So many of us want to impact America.
We want to change America. We want America to be the great, great country that we know it can be. And there are so many things going on in our society right now.
There are so many wars and ideologies, and philosophies clashing, and religion is mixed up in the middle of that, and Christianity is mixed up in the middle of that. Because when I say religion, I mean there is a melting pot of ideas in America regarding faith.
There are Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and New Age, and spirituality broadly.
There are all different denominations and sects of Christianity. And everybody would agree that we want to change America. But what do we want to change America into? The Founders had a very specific idea in the 1770s, the 1780s, and the early 1800s about this beacon of freedom and what it might look like.
Amongst those ideologies or beliefs of the Founding Fathers was the principle of freedom of religion. George Washington said in his farewell address that you cannot separate religion from morality. And he was absolutely right. Because if you separate the two things out, you have a subjective reality that determines that my way’s right, your way’s wrong.
I’ll do it my way. You mind your business.
I’ll mind my business.
And what we get is a society in deterioration because of this kind of thinking. But how can you and I begin to make a positive impact in America? What are the things that you and I can do right here, right now, to make a difference in our country? To help our country realize its potential, politics aside.
It’s this.
We have to stop loving the way the world loves.
We have to stop living the way the world lives.
We have to stop pursuing the things that the world pursues.
The Apostle Paul told us that we are a peculiar people. The scriptures tell us over and over again, we are a peculiar, a different kind of people. But when the world looks at us, do they see anything different? Or do they see the same kind of people as themselves, pursuing the same agendas, the same goals, prosperity, wealth, televisions, materialism, whatever the thing is, right?
Are we pursuing materialism?
Are we pursuing the desires of convenience, the desires of travel, and to see and experience new things as the world does?
When the world looks at us, does it see a different posture?
Do people see a different light emanating from us?
Do they see hope?
Do they see a real person at work? If you work in a cubicle or wherever you might be, do they know that when they come across you, you care about them, that you will take the time to hear them, to offer a prayer for them? Is the way you live fundamentally different?
Is the way you dress fundamentally different than the world?
Do you exercise your constitutional rights, not because you can, but because you seek God and to glorify God, to honor God, regardless of the consequences that the world may bring on you. You know, I wear a black cassock with my cross out in public, everywhere I go, not because I’m trying to draw attention to myself, but to distinguish that I am peculiar.
I am different.
I belong to God.
The black cassock I wear represents death and suffering, and that I have denied myself. I am dead in Christ, but I’m also the light and the hope of the world, because in death is the life. In death is the resurrection. In death is eternity with Christ.
I have crucified the things of the flesh, so that as Paul says in Philippians chapter three, that I may lose everything, but in the loss of everything I’ve gained him, and the surpassing knowledge and the greatness of participating in his sufferings and his death, that I might attain to the resurrection one day, that I might receive the reward that was promised.
Brothers and sisters, we are different.
Are you living like you’re different?
Does the world see you as different?
If it doesn’t, then I’m praying on this Fourth of July weekend that if you really want to transform our country, if you really wanted to realize its potential, that you would find a morality based in your faith in Christ, and that you might be truthfully, I mean, you may be able to participate in all things, but are all things worth participating in? From the way that we dress, the way that we talk, the way that we pursue our work, the way that—you get my point, I hope.
I pray today that you will see Christ because of the blessings he has given us in this great nation.
Father Don
