  (John 8:36 “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.)
• the stones will have their silence break if we fail to praise Him.  He is that worthy.   (Luke 19:36 As Jesus went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. 37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: 38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” 40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” 41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace– but now it is hidden from your eyes.)
• that freedom is a holy thing to be honored because the One who purchased it for us by His blood is holy and deserves our allegiance  (1 Peter 1:15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”)
• and our protection in America is only by His might since He is our Great God and King, the only God no matter what this melting pot of syncretism might argue. (Psalm 95:3 For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.)

Enjoy this version of America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee) in a mix with He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands performed by the lovely and talented Yolanda Adams  –a good reminder that the United States is but one country that God loves.  Patriotism for America doesn’t mean God loves the rest of the world less.

My country ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died!
Land of the Pilgrim’s pride!
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love.
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture fills
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom’s song.
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our father’s God to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King!

I don’t know about you, but I’m looking at our world in chaos.

• At our world of politics in America,
• of terror on a global scale,
• of a growing racial divide,
• of increasing violence,
• of dire illnesses
• of weather extremes
• of the disappearance of the rule of law,
• of the chaos ensuing and enveloping every institution
• in which the Truth of God has been subordinated beneath legalese
• and in which God’s righteous command and rightful authority are being smothered beneath manmade convenience, mob rule, and arrogant control.

It’s easy to find yourself asking,

What in the name of Sam Hill is going on?

God has an answer to this chaos and many Americans won’t like it a bit.  God’s answer is Himself.

Just as it was in the beginning when God’s answer to the formless chaos of the waters was His Spirit hovering over it…and His Word declaring order into it…. “Let there be light!”…a time is coming when He will return into this world and the present chaos being sown by mankind.  We will…(yes, all of us: black, white, every race and ethnicity, male and female, all religions and mutations of unbelief)…we will all be answerable…finally… to Justice that we will not truly know this side of heaven.  A justice some claim to want now that they have no idea what they’re asking.  It’s not a slogan or some sign to carry around.  It’s nothing that superficial.

For some, being answerable will be a sigh of relief, a final rest, and an eternal Hallelujah.

For others,  it will be both a terrible and … a terrifying … Day of Judgment upon the evil they are and the evil they do.  

That’s what the Bible teaches.  The One and True Judge will enter into our world one more time…Who came first as the Word, then as the Son of God, Son of Man, and our One True Savior, again as His Holy Spirit.  Yes, He will enter a final time as another move of His Ultimate Authority.  The last days are upon us and have been since the time of Christ.  His return is closer now than yesterday.  The fig tree is in full leaf (Matthew 24) and all we have to do is look for His coming.

2 Peter 3:3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. 14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

I know plenty of people who have bought lock, stock, and barrel into the error of lawless men and women.   I see them on the news and read about them in the papers.  They’re quick to share opinions and slow to see what God says about it all.  I don’t want to be one of them.  I don’t want you to be either.

God’s Answer to Chaos is Himself.  And He will not be mocked.

Reflecting on what is good instead of what is so awful.  Imagine a world along with me…

While I’ve been doing my charity garden walk preparation all the way to its conclusion, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting about how the end can be a comfort…knowing it is finished and there’s nothing more one can do.  Oh, I reflect on lots of things, especially sermons I’ve heard recently.  It’s part of the curse of seminary in that you can’t just passively listen anymore, you think about everything that’s said.  You think about it while it’s being said, but also days, weeks, even months later.

One of the things that I’ve been pondering is the great benefit of knowing how it all turns out in the end.  Jesus’ victory is a comfort to those of us who know Him as Lord.

The pastor I was listening to gave an example of a championship game which he couldn’t watch while it was happening so he recorded it to watch later.  He said he usually tries to avoid having a spoiler of the final score and to watch the game as if it is happening now.  But sometimes, he ends up knowing the score before he watches it.  Knowing the final score helps to relieve the white knuckle time of 3-2 counts, one’s team being down by runs in the top of the 9th or 6 points in the final minutes of the 2nd half.  Knowing that your team wins lets you simply enjoy the ride and marvel how your team gets there.

With the Christian life, it ought to be the same way. 

We ought to be able to enjoy the ride and trust God to see us through because we know the end.  It’s a comfort since we have confidence that God wins.

I was continuing to think about this idea in light of a brief trip my husband and I took to fish in Canada.  I went from fishing for men to fishing for fish.  Or as my son joked, “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day.  Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.  Let a man fish for men and his work results will be eternal.”

The Northern pike I caught didn’t know when it took the minnow that it would be hooked, that it would fight it with everything it had but fail, that I would enjoy hauling it into the boat, that our guide would teach this woman how to hold it for a photo, but that it would be released back into the water to live another day.  At the time of being hooked, it probably thought its world was coming to an end.

So, when every system in the US seems to be falling apart and good Christians are fighting the corruption with everything we’ve got; when ISIS seems to be scattershot all over the world bringing terror to every nation of planet Earth; when we hear of earthquakes and floods, hurricanes and tornadoes, mudslides and forest fires; when wars and despots are on the increase and in their wake, they leave behind only the dead, the persecuted, and the refugee, and when we see the life of this Earth pass before our eyes, we look to Jesus.  Knowing that He’s already victorious and the end of time ushers an eternity worth living for is a comfort.  He told us ahead of time (Matthew 24).

He told us not to worry and He gave us a vision of the end of the story.

Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.”

Knowing the End is a Comfort to all whom Jesus knows as His followers!