June 14, 2026
• Rev. Dr. Rob Fuquay
St. Luke’s UMC
June 14, 2026
America’s 250th series
Words That Still Make American Great
“One Nation Under God”
Genesis 12:1-3; Psalm 33:12-15; Acts 17:26 (NLV)
February 7, 1954 President Eisenhower sat in the pew once occupied by President Abraham Lincoln at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC. He listened to a sermon by George Doherty preaching in favor of a rising push in the country to add the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
The original pledge, written by Francis Bellamy in 1892, read: “I pledge allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands—one Nation indivisible—with liberty and justice for all.” Historians say this pledge was created to deepen a spirit of “Americanization.” Many Protestant Americans were concerned about the increase of immigrants arriving from Europe, many of whom were Catholic. They felt this could be harmful to the “American way of life,” and so the pledge was part of a campaign of assimilation. (Why Eisenhower Added 'Under God' to the Pledge of Allegiance | HISTORY)
What’s interesting about that idea of “Americanization” is that Bellamy actually intended for the pledge to be used by citizens of any country, hence the words, “my flag.” But by 1923, the amendment was made to say “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America…” (https://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm)
By 1952, another big concern arose in our country known as “The Red Scare.” The fear of communism was spreading through America. Countries like Russia and China were labeled as “godless,” and so, a movement quickly gained steam to add the words “under God.”
A few months after listening to that sermon in 1954, Eisenhower signed legislation adding the words to the pledge. I remember growing up in school beginning each day saying, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Now, if you didn’t know that history it may be a little disappointing to think that words like “under God,” were added out of political motivation. But for people of faith, this shouldn’t make the words less meaningful. In fact, Eisenhower said after signing this legislation: "These words will remind Americans that despite our great physical strength we must remain humble. They will help us to keep constantly in our minds and hearts the spiritual and moral principles which alone give dignity to (people)." That’s not a bad intention, is it, to be humble and remember that our dignity is that which God gives every person.
Now have we lived up to that ideal? Clearly not. Within a decade of adding the words “under God” for preserving liberty and justice for all, we would endure more race riots in our country, discrimination against indigenous people, limited rights and violence toward gay people. No, we haven’t lived up perfectly to our ideals, but for people of faith, we have words that summon us to keep forming a more perfect union.
That’s why we are doing this four-part series. We are commemorating a significant anniversary in our country, even at a very divided and fractured time, to consider important words that are the basis of what makes America great. Our greatness is not in our might, our wealth, or our technology. It is in our ideas. As the late Mark Trotter once said, the 4th of July “celebrates an idea, a vision…American is the idea that people can live happily and prosperously, and in peace with one another.” (sermon “This Nation, Under God”) Have we lived out these values perfectly? No, but that doesn’t make the values wrong.
So we’re going to think about these words and how our faith helps us in living out their meaning. And we start today with the words from our Pledge of Allegiance, “One nation under God.”
I invite us to think about these words in relation to biblical history, and particularly from a geo-political perspective. I have been fortunate in my career to study in Israel and make several trips there, and even study under a renowned biblical archeologist. And with my retirement just a year away I am running out of time to inflict this knowledge on people, so you get to be my targets today.
Just turn again to the person next to you and say, “I can’t wait.”
From the beginning of biblical history, God has called His people to be a witness in the midst of political realities. That history began in what is known as The Fertile Crescent, the green valley that provided life-sustaining resources bridging the Mediterranean and middle-eastern worlds. This is called the cradle of civilization, where human history began. Somewhere around the start of the second millennium before Jesus was born, God called Abraham to leave his homeland and go to a place God would show him. This was part of the three-fold Abrahamic Covenant we just heard from Genesis 12:1-3. God promises Abraham:
• Land
• Become a nation
• Be a blessing to all nations of people
So Abraham and his family traveled the fertile crescent and arrived in the Land of Canaan. This, of course, is the region of modern day Israel.
Now, have you wondered why there? Why that bit of real estate?
I’m from North Carolina. I always wondered why God didn’t send Abraham to North Carolina. There are mountains, beaches, mild winters. Heck, we even have Duke University. What more could you want!
But God didn’t call Abraham to go to North Carolina. God called him there. Why?
Consider the geo-political significance of that location. It was between the world’s superpowers at the time. Egypt to the south, and the Middle Eastern Empires to the north. With a blistering desert to the east, the only travel route was along the sea coast up to the fertile crescent. This became known as The Via Maris, or “The Way of the Sea.”
This was THE major trade route of the world at that time. As archaeologist, Yohanan Aharoni said, "The international trunk road... the so-called 'Way of the Sea' (Via Maris), constituted the main economic and strategic backbone of the whole Fertile Crescent." The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography
Of course, wherever there is a wealth of resources there is fighting over those resources. So think of the Via Maris as the Straight of Hormuz for its time.
Now what does this have to do with One Nation Under God? Just turn to the person next to you again and say, “Just wait, he’s getting there…I think.”
The point is, God sent Abraham to form a nation of people to be holy to God in the most politically significant real estate in the world. In other words, God doesn’t call His people to live their faith despite political realities, God calls them to live their faith in political realities!
Once again, turn to your neighbor, stroke your chin and say, “I’ll have to think about that.”
Now, as I said, this meant lots of fighting occurred in this region, and particularly in an area known as the Jezreel Valley, a flat field of about 140 square miles just west of Galilee. Major battles were fought here and the most strategic point was the town of Megiddo overlooking the valley. If your army was fighting there, you wanted to get control of Megiddo. That was essential to the outcome of the battle.
So there developed a belief that the ultimate battle of the world would happen in the Jezreel Valley, so that whoever controlled Megiddo, would control the outcome of human history. And that is what led to the concept of Armageddon, a words that derives from Megiddo.
Christians took this idea of Armegeddon and connected to ideas about the rapture and made it a futuristic, purely spiritual battle between angels and demons and removed it from the fact that Armageddon comes from a very real place, in a very real world, that believes God’s ultimate plan for this world will turn out victorious through the faithful witness of God’s people.
The Old Testament story is about God’s people living out their faithfulness in order to be a light to the world. The prophets constantly reminded the people of this call, like the words of Isaiah who said, “Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.” (33:12)
The interpretation of these words is where the people often struggled. They translated that to mean that their happiness comes from God being on their side, that God came to make them happy.
So the prophets would remind the people, that their greatness is not about making themselves great. They said things like: “Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.” (Isaiah 1:17)
They recalled words from the Torah like: “Do not take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land. Treat them like native-born Israelites, and love them as you love yourself.” (Leviticus 19:33-34)
They said to the people that their greatness doesn’t depend on their strength, “No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength…But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love…” (Psalm 33:16,18)
This was counter-cultural. No other nation was living this way. This, said the prophets, is what God put them there for. They are to be humble and dependent on God, and faithful to live by God’s ways.
Abraham Lincoln was once asked if he thought God was on his side? He responded, “My concern is not whether God is on our side. My greatest concern is whether we are on God’s side, for God is always right.”
This is what the prophets regularly told the people, and yet the people kept trying to get God on their side.
And then we come to the New Testament when God came in person in the form of Jesus to show us what it looks like to live out God’s ways for the world. Jesus started a new movement, but it wasn’t new in purpose. It was the same old mission of being humble and dependent on God and faithful to living God’s ways. The difference was that this movement wasn’t associated with a nation.
This is why it took a hundred years for Christianity to become a separate religion. For the first century after Jesus crucifixion and resurrection, Christianity was identified as a movement within Judaism. But in 132 CE, Israel revolted against Rome for the second time, and Christians retreated from the fight. Jesus had told them they would hear of wars and rumors of wars, and this didn’t feel like their fight. They called to defend a cause not just a country. And so the Israelites said, “Then if you won’t fight with us, you are not one of us.” And that is when Christianity officially became a separate religion.
So now Christians are their own identity but not tied to a national identity. There would be countries that aligned themselves as Christians but it was never easy going. European countries determined they would be Christian, but then they couldn’t peaceably decide if that meant Catholic or Protestant, and some of the deadliest wars in European were waged over that decision.
England became Christian, but they had their divides until finally forming their own state religion as the Protestant Church of England. To be English was to be a member of the Church of England. But then came the Puritans who tried to reform the Church, and like most organizations that get set in their ways, they resist reforming. So the Puritans came to America in search of religious freedom.
When our founders wrote their documents establishing the principles of our freedom, they wanted to be clear that they believed freedom is a God-given right, but they were cautious about claiming Christianity. They already knew the divisions that can happen within the Christian faith. So they spoke of our “Nation’s God.” They spoke very religiously and protected a freedom of religion but without being exclusively Christian.
And so when the words were added to our Pledge of Allegiance, that we are “one nation under God,” it recognizes the tension we hold in believing that the hallmark of the American spirit, freedom, is a God-given right to all people, but without turning that into one specific belief about God. That’s not an easy tension to hold, but we’ve held it for 250 years. And as Christians we are called to live in this tension because we are called to be representatives of the values that look like Jesus.
And so what is the greatest threat to our remaining one nation under God? What threatens that pledge the most? I don’t believe it's communism. I don’t believe it's atheism or even religious pluralism. I believe the greatest threat to being one nation under God is Christian nationalism
Now it shouldn’t be. It should be a good thing that citizens would live a life that looks like the life of Jesus. It’s the enforcement of the idea where things go wrong. It is the lack of room for religious freedom, for welcome to others, for deepening a sense of unity in the midst of diversity, that makes Christian Nationalism a threat to being one nation under God. And perhaps, most of all, Christian Nationalism becomes a disguised effort to get God on the side of a nation, when clearly that is not how God works.
If you listen to most Christian nationalists, you seldom hear them talk about our responsibilities to care for the stranger and alien. You seldom hear them talk about the needs of the poor or those who have been treated unjustly. In other words, you don’t hear much about the true values of Jesus. Instead, you hear are things like Muslims are a “demonic, death cult.” Oh vey!
This is why our Indiana Conference approved a resolution condemning Christian Nationalism when we met at St. Luke’s. This petition was brought by Rev. Chris Thornsberry who is a former staff member of St. Luke’s.
Let me read parts of that resolution.
The Indiana Annual Conference affirms that our allegiance as Christians is first and foremost to Jesus Christ and the reign of God, not to any political party, ideology, or nation, and this Conference rejects Christian Nationalism as a theological distortion that confuses the mission of the Church with the aims of the state, (and so we) encourage clergy and laity to engage in faithful religious freedom that reflects the love, justice, humility, and mercy of Christ…
That petition passed by a resounding majority.
This, to me, sounds like God’s ancient call to Abraham, to “go to a land I will show you…to be God’s blessing to others.” God doesn’t call us to be faithful despite our political realities but to be faithful in our political realities. And when we do well to live a witness that looks like the humility, love, and justice of Jesus, we will represent the best of what it means to be one nation under God.
In Peru, there is a tradition that took place this week in a remote village. The tradition goes back many, many years and generations. The people come to refurbish a rope bridge that spans the Apurimac River. Every household has a part to play. If one member of the village doesn’t contribute their part the bridge weakens. Its strength depends on everyone’s contribution. (q'eswachaka bridge)
Our nation is like that bridge. What keeps our unity strong is everyone doing their part to preserve that unity, and as Christians we do that as we stay humbly dependent on God and faithful to living God’s ways.
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