God bless America, land that I love

Stand beside her and guide her

Through the night with the light from above

From the mountains to the prairies

To the oceans white with foam,

God bless America my home sweet home.

 

I am certain that I have heard that song and sang that song more in the last 5 years than in the previous 45 years of my life.  Yet, every time I sing it, I remember the first Friday night after the September 11^th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  Fort Bend County had gathered together at Mercer Stadium in Sugar Land, Texas.  Kirbyjon Caldwell had been invited to bring the message.  Of course, we sang “God Bless America”.  Then Kirbyjon Caldwell, pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in America, looked at the sea of faces and said, “The question tonight is not, ‘Will God bless America?’ God has already done that.  The question tonight is, ‘Will America bless God?’” 

Today is Thanksgiving Sunday, a day when typically “we gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing,” but I want to challenge you this Thanksgiving rather than requesting the blessing from God, offer to God your blessing – anything else would be madness.

King Nebuchadnezzar, the emperor of Babylon, had a little experience with self-aggrandizing madness.  His story is told in the fourth chapter of Daniel.  I would like to tell you this story rather than read it to you.  Let me read the first three verses.  Hear now the word of the Lord:

“King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages that live throughout the earth:  May you have abundant prosperity!  The signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me I am pleased to recount. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his sovereignty is from generation to generation.”

The Word of God for the people of God.  Thanks be to God.  In this passage the King of Babylon recognized that there is only one God and that he was not that one.  Let us pray.

The story that is found on these pages is an intriguing story of one who finally got it.  Its implications are fairly clear, this Thanksgiving choose gladness over madness.

This is a great story and it begins as all great stories do… “Once upon a time.”  Once upon a time there was a great King who was living as comfortably as one could imagine.  Everything he wanted, he had.  He was truly the King of the world.  But one night while lying snug on his bed, he had a dream in his head that terrified him.  He called all of his psychologists (back then they were called magicians) to interpret his dream.  They either could not or would not do so, because it was too hard for them, so he called the most famous interpreter of dreams to the palace – Daniel from Jerusalem.

The dream was this:  There was a huge tree in the center of the earth that grew all the way up to heaven and stretched out all over the earth, thought then to be flat.  This tree had remarkable foliage and fruit and enough food to feed every earthly creature.  Wild animals found shelter under the tree, birds built nests in it, everyone ate from it.  It was without a doubt the most wonderful tree ever.

Then a lumberjack from heaven who had been watching the tree all along came down to earth and shouted “Chop it down, lop off its branches, strip its leaves and scatter its fruit.  Chase the animals away, shoo the birds from their nests, leave the stump and the roots, but take away its senses.  All this do so that everyone will know that God is the only real King and God places whom He will in prominence and power.”

Well, it doesn’t take a clinical psychologist to unravel this dream, but Daniel grew awfully quiet.  Finally, the King assured him that it would be alright to tell him the dream.

Daniel said, “The tree that you saw as high as the heavens and as wide as the whole earth.  That tree with the beautiful foliage, fruit, and food, where animals sought shelter and birds built nests – that tree is you.”  Daniel went on to tell the King that he would be cut down, removed from power, and for a time would go completely mad, insane, until he learned that God was God and he was not.  Daniel encouraged the King to honor God by doing what is right and showing mercy to the oppressed within his Kingdom.  You see, the question was not, “Would God bless Nebuchadnezzar?” God had already done that.  The question was, “Would Nebuchadnezzar bless God?” 

The King thanked Daniel for his interpretation and prescription, and somehow must have felt better, because he did not change a thing.  It reminds me of what my colleague once said when I was serving as a chaplain in a psychiatric setting, “Most people don’t want to get better; they just want to feel better.  Getting better would require change.”

About a year later, the King went out for a stroll on the roof of his palace.  Babylon was a beautiful city and the empire was truly at its peak.  The King could not help but congratulate himself on all his accomplishments.  “Wow!  Look at all this!  It’s beautiful.  It’s magnificent.  Built by me and for me.”  While the words were still on his lips, madness set in.  A voice from heaven said, “Until you have learned who you are and who God is, your Kingdom will be run by someone else and you will behave like an ox grazing in the pasture.”  It must have taken him a while to learn his lesson, because the Bible says his hair grew as long as eagle’s feathers and his nails grew to look like bird claws.

Finally he got it and verse 34 announces, “I lifted my eyes to heaven and my reason returned to me.  I blessed the Most High and praised and honored the one who lives forever.”  The King went on to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and that no one can stop God’s hand or ask, “What are you doing?”  The King continued to bless the God of heaven, praising him and declaring that God is true, just and able to humble those who walk in pride.  The King was indeed in his right mind.  He chose Thanksgiving gladness over madness.

What a strange story to recall on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  Interesting, but strange.  Today is usually a day for a story about faithful pilgrims and friendly North Americans sitting down to a feast.  Why this story on this day?  Well, quite frankly I think we might be able to identify more with a mad King than early Americans.  The King lived in luxury and ease, so do most of us.  The King took great pride in his accomplishments, so do most of us.  The King took credit for divine acts of providence.  Do we?  This Thanksgiving choose gladness over madness.

 I.  Madness takes credit for what was not done and receives glory that is not due.

            The scriptures are clear that God used Babylon and its King to correct the corrupt people of God.  Nebuchadnezzar was not self-made.  But he had felt so good for so long and had so much that he had fooled himself into believing that he was almighty.  That is madness - madness that threatens us all.  Did you notice when it set in for him?  He was on the roof of the palace surveying his architectural masterpiece.  “I’ve done alright for myself,” he sighed. 

            Be careful in taking credit and receiving glory when it is not really due you.  That’s just crazy.  It’s madness.  This week I heard a story that created a mental image that I hope to hold on to for a long time.  It was the story behind the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine several years ago that caused a corrupt government to fall.  In what everyone knew to be a mock election the incumbent president, Viktor Yanukovych, actually had an opponent run against him.  During the campaign, the challenger, Viktor Yushchenko, had been poisoned, but survived and pressed on.  He seemed to be the popular choice, but that night on the government run television station, the incumbent was declared the winner by a landslide.  In the bottom right corner, Natalia Dmytruk, the sign-language interpreter at Ukraine's state TV channel, conveyed the election results.  She then bared her wrist exposing an orange ribbon, the color of Yushchenko’s party.  She signed, “Everything you have heard so far on the news was a total lie.  Yushchenko is our true president. Goodbye, you will probably never see me here again.”  Deaf viewers saw this and text messaged their hearing friends.  That night 100,000 people protested in the town square and over the next few days as the crowd grew to 500,000 and eventually the real winner was President of the Ukraine.

            We are surrounded by messages that life is what we make it, but the truth is God has provided us with opportunities.  The question is not, “will God bless us?”  God already has, the question is, “Will we bless God?”  This Thanksgiving choose gladness over madness.  For while madness takes credit and receives glory that are not due.

 II. Gladness thanks God for who God is and what God has done.

            I love that line in verse 34, “I lifted my eyes to heaven and my reason returned to me.”  When the King got a good view of who God is, he understood who he was.  If all you read are the first three verses and the last two verses of this chapter, you have a picture of a very happy King giving thanks to God who had given so much to him.

            Thursday night, Mort and Kathy Kothmann and I went to downtown Houston to hear Philip Yancey speak on prayer.  It was a great night full of stories and lessons on the difference prayer makes.  One of the stories Yancey told was about climbing Mt. Wilson in Colorado.  Just as he and his wife got to the top, a thunderstorm rolled in.  They were at an elevation over 14,000 feet, far beyond the timberline, which made them walking lightning rods.  He said the metal climbing rods in his hands and the ice ax on his back were tingling from all the electricity in the air.  They were scared and reviewed their lessons on what to do if caught above the timberline in a lightning storm.  They couldn’t just lie down.  Rocks conduct electricity.  They should separate so if one of them got struck by lightening, the other one could talk to the reporters.  They were to keep their feet together, crouch down and walk down the mountain.  Philip Yancey said as they started down that mountain he received a marvelous insight into his life - He was not in control.  He went on to say that neither he nor we are any more in control of our lives here and now, than he and his wife, Janet, were on top of that mountain.

            Isn’t that good news?  I mean once you get past the scary part of lightning strikes and plane crashes, let it sink in – you are not in control of your life.

            So relax this Thanksgiving.  Don’t succumb to the delusional madness that you are self-made.  Look to the heavens and your reason will return to you.  This Thanksgiving choose gladness over madness.

            The question is not, “Will God bless you and your family this thanksgiving?”  The question is, “Will you bless God?” Amen.