Just a little over a week ago, we celebrated America’s 234^th birthday, and what a birthday party it was. 234^th birthday sounds like we’re getting old, but as we compare it with many other nations in our world, we’re still just a “baby”, or a small child, as far as age goes. As we thought about our Country and its birthday, and all the celebrations that went with it, it IS a great country, and I’m mighty glad to have been born in America, and have received the many, many blessings that have come to me over these 77 years of my life.

But, almost every day, I hear on TV, radio, in conversations with people, or read in newspapers and books “How Bad, how WICKED, how EVIL America is, how many WRONGS we have committed and are committing today. They are quick to tell us “What’s wrong with America”. Yes, we have our faults, but don’t you think it’s time we stopped thinking about all the “wrongs” – high prices, increasing crime, crooked politicians, and how people on one side of the “aisle” allegedly hate those on the other side. There’s also the bad economy, the recession, unemployment and an increasing indebtedness facing us? And, there’s the matter of bank failures, Social Security and our health care system? But there are a great many good things happening, that are, all-too-often, not represented in our mainstream media, and are, too often, forgotten.

Yes, we have our “wrongs”, as a nation, but let’s take a break from all that and look at the good side. Again, I’d like to pose the question that never seems to be of much interest to so many: “WHAT’S RIGHT WITH AMERICA?”

Let’s start with our economy. Times are definitely tough right now for a lot of people; many have lost their jobs, their homes, their insurance and their retirement benefits. But, you know what? We’ve made it through depressions and recessions before, wars, oil spills and major terrorist attacks, and we’re still standing. In fact, we’re not only still standing, we’re towering over the rest of the world with an economy that is almost as big as the next four largest economies on earth combined.

“WHAT’S RIGHT WITH AMERICA?”  Even with our many faults in education,  the truth is, our universities are always ranked among the best in the world. Students, from all over the world, are flocking to America, to get enrolled for studies, and there aren’t all that many going somewhere else to study. We open our colleges and universities to more than 80,000 foreign professors, scholars and educators each year, and we have more students in colleges, right now, than those four countries combined. You don’t have to come from an elite, wealthy family like the Rockefeller-types to get in. They don’t care about your race, gender or nationality. You just have to be smart enough, and work hard for it. What a concept, huh?

“WHAT’S RIGHT WITH AMERICA?”  How about the way we treat those less-fortunate – the poor, the hungry, the homeless? As a nation, we’ve always reached out to help – in this country and around the world – in time of need. Americans donate billions of dollars to charities, missions each year. So do the churches of every denomination (I’m very proud of what the United Methodist Church and Northside UMC does to help, each year). And, it’s not just the wealthy who are generous. Two-thirds of American families, making under $100,000. dollars a year, (and that’s most of us) give to help others. Compassion is ingrained in our culture like no other.  As Americans, we love our country. A recent poll said that 77% of Americans are very proud of their nationality. I could go on, but my point is that we need to see things with a little more perspective.

As we think back to our 234^th birthday and our blessings, I’d like to ask you to put aside the negatives, and give consideration to “WHAT’S RIGHT WITH AMERICA”, and think about the core principles and ideals upon which our nation was founded, and, for which brave men and women were willing to risk their lives. Americans embraced a view of the world in which a person’s position was not determined by birth, rank, or title, but by talent, ability, character and benevolence. These views asserted a universal truth about human rights in words that inspired downtrodden people through the ages and throughout the world to rise up against their oppressors. Our Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

So, despite what may be wrong, let’s remember for at least a day, and hopefully, many days yet to come, that America still leads the world in the same principles our country was founded upon and which matter most – law, justice, freedom of religion, of speech, equal rights, freedom from an oppressive government are still our heritage and our goals for America. Yes, there are “wrongs” that we have to deal with, but let’s just Thank God that we are Americans and that there’s much “that is RIGHT with America”. Yes, we have been, truly, BLESSED. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Let’s pick up where we left off in our last newsletter. Again, I’m quoting from an article in The United Methodist Reporter, the official newsletter of The Memphis Annual Conference, written by Dr. Donald Haynes. I think its something that ALL United Methodists need to read, and THINK ABOUT, very carefully.

“Soren Kierkegaard was a brilliant philosopher in Denmark, and he was a popular preacher. One of his sermons began with this story:

“Once upon a time, there was a village called Ducktown. The entire population was made up of barnyard ducks. They built little duck houses and slept in feather beds of duck down, and gobbled up duck food and quacked in duck talk. On Sundays the females put on little hats and sashes, the males put on little neckties and the duck families waddled down to Duck Church, quacking all the way.

One week, they called a new duck preacher, and were very excited to hear his first sermon. He told them that God had endowed all ducks with three great gifts – webbed feet for swimming, beaks for gobbling food and wings for flying.

However, they had lost the talent to use their wings. If they looked into the sky, the duck preacher said, they could see flocks of wild ducks flying in perfect “V” formations. But they were content to eat, quack and waddle around Ducktown, and they couldn’t even swim very well, much less fly.

The duck preacher said, “I am here to tell you that you CAN fly. Your wings can still lift your bodies into the air and you can soar like the wild ducks. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to leave the church this morning and take a short flight over the village?”  He was so persuasive that, suddenly, there was a loud “Quaaaack” from the back of the duck church, and one of the young adult ducks was in the air, circling over the congregation. Some of the other ducks were so excited that they joined in the fun, and soon you could hardly see, for all the flying feathers. Their lives would be changed forever. They would no longer be confined to the ground; now they could claim their God-given endowment as “masters of the sky.”

Then it happened. One loud duck waddled down to the front and quacked out a protest. “ Stop this nonsense! We are domesticated, not wild ducks. We are civilized ducks. We have houses with beds, yards with gates, a village with streets and a church with walls. Flying is what our ancestors did, but we DON’T fly anymore.”

One by one, the ducks flew back down to their perches, feeling a bit foolish for what they had done and holding up their heads with quiet dignity. The chastising duck preacher pronounced the benediction and they all waddled home, NEVER to fly again.”

There is a lot of truth in that story. We are, constantly, tempted to ignore the nudging of the Holy Spirit to “press on the upward way.” We are tempted to live beneath our potential, , to “sell out” to the present age or what St. Paul called his “lower self.” We live out our days muddling and waddling, but, folks, WE CAN STILL FLY” YES, WE CAN!

Have a lot of United Methodist (and, other denominations, too!) assumed that we, no longer, have to do the things that God is calling His Church and individual members to DO? Have many of our present-day leaders, Boards, Agencies and staff been like the decision-makers on the Titanic, ignoring all the icebergs? Have we really thought  United Methodism was immune to the great decline that some of our other “Mainline” denominations are going through, presently? Does not our own denomination – United Methodism – see some corollary in our own loss of membership over the past forty years, and see the loss of influence in the public square? Have we become satisfied to waddle rather than FLY? Are ALL of us more willing to sit back and let others do what needs to be done, in God’s Name? If we are more willing to “let others do it” (The “Green Sheets” are available for you to find places of services in our church, serving where God is “calling” you to serve Him). Pick one up, check it over, find your “place” and PRAY that God will guide you into His Service, IN and THROUGH the Church). We must have the desire to drastically RE-THINK, to DRAMATICALLY be Good Stewards of what we have, and be willing TO SERVE God and His Church, even more.

Dr. Haynes concludes his article with these words: “If you have read this column (and others in each Conference Newsletter) you will know that, No, God is NOT finished with United Methodism! We may be humbled, but not humiliated, chastised, but not crippled.”  (I, wholeheartedly agree. We’ve got a great church. Let’s ALL step out, and follow God’s Will, and DO His work, and WE WILL SEE UNITED METHODISM, ALL ACROSS THIS NATION, REGAIN ITS PASSION – “TO SHARE GOD’S LOVE, AND MAKE DISCIPLES FOR CHRIST, FOR THE SALVATION OF THE WHOLE WORLD.”   May God continue to TOUCH YOUR HEART each and every day!  JUST THINKING!