“Four score and seven years ago…” are the words that Abraham Lincoln began his famous Gettysburg Address of 1863 dedicating the Soldier’s National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylania.  Do you know how many years that is?  87.  “O, say can you see…” are the words that Francis Scott Key began what is today our national anthem.  Do you know the occasion for that writing?  The War of 1812.  Do you know which four presidents are carved on Mt. Rushmore, what is the “day that will live in infamy” or who gave us the Statue of Liberty?  How about the original year of 9-11?  Fifth graders can probably tell you the capitols of all our fifty states, but few others remember each.  But beyond mere trivia, it is a sad fact that many no longer know the rich history of our great nation or the sacrifices that were made to safeguard our freedoms.  That forgotten legacy has only been for 233 years, though; what about one for two millennia?  How many know the history of Jesus; that He was born in Bethlehem, for example, let alone by a virgin named Mary?  How many believe that He sacrificed His life on the cross for the sins of the world and rose three days later in victory over sin and death to offer eternal life to all who call upon His name?

We live in a world where what happened yesterday is already old news.  This present generation is interested only in what is happening right this second and has the technology to know what each of us is saying, doing, thinking, wearing and eating at any given moment.  Twenty-four hour news channels keep us up to the minute with the latest breaking news.  Who cares anymore about the latest doings of Octo-mom? We want to know what drug did in Michael Jackson and who administered it; that is, until the next sensation comes along tomorrow and it will. Trivia like, “Honey don’t forget to pick up some milk when you come home” is one thing, ideals like freedom and God’s grace in Christ are much more. These noble truths cannot be adequately expressed with passing sound bites.  Indulge me for just a little while longer than it takes to read your average e-mail and consider with me the meaning of being an American, Lutheran Christian today with the rights and responsibilities we have as such a one.

Run those words together – American, Lutheran, Christian- and it may sound like we are trying to create another synod for the Lutheran Church.  I have sometimes wished our own synodical moniker, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, did include the word “American” somewhere.  I mean, we don’t live in Missouri though that is part of our history as Lutherans.  A group under Pastor Martin Stephan left Saxony in Germany and came eventually to Perry County, Missouri, in 1847 fleeing the Prussian Union that was forcing Christian unity among different confessions for the sake of political expediency.  Still, names notwithstanding, we Lutherans are proud Americans too.  Though loyal to Christ’s Kingdom as His ambassadors first, we also seek to be responsible citizens of state as no authority exists outside His sovereign will.  Since World War II, Lutherans have placed American flags in our sanctuaries to show our patriotism.  We pray for our country and its leaders.  We pay our taxes and send our men and women off to war, too, defending our land and the values we hold dear as American, Lutheran Christians.

                What are those cherished values?  As we have noted, somewhere along the way many have forgotten.  Even we good, American, Lutheran Christians have often been unclear or unmotivated in our civic and religious duties and presumed our rights.  New ideas and opinions have emerged in America since the cultural revolution of the 1960’s and have continued to evolve with gigabyte speed.  Christians have come under their influence as well.  Much of this new thinking and morality has no place for God and the teachings of the Holy Bible.  America has consequently separated rights from values.  Our core values cannot be as trite as the right to own big screen TV’s and have 672 stations via satellite to keep us up to the minute in news and entertainment.  Can they?  Our great America, the greatest expression of human rights in history, can’t really only be about the economic freedom to buy the latest gadget to keep us informed about Paris Hilton’s last broken nail?  Please tell me it isn’t so.  Our core values cannot only be in making our environment cleaner either or figuring out national health care for all, as important as these are.  And our values should not include the right to spread hate from any Starbuck’s with Wi-Fi against those with whom we disagree, voted differently or marched in different parades holding signs with different slogans. American, Lutheran Christians, our freedom has been for far too long maligned as only being the right to do whatever one wants in spite of the common good.  The greatest example of freedom’s corruption is in speech.

  Freedom of speech should not be demeaned as the right to say, blog, e-mail and twitter every fleeting thought that pops into our fickle minds.  As Christians we know that the mind of man is sinful and so often our thoughts are selfish, slanderous, false, boastful, lustful and snide.  Scripture says our words should be few and chosen carefully to edify.  But the sinful mind uses the precious gift of speech to spew against every little thing, issue and person it doesn’t like.  While the potential good of an immediate, spur of the moment, free speaking world is possible such as evidenced recently in Iran, the potential abuse of that right and privilege to spread hate, lies, smut and false teaching like wildfire is equally possible.  And given the history of what man does with a good idea over time, freedom of speech will increasingly be in trouble either by sinful exploitation or excessive censorship in a feeble attempt to rein it in.  Because of the abuses of free speech from pedophiles to false pedagogues, Christians must be ever vocal if we hope to restore the connection of values to rights in America.

America needs to hear what Christians have to say for one important reason, because we have the Word of God.  Nations come and go but the Word of God endures forever.  Man’s opinions and ideas are as shifting as the sand but “Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever”.  His Word and the confession that He is the Christ is the Rock upon which the Church builds its hope.  The Word brings life.  It is healing and America needs that desperately for we are a people hemorrhaging right now from a deep, open wound in our culture. There is no love for neighbor.  Many only wish to say what they think, feel or want themselves and feel it is so important that it must be heard right now.  Others are too intimidated to say anything at all.  But evil only prospers when good men say nothing.  When God’s people fail to speak in His name, Satan will begin to shout!  We must speak up Christian and say, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son.”  So many are under the tyranny of self-love and self-gratification. America needs to hear God’s love in Christ.  This Good News must fill our voices and our technology for while there are many who are God talkers today, God is not talking through them because they spread hate and sinful opinion just the same as unbelievers do.  Their message is not to edify and unite but to tear down and divide.  They should be watchmen on the tower warning of true danger rather than being purported watch dogs barking incessantly at every rustling leaf to keep the ratings high and donations flowing.

Now we Lutheran Christians have a unique history of speaking out on matters of real truth and love.  The Reformation was a bold proclamation of God’s truth- grace alone, faith alone, Scripture alone.  It was defiant, yes, but not for its own sake.  Luther’s aim was not just to be right or start his own church.  He knew there was and would ever be Christ’s Church.  So when the God talkers then got in the way of God talking, he spoke out but not by his own words.  He spoke the Word of God.  He did not expect government to do that speaking though he looked for a time for its protection of God’s speech.  Luther knew that when people lost their way, Christians must speak God’s Word as a light to guide them back.  And believe me; he knew as do we that this isn’t easy.  You will be villianized as being bigoted, ignorant, hateful and vindictive.  Those who speak in Christ’s name are persecuted in this world.  But we must speak God’s Word for the world needs love.  America needs love but not man’s mocked and minced version of love. We need Jesus who is love come down to earth.  We have been sent since Pentecost to tell America of Jesus’ great love demonstrated by His cross.  His Spirit gives us what to say.

Yes, we may have forgotten the shot heard round the world at Lexington and Concord or Paul Revere’s midnight run and his code of oneth by land twoeth by sea, but may we never forget those unalienable rights endowed by our Creator of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.  Nor let us forget that those rights of assembly, arms, voting, religion and speech are tied to the value that the life of each person is precious and equal to any other.  Christians know that value because God valued all mankind enough to send His Son to die and redeem the world of its sin.  We know the value of true love because we know God who is love.  Lutherans know that value for we base all our beliefs and practices on God’s Word- His holy, inspired, eternally true, inerrant Word.  It says man is created wonderfully and fearfully in the image of God.  We know the Gospel because it is revealed in the Word.  We know by our experience that by the sword of the Spirit, the Word, all evil will be subdued.  And because we Lutheran Christians value God’s love in Christ as proclaimed in the Bible, we must go and tell of it.  We must speak and by that true and loving witness, America will be blessed once more.

What is our right as American, Lutheran Christians?  Well our wrong is to remain silent about Jesus or allow Him to be relegated to the annuals of a forgotten history.  Our right, then, is to exercise our freedom of speech for God’s glory and the good of our neighbor;  to temper our speaking about truth not by what we think and feel but what God reveals in His Holy Word and to speak in the name of Jesus Christ who came as the world’s Savior from sin and death.  Christ’s love is what we value most.  By it we and all nations are redeemed.  Salvation is not exclusive to America or to Lutherans but when our rights and values as Americans are joined by Christian love and the biblical faith as is confessed in the  Lutherans Church, true freedom will most certainly and clearly ring!