Heroes of Our Nation
Hebrews 11:1-2, 13-16, 12: 1-2
In the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, VA, there's a special display for a rickety, home-made aluminum kayak. This tiny, makeshift boat seems oddly out of place in the midst of displays for impressive Navy vessels and artifacts from significant battles on the sea. But a bronze plaque tells museum visitors the story behind this kayak's heroic makers. In 1966, an auto mechanic named Laureano and his wife, Consuelo, decided that they could no longer live under the oppression of Cuba’s totalitarian regime. After spending months collecting scrap metal, they pieced together a boat just barely big enough for two small people. Then Laureano jury-rigged a small lawn mower engine on the back of the kayak. After months of planning and on a moonless night, they set out into the treacherous straits of Florida with only their swimsuits on. They had enough food and water for two days. After 70 hours, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued the couple just south of the Florida Keys. Was it worth the risk? Laureano said, “When one has grown up in liberty, you realize how important it is to have freedom. We live in the enormous prison which is Cuba, where one’s life is not worth one crumb. Where one goes out into the street and does not know whether or not one will return because the political police can arrest you without any warning and put you in prison. Before this could happen to us, we thought that going into the ocean and risking death or being eaten by sharks, is a million times better than to stay suffering under political oppression.”
In the 11th and 12th chapter of Hebrews, we are called to remember the great heroes of the faith and to remind us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. The eleventh chapter is called the “Faith Chapter” and lists people who are great examples of faith including: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Rahab. Then in verses 32-34 he adds: “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthah, David, Samuel and the prophets.” All were ordinary individuals of faith, used by God in extraordinary ways to accomplish His will. And that is the story of the birth of our nation as well. The names are different but include great examples of faith like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Noah Webster, Ben Franklin, Benjamin Rush, William Penn, James Wilson and George Washington. The 4th of July is a time we need to remember those who went before us, fought for our freedom and allowed God to work through them. What we find is that God makes a habit of doing the impossible through ordinary people like you and me. The secret of living a life that makes a difference is allowing God to work through you, like our forefathers did. There are four things we need to give thanks for today.
First is their vision. (Verses 1) Like Laureano and Consuelo, our nation was founded by people escaping tyranny and oppression. But they were also seeking religious freedom. They had a vision of a land where they could practice their Christian faith without opposition or oppression. The founding of our nation was primarily the pursuit of God, not gold and riches. Those who sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 signed the Mayflower Compact proclaiming that they had come to the new world for "the glorie of God and the advancement of the Christian faith." This was reflected in their first communal actions which was to have the first public building erected be a church and the first public exercise was the worship of God. When sorrow came they gathered at the church to appeal to God for help. When bountiful harvests filled their barns they gathered at the church for thanksgiving to God. God was the center of their lives together. In 1643, as more and more people arrived on these shores, they joined together to form “The New England Confederation” and wrote the very first constitution in the New World, which began with these words: “Whereas we all came into these parts with one and the same end and aim, namely to advance the kingdom of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity and peace…" So we give thanks for their vision of a nation birthed out of religious freedom.
And that leads us to our second reason to give thanks today and that is for their faith. We enjoy religious freedom today because there were those before us who stepped out in faith, sacrificed everything, and moved to a new and foreboding distant land. As the original settlers died off, many of their descendants were more concerned with increasing their wealth and stake in this land than with being faithful to God and His Word. And other colonists who arrived came for reasons other than their Christian faith and religious freedom. For example, England emptied its prisons by making it possible for prisoners to come to the New World as “indentured servants.” At the same time, the King of England granted vast tracts of land in the New World to his supporters which became plantations. And then slavery was introduced into the colonies so slaves could work these plantations. The spiritual atmosphere deteriorated rapidly, churches were dying and many who had once sought religious freedom for themselves were now being intolerant of others, evidenced by the Salem witch trials. The end result was by 1730, only 10% of the Colonists attended church at all. That which had begun “for the glorie of God and the advancement of the Christian faith” had almost disappeared from our land.
But then something amazing happened! Beginning in 1734, a handful of preachers including Jonathan Edwards, Gilbert Tennant, John Wesley, and George Whitefield, came to America to preach in the churches, the streets and the fields. These soon turned into great crusades and revivals that spread throughout the 13 Colonies and became known as “The Great Awakening” which lasted from 1740-1742. Tens of thousands of people gave their lives to Jesus Christ and were baptized into the faith. So many people came to hear George Whitefield that he had to hold open-air meetings because there just wasn’t enough room in the churches. Benjamin Franklin wrote, “It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing Psalms sung in different families of every street.” Once again, the colonies became Christian as more than 50% of the population were passionate followers of Jesus. The converted formed new churches, 100’s of them, and revived many of the dying churches.
Why is this significant today? Because the “Great Awakening” was a catalyst to the American Revolution. Some scholars believe the Awakening’s impact upon the Revolution extended to the foundational ideas of democracy, and “provided pre-Revolutionary America with a radical, even democratic, social and political ideology, and evangelical religion embodied, and inspired, a thrust toward American nationalism” (Heimert, viii). By linking the decision of new birth with his audience’s choice of a new American identity, George Whitefield provided a common American experience and identity that unified diverse colonists. Professor Jerome Mahaffey writes, “Without George Whitefield […] American independence would have come much later, if at all.” This had an impact on our Founding Fathers, the signers of the Declaration of Independence and authors our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and those who put their lives on the line, who fought and died that we might be free because they grew up and came into leadership while this “Great Awakening” was engulfing the land. It influenced their lives, their faith and their politics.
Political-science professors at the University of Houston collected and cataloged 15,000 writings by the Founding Fathers. Their goal was to determine the primary source of ideas behind the Constitution by identifying what they quoted most often. What was it? The Bible. 94% of the recorded quotes of the founders of our nation were based upon the Bible. And it impacted their decisions as well. Author and historian David Barton said the Journals of Congress show that the Founding Fathers opened the Continental Congress with two hours of prayer before addressing the pressing issue of British oppression in the 13 colonies. In fact, they also issued 15 calls for days of prayer and fasting throughout the American Revolution. And when George Washington became Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, he appointed chaplains for every regiment, recognizing that his men needed spiritual nourishment as well as physical, for this was a war that could not be won without faith.
Third, we celebrate their desire to do God’s will. Behind this desire was the belief of Divine Providence, that it was not only God’s desire but God’s will for freedom from British rule. Professor James P. Byrd of Vanderbilt Divinity School studied the sermons delivered by ministers before, during and after the Revolution. He found that clergy had great impact in inspiring the colonists to fight and die for their country. The Revolution was not just a fight against “taxation without representation.” It was a struggle against demonic forces as they often preached from the book of Revelation. This as not new as the Jews of Jesus’ time believed that Rome was the devil incarnate and that their battle for freedom was a spiritual one as well.
This belief in God’s Providence is seen in the prologue of the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…” Then, after listing charges against the King of England, they make two more references to God: "We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World…” And then at end the Declaration: “And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Samuel Adams declared: "We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His Kingdom come." The founding fathers and the leaders of the American Revolution believed that America was protected and directed by God from the very start.
And then there were the miracles of God which gave evidence to the Divine Hand of God. George Washington called the American victory in the Revolutionary war “little short of a standing miracle.” The British Empire at that time possessed the most powerful fighting forces on the face of the earth. The Continental Army was a ragtag assembly of volunteers, farmers and tradesmen. They were out-manned, out-gunned, and out-financed. And yet, they emerged victorious. Here are just two of many. In the summer of 1776, success for the American Revolution was far from certain. After a grueling but successful siege of Boston in 1775, Washington moved to fortify New York City in anticipation of a British attack. New York was a prime focus of British military strategy. At the same time that the Declaration of Independence was being drafted and ratified, the start of 400 British ships and 32,000 well-equipped British and German troops landed in NYC. On Tuesday, August 27, British General Howe engaged and soundly routed Washington's troops in the open fields below Brooklyn Heights. More than 1,000 Americans lost their lives, and many others were wounded or taken captive. Washington and his troops retreated with their back against the East River. All the British needed to do was send a handful of ships up the river and decimate the Americans with their guns. It would have ended the revolution. As they moved into position, the temperature dropped, torrents of rain fell and the wind blew as a nor easter prevented the British from getting into position until they gave up.
Miracle 2: After two disastrous defeats at the hands of the British in 1777, General George Washington had led his discouraged troops in retreat to Valley Forge for the winter. The winds blew ferociously, and temperatures dropped far below zero in one of the worst winters in history. There was near famine in the camp; men went for weeks without meat and last more than 5 months in the cold winter. Many were “barefoot and naked.” When spring arrived, they took count. One third of the army had died and another 1/3 of the army had quit and gone home. The remaining third simply re-captured Philadelphia and then defeated the British at Monmouth.
Lastly, we give thanks for their sacrifice. The 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, had untold sufferings for themselves and their families. Five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war. One had his ships sunk by the British navy and had to sell his home and properties to pay his debts. He died in poverty. Thomas Nelson had home taken over by the British for their headquarters. He quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on it. He died bankrupt. John Hart was driven by the war from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived in forest and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion.
Kay Warren tells of catching a connecting flight in the DFW airport with a friend. On the way to the connecting gate, they heard loud patriotic music playing and saw a group, mostly women, wearing colorful hats, cheering, and waving American flags. The troops were coming home, and here was their welcoming committee. Two women encouraged us to grab flags and join in. We were early for our next flight, so we took places in the makeshift greeting line. At first, a few soldiers just dribbled by. We whooped and waved our flags furiously. Then the pace picked up as dozens of men and women in uniform came barreling through. We kept repeating: "Welcome home! We're glad you're back! We appreciate you!" Some soldiers wiped away tears, while others displayed huge, self-conscious smiles. One young soldier looked not a day over 15. After 45 minutes, it was time to catch our flight. We hugged the organizers and thanked the vets who had come to honor this generation of soldiers. As we sank into our seats for the flight, we felt humbled by participating in this sweet moment of coming home. It was impossible not to draw the obvious spiritual parallels. These men and women had taken oaths of faithfulness and service. They had fought courageously, lived with deprivation, danger, and disease, and took unbelievable risks (and sacrifices), all for the good of our nation.” Amen
