Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth …
Beauty. When I was a boy, my parents decided to take a trip to Niagara Falls. They wanted my brother and me to be exposed to one of the world’s great scenic wonders. But anybody who has ever traveled with two boys in the back seat of a car will be able to guess the mood we were in by the time we arrived. “Mom, he touched me. Dad, he’s on my side of the seat. He’s making faces at me.” The mood was foul, to say the least. And of course, surely you know that it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t do anything wrong. It was all my brother’s fault. So it he who was most unhappy when we got to Niagara Falls. For miles he had sat and pouted, with a sour look on his face. At the Falls, we piled out of the car, we strode to the railing, we looked and gaped and oohed and ahed, until my father noticed that my brother was over there, leaning against the car, staring down at the ground. My father tried to get Bob’s attention, “Look, Bob, there’s Niagara Falls. This is what we came to see. Come on, look at the Falls.” But from my brother’s mouth came the ultimate putdown, the final word of the distorted heart, “Hmph. I’ve seen Niagara Falls. I want to go home.”
Unless somebody stops us and makes us look at things of beauty, our hearts will grow dull, our spirits will be distorted. We are surrounded by so much beauty, we are in danger of missing it. We walk past this churchyard every week, but no longer see the radiance of the flowers lovingly planted by our Garden Club. We get out among people every day, and in our hurry to be about our business, we do not enjoy the faces that pass us on the streets. We just take for granted the majesty of the sky, the lushness of the earth, and the grandeur of the sea.
So I want to speak today of beauty. I want to call you to look at the beauty of America. But, deeper, I want to call you to look at the beauty which God offers us. I want to reveal to you the secrets of a beautiful face. For the face of America is indeed beautiful; but there are some secrets to that beauty. If we don’t look at them carefully, we might lose that beauty.
The face of America is beautiful. That beauty is fundamentally a spiritual beauty – not simply the beauty of the landscape; other nations are lovely as well. That beauty is not simply the beauty of a diverse people, although there is a glory in our racial diversity, a beauty in walking the streets of Washington and seeing not just whites and blacks, but Asians and Hispanics and Middle Easterners and Indians, and all the variations. There is beauty in diversity. But I’m talking about more than that. I want to speak about the beauty of a spiritual heritage. The secrets of a beautiful face.
Some three thousand years ago, someone was traveling up to Jerusalem. Through the deserts and the wilderness places he went, slowly and painfully. It was hot and dry. There wasn’t much to look at. Stones and sand, a few scrubby bushes and a burning sun. And the hills; the arduous, rocky hills. As you may know, Jerusalem is situated in the hill country of Judaea. So as you approach Jerusalem, you go through ugly and unappealing places; but then you come around a bend in the road, around the edge of one of these hills, and there it is, the city suddenly laid out in front of you, breathtaking in splendor. Just as there are certain roads in Virginia, where, as you drive down them, suddenly, spread out before you, is the skyline of Washington. The psalmist came to Jerusalem, and was in awe. The glory of that city, the towers of the Temple, the monuments and the palaces, struck him as the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. That’s the background of the psalm we’ve heard today.
The city of our God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth
Maybe something of the same breathtaking wonder took hold of a woman named Katharine Lee Bates back in 1893. An English professor at Wellesley College, Miss Bates went with a group of friends to Colorado Springs; she took a wagon and mule trip up Pike’s Peak. So awed was she by the vastness of the view that she wrote an anthem celebrating God’s goodness to America. I am going to encourage you to sing it with me, a verse at a time, as we think together about the secrets of a beautiful face. America’s beautiful face.
I
First, consider with me that one of the secrets of a beautiful face is generosity. A generous heart creates beauty; a giving spirit is something you can see. If a person is authentically beautiful, not just cosmetic-counter beautiful, but spiritually beautiful, you will be able to see a generous heart. Someone who cares about others becomes beautiful through their generosity. That’s one secret of a beautiful face. And a people that cares about the hungry, the poor, the tired, and the oppressed – that people grow a beautiful face.
Miss Bates’ hymn reminds us of this; let’s sing that first verse:
When friends and family come to visit you, which Washington do you take them to see? Is it the Washington of gleaming monuments or the Washington of litter-strewn streets? Is it the city of majestic government buildings or the city of drab project apartments? The streets where embassy flags flutter brightly in the breeze, or the streets where the garbage has not been collected in weeks? Which is the face of beauty?
Poverty is ugly. Poverty is pervasively, down-in-the-gutter ugly. When you can do nothing but struggle to stay alive; when every moment is consumed with survival; when there is never enough, the result is ugliness. Oh, I know that there are brave souls that rise above poverty and live triumphantly; but I submit that for every one who lives with joy and victory, despite poverty, there are a hundred whose lives are miserable cesspools of despair and disappointment. Poverty is ugly.
Poverty breeds an ugly nation. Poverty fosters crime; oh, I know that you do not have to resort to crime just because you are poor, and, yes, I know that the most destructive criminals are the wealthy, who, as the prophet Amos said, “sell the needy for a pair of shoes.” I know all of that. I know that the human spirit may flourish under the most terrible of circumstances, and I know that souls shrivel even in marble-splendored halls. But I also know that poverty is life-limiting – that if you cannot do anything but struggle against overwhelming odds, the temptation to turn to negative things is overwhelming. Poverty is a pockmark on the face of a beautiful nation.
And so I begin today by calling us to a generosity of spirit that is important to the American character. At our best, we have understood that the amber waves of grain grew not just for us and for our profit, but for all of God’s children. At our best, we have remembered that the fruited plain is not ours to keep, but is put in our hands by a creator God to be shared with others.
The challenge before us is to make the face of America more beautiful with a spirit of love and generosity. I am thinking of the kind of brotherly and sisterly love that looks at people, sees needs, and meets those needs. My hope for us as a church is that we will find ways to be so loving, so generous, so caring, that the world around us will sit up and take notice and see in us the beauty of our creative God.
You see, in recent months I’ve tried to work with several people on those difficult financial issues. People who have overdue bills, people who need a mortgage payment, people who have lost their jobs or have a low-paying job. A variety of things. I’ve asked our deacons to think with me about how we as a church can respond when church folks get into financial trouble. That’s going to take some thinking. But let me tell you what I have seen as I have worked: I have seen some of you responding with generosity and tremendous trust. I’ve seen you help one another. How beautiful that is! How much that is the church that Jesus wanted, because He’s the one who said that He will judge us based on how well we respond to the needs of our brother and sisters for food and clothing and comforting and all the rest. How beautiful is the spirit of generosity I have seen among you!
So Katharine Bates is right on target in her hymn, when she says that we are to look at what we have and then crown our good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea. And if you cannot get your mind around sea to shining sea, surely you can think about pew to pew, home to home, person to person, in this body of Christ.
The first secret to a beautiful face is a generous heart.
II
There is a second secret to a beautiful face, and that is the secret of self-control, the secret of discipline. We have to pay attention to our own minds; we have to take care of our own spiritual health. Nobody else can do that for us. We have to be attentive. Self-control; discipline.
Our anthem sings about that secret in its second verse:
Imagine a city, somewhere on Planet Earth. There is turmoil in this city; hostile mobs race up and down the streets. Cars are overturned and burned. Shop windows are shattered and goods are stolen. Tanks roll toward crowds of people and mow them down. Helicopters clatter overhead. Meanwhile angry crowds storm the president’s home and the capitol building, burning, destroying, crying for blood. Confusion, rumors, grasping for power, a police state. Imagine all that, and then recall our own history.
Warm Springs, Georgia, 1945; a beloved president is dead from a cerebral hemorrhage, as the great crisis of world war continues. A little haberdasher from Missouri is to be the president; most people don’t think much of him. But there was no revolution; only a somber, careful, prayerful transition of power. Dallas, Texas, 1963, a president assassinated. Pain, shock, terror, fear, rumor; a loud, uncouth Texan in the place of the elegant, charismatic young president? Distasteful to a good many. But there was no revolution; only a somber, careful, prayerful transition. Washington, DC, 1973, Watergate, a president about to be impeached, disgraced, though he claimed he was not a crook; an unelected former congressman, almost a joke for his stumbling feet and his mangled speech, is to be given the reins of power. But there was no revolution; a prayerful nation gathered in hope. And just a few months ago, another president, put through the agony of impeachment, admitting distasteful and shameful things, but acquitted. Notice that those who felt he should have gone did not take to the streets and riot, but gathered in prayer and remembered that this nation is larger than any one man. Why? What is the secret of America’s beautiful face?
Self-control, trusting God for this nation’s security. Not grasping for power, because it is all in the hands of God. Finding our security not in power, nor in armaments, not in politics, but in God Himself. The psalmist says,
Within its citadels God has shown himself a sure defense.
It is God who defends us, God who confirms us, God who gives us confidence. If we trust in God and believe in God’s plan, then nothing can shake us. Benjamin Franklin said of the American constitution, “A great republic, if you can keep it.” I tell you, we can keep it, if we trust in God. If we know who we are and who has brought us thus far on the way. “In God we trust” had better become something more than a nice slogan on our coins. “In God we trust” needs to be something real, in our hearts. Not just a nod to God, but something deep.
And frankly, friends, I am not excited about a moment of silence in the public schools. Sixty seconds of mandated prayer isn’t going to make a difference. Congress begins every session with the formality of prayer, and you see what that’s given us! No, it is time for the churches – especially the churches of Washington – especially this church in Washington – it is time for the church to study the issues, to pray about what is happening, and to use our moral power for Kingdom purposes. If we don’t do that, we are saying we don’t trust in God. And we are inviting violent revolution.
The second secret of a beautiful face for America is self-control, rooted in trusting God. “God has shown himself a sure defense.” “Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.”
III
A beautiful face for America. But at what price? Beauty does not come cheap – not at the hair salon nor at the cosmetic counter, and certainly not in the nation’s life. Beauty does not come cheap. There is a price to be paid, a sacrifice.
Our hymn’s third verse will point us to beauty in sacrifice:
Arlington. Gravestones row on row. Names, ranks, and battlefields. The sons and daughters of America. A place of quiet beauty and dignity. A place far different from a muddy foxhole in France, a sinking submarine in the North Atlantic, a frozen mountain in Korea, a shattered air base in Viet Nam. Spend some time in that place of sacrifice. You will never forget what it means.
Last year some of us went to Italy on a tour. Our bus made its way up a long mountain road to Monte Cassino and a historic monastery dating back 1500 years. But it was not only ancient history that gripped me, but also modern history. Over there, on that hillside, the Polish war cemetery. And on that one, the English cemetery. Over there, the American. And yes, the Italian and the German, for war is indiscriminate. War steals lives, snatches young men with years of promise and spends them like so many worthless pennies. Surely today any of us would echo the terse verdict of President Roosevelt, “I hate war.” Surely we devoutly hope, “No more war; never again.”
But I know too much about human nature to be confident that it will be easy to avoid war. I know too much about the sin that fuels the heart of humanity; I know that we want and we take, we covet and we grasp. I know that wherever sin reigns, war will result.
And so I also know that the price of liberty is always paid in blood. Always. Sacrifice is the only way this nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all are created equal – sacrifice is the only way to keep this nation free.
Maybe that’s what the psalmist is getting at when he says,
Then the kings assembled, they came on together. As soon as they saw it, they were astounded; they were in panic, they took to flight; trembling took hold of them there …
The psalmist knows that when the enemies of liberty see our resolve, and know our spiritual strength, they will back down. They will be in awe of our spirit of sacrifice. I hope so.
But I do know that sacrifice is always the price for freedom. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. I do know that the secret of beauty is the willingness to sacrifice. “Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life.”
And most of all, I know that there was one named Jesus who sacrificed His precious life to defeat the powers of sin and evil. I know that in Him I see all the beauty of man as he was intended to be. I do know that in the old rugged cross, so despised by the world, a wondrous beauty I see. Sacrifice.
IV
There are secrets to a beautiful face. Not wealth, not power. But the secrets to a beautiful face are spiritual. A generous heart – crown thy good with brotherhood. Discipline – confirm thy soul with self-control, thy liberty in law. Sacrifice – who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life.
But most of all, there is vision. The secret of a truly beautiful face is vision. Seeing what can be, dreaming about what God is doing, going where God is leading, knowing God’s heart. Without a vision a people will perish. Without a vision a nation will flounder. Without a vision our lives will disappear as water through a sieve. Without vision to see it, there is no beauty.
That’s what the last verse of our hymn will teach us:
Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and declared his vision for America. His words rang out strong and true, for they came from his heart as well as from his Bible. May I ask you to hear a dream for our little slice of America, a dream for this part of the Kingdom?
For I do have a dream today. I dream of a beautiful church where every person who walks through these doors is valued, loved, and trusted; a church which cares for all people. What a beautiful face for this church!
I dream of a beautiful congregation which gathers to worship and expects things to happen – for whom worship is never routine, the teaching of God’s word always exciting, and we just expect that each Sunday somebody here will come to know the Lord. What a beautiful face for this church!
I dream of a slice of the Kingdom where we believe God. Not doctrine, or ideas, but God. Where we trust God. Maybe the pastor isn’t all he could be, nor the deacons, sometimes not the Sunday School teachers, but God is good – God is good all the time. A place where prayer is like breathing, it just happens naturally, all the time. What a beautiful face for this church!
I dream of a community that is touched by our love. I dream of a city that is changed by what we do. I dream of excellence, not for our own reputation, but because Christ is worthy. I dream of joy, not just entertainment, but joy because Christ has done so much for us. I dream that because we are faithful, because we turn to God for everything – I can dream of an alabaster city undimmed by human tears!
Oh, America! Oh, Takoma! God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood, from pew to pew, from house to house, from street to street, and to the uttermost parts of the earth!
Walk about Zion, go all around it, count its towers, consider well its ramparts; go through its citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will be our guide forever.
