O Beautiful for Spacious Skies (Evangelical Lutheran Worship 888)
1 O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,
for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain:
America! America! God shed his grace on thee,
and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.
2 O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife,
who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life:
America! America! May God thy gold refine,
till all success be nobleness, and ev’ry gain divine.
3 O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years
thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears:
America! America! God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law.
Text: Katherine L. Bates; Music: Samuel A. Ward; Public Domain
Devotion
I love a hymn with good poetry, like yesterday’s by Christina Rosetti and today’s from the ELW’s no. 888 in the “National Songs” section. I really appreciate vs. 2 and 3, and the owning of flaws to mend and impure gold to refine. I’d prefer a broader request for the shedding of grace on ALL the Americas and am a little bothered by loving certain things “more than self” (even for “mercy’s sake”), but sacrificing for the greater good and finding meaning and purpose in service can represent the shining human spirit. Loving one’s country or company, capabilities, or capital more than Christ? You are setting yourself up for disappointment (cf. Paul Tillich’s “transitory or preliminary versus Ultimate” concerns in “Dynamics of Faith”) and potential disaster (early theocracies from Constantine’s to today). Better to allow Christ to shine through who we are as ones created in the divine’s image than to attempt to craft or claim some human-made idol as god.
Prayer
Ground of Being, Ultimate Concern and caring Creator of all, shed your grace on all lands and peoples, Americas and Asias, Antarctica, Australia, Africa, mending flaws, refining gold, revealing your deepest image shining back through to your glory. Amen.