250

On March 17, 1976, I turned thirteen years old. In November of that same year, a peanut farmer named Jimmy Carter from Georgia was elected to serve as this nation's 39th president, narrowly defeating Gerald Ford. 

In July of that same year, this nation celebrated our bicentennial. I was young, but I do remember it. I felt proud to be an American and hopeful about the future, even though these were far from glory days for our nation. We had come through the Vietnam War and Watergate. The world was experiencing the first Ebola outbreak in Africa. Inflation had finally dropped from double-digits to 5.76% but there had been gas lines in 1973 and more to come in 1979, triggered by events in the Middle East, especially the Iranian Revolution. 

Fifty years later, I am no longer a kid with my whole life ahead of me. It's tempting for 63-year-old men to be nostalgic about the past and hopeless about the future but I find myself struck more by the old adage that the more things change the more they stay the same. We face political and global challenges today not all that different from what we were facing fifty years ago. I do think that things are worse right now, but it’s a difference of degree, not kind. The human condition and the lust for power and control have not changed. 

I am still a patriot and I still love this country. But I am more aware of the toxic nature of nationalism which is not the same thing as love of country. I believe that nationalism is a distorted love, the tendency that leads to saying things like “my country, right or wrong” or “love it or leave it.” Nationalism insists that "God loves us the most" and is “on our side.” There is a great hymn of the Church that expresses the difference well for me:  

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
Oh hear my song, oh God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

I am certain I was singing that hymn in the Hawley United Methodist Church as a teenager. I am very fortunate to have been raised with a faith that could never be confused with Christian Nationalism: my Sunday School teachers taught me that Jesus loved the little children of the world. All the little children of the world, from every tribe and language and people and nation. On that score, at least, I count my blessings that I didn’t have to unlearn a narrow form of Christian nationalism as my life has unfolded.

One thing is certain: our country is in trouble. Maybe it’s always been on the edge of trouble. I know as a fan of Hamilton and behind that great show the book and the work of historians that 1776 was no picnic. And I was old enough in 1976 to know that we faced many challenges, as we do today in 2026.

Perhaps there are no easy times to be alive. With due respect to "The Boss" there are no “glory days” to go back to; rather, these are better days, as Bruce sings in another perhaps less familiar song. Or, at least these are the days we get to be good. This American experiment has always been a tenuous thing.

But I also believe that times like these can bring out the best in people, not only the worst.

I saw a meme recently that has stayed with me. Memes of course do not convey complex truths very well and real life is not a meme. But this one said that the World Cup reminds us that for the most part, most people across the globe prefer to get along and bring their passions to a soccer field, not to a killing field. People are by and large good; it’s the powers and principalities (and nationalism and human sin) that pit us against one other and insist that wealth and power are limited commodities and we need to take what we can. I was especially inspired of late by the Tartan Army bringing joy to Massachusetts and inspiring us all.

So I will celebrate 250, but in a subdued way. I am praying for peace and reconciliation which is holy work, Gospel work. I am praying that I can continue to be an instrument of God’s peace in a warring world, and contribute to the healing that is needed at this time to bind up the nation’s wounds. I give thanks for what has been but more importantly, I want to work toward what might yet be. God bless America. God bless the world.

America! America!
God mend thine every flaw
Confirm thy soul in self-control
Thy liberty in law!