wfn.org | Commentary: God bless America - and the world

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 18, 2001  News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.     10-21-71BP{479}

NOTE: A head-and-shoulders photograph of Bishop Kenneth Carder is available
at http://umns.umc.org/photos/bishops/carder.jpg

A UMNS Commentary
By Bishop Kenneth Carder*

"God Bless America" has become perhaps America's most sung hymn since Sept.
11. Speeches by President Bush and many other public officials conclude with
the words "and God bless the United States of America." It is a prayer we
all can pray, a hymn we all sing with enthusiasm and longing.

Blessing is a worthy and noble aim for individuals and nations. Praying for
America to be blessed is an appropriate response to the terrible and
inexcusable terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. The
needless suffering and untimely death of several thousand defenseless and
innocent people engenders a longing for divine blessings that enable us to
transcend the devastation.
 
Praying for God's blessing, however, can be presumptuous and perilous.
Preconceived notions as to what constitutes God's blessings may be
misleading. What would constitute a divine blessing upon America in these
treacherous times? Victory in war? Protection from further suffering?
Recovery of economic stability and prosperity?  Preservation of America's
superpower status? Certainly these are among our spoken and unspoken
expectations when we pray for God to bless America. But do they adequately
express what God's blessing includes?

Prayer for God's blessing is presumptuous when we expect God to bestow
blessings in accordance with national boundaries and preconceived notions.
God wants to bless all people. To seek God's blessings for America and not
for the world fails to recognize the wideness in God's mercy and the expanse
of God's love.

Further, God's blessings often come in unrecognizable packages. The blessing
to Abraham and Sarah came in the form of a call to leave their homeland in
their old age and search for "a city not made with human hands." God's
blessing to Moses resulted in confronting the Pharaoh and wandering forty
years in the wilderness with a stubborn people. The angel told Mary that she
was "most blessed." Yet she watched the son who was God's blessing to the
world die a cruel, agonizing death.

The Bible defines God's blessing most often as the opportunity to share in
God's redemptive, healing, reconciling and saving mission in the world. God
always blesses in order that the blessed will be a blessing to others. The
God of the Exodus and of Jesus Christ wants to bless America and the world
with freedom, justice, healing, reconciliation and peace. 

God bless America and the world by making us instruments of God's peace!

#  #  #

*Carder is bishop of the Mississippi Area of the United Methodist Church.
This commentary originally appeared in the Advocate, the newspaper of the
Mississippi Area.

Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily
represent the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church.

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United Methodist News Service
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