Life Lessons from the National Parks

January 5, 2011

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? Romans 6:16

I’m back from a hiatus over the Christmas/New Year holidays. It’s been good for the most part, except for that two feet of snow…

So let me jump in with a topic that’s not a very comfortable one for many people: slavery. President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in Making a New Nation is the latest addition to Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park, home to a slew of sites relating to our nation’s early history. The open-air, stylized reproduction of the house (the original was demolished in 1832) stands near the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.

The President’s House tells the story of the executive branch of our government, because it’s where our first two commanders-in-chief—George Washington and John Adams—served their terms of office. But the most controversial part of the exhibit is about slavery. Washington, who had 300 slaves at his Virginia plantation, brought nine slaves with him to Philadelphia (Adams never owned any). Video re-enactments in the house give a sense of what it may have been like to live enslaved in Washington’s household, as the characters speak from the perspective of the slaves.

The project was more than eight years in the making, and evoked much public debate and even street demonstrations, undoubtedly because it intertwines the story of the revered “Father of Our Country” with the uneasy topic of slavery. As the National Park Service website puts it, “The President’s House…was a mirror of the young republic, reflecting both the ideals and contradictions of the new nation. The house stood in the shadow of Independence Hall, where the words ‘All men are created equal’ and ‘We the People’ were adopted, but they did not apply to all who lived in the new United States of America.”

The President’s House is believed to be the first federal memorial of enslaved Africans. Isn’t that interesting? A long time coming, I’d say.

A quick search on Google will show you there’s also a lot of controversy over slavery in the Bible. It would take waaay too long for me to delve into that subject here. I’ll just point to Ephesians 6:5-9 as a very simple summary, an acknowledgement that slavery existed, along with the exhortation for both masters and slaves to do what is right because their ultimate Master “is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.” It’s reiterated in Galatians 3:28. If you want to dig deeper, I suggest you talk with a trusted pastor, because a lot of the stuff I found on the Internet comes from iffy sources.

But those verses lead me to the spiritual point I want to make: everybody serves something or someone. Uh huh, I can just hear a few of you out there disagreeing: “Not me; I’m my own person.” But really, isn’t that what it all boils down to, serving yourself? And serving yourself means serving your own appetites and desires—pleasure, experiences, money, power, fame…the list goes on and on.

Serving yourself also excludes serving God. “No one can serve two masters,” Jesus rightly asserted in Matthew 6:24, “for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other.” Nope, there’s just no room for the real Number One when we’re only looking out for number one.

The apostle Paul hammers away at this message over and over again in the New Testament book of Romans, starting off with a bang in the first chapter, with his searing indictment of the human race: “Professing to be wise, they became fools…they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (1:22, 25). The result? Degradation, greed, envy, strife, deceit, malice, gossip and arrogance, among other things (1:26-31). If you don’t recognize at least some of these traits in yourself, then I suggest you ask a close friend—he or she will probably be more than happy to point them out in you! Sadly, I can identify with nearly all of them.

And whoever commits any sin—that is, all we say, do or think that is contrary to God—becomes its slave (John 8:34).

Eventually, these consequences catch up with us, both here and now and for eternity. Shame is one result (Romans 6:21); death is another (Romans 1:32; 6:21, 23). That’s a spiritual deadening in this life and separation forever from God in the next. “Do not love the word, nor the things in the world,” the apostle John writes in 1 John 2:15-17. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life [that about covers it all, doesn’t it?], is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts…”

Oh, but there’s good news! I can’t leave out the last part of 1 John 2:17: “but the one who does the will of God abides forever.” We don’t have to be slaves to sin! Jesus freed us from the power it has over us (John 8:36, Romans 6:22). We can turn from that path and go from being sin’s slave to His (Romans 6:22, 1 Peter 2:16, 1 John 1:9). As one African American pastor summed it up, “Slavery is acceptable [only] if your master is God.”

Master, slave, sin, lust…these are uncomfortable words. Just like the new Philadelphia exhibit, they provoke debate and even public demonstration.

I’ve only skimmed the surface of this enormous subject.  But here’s the bottom line question.

Whose slave are you?

Comments (3) Jan 06 2011

December 14, 2009

Endure hardship like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 2:3

Weather historians agree that the winter of 1779-80 was the worst of the 18th century in New Jersey. And that was very unfortunate for the Continental Army encamped around Morristown.

The location was a good one. It was ideally situated a two days’ march from the British base in New York City, and the nearby Watchung Mountains and Great Swamp provided natural defenses. Roads connecting New England and the revolutionary capital at Philadelphia were easily guarded. The water supply was ample, and trees for fuel and construction abundant. Local homes could be used as quarters for generals and staff officers.

Anticipating a long stay in the area, General Washington ordered log huts built to house the enlisted men. Eight infantry brigades—over 10,000 soldiers—felled more than 600 acres of oak, walnut and chestnut to build 1,000-1,200 crude shelters. The bitter weather, however, impeded the work. For almost all of December, the army slept under tents or with no covering at all. Many of them were not under roofs until February.

In addition to not having proper shelter, the soldiers suffered from a lack of food and clothing during that cold, snowy winter. As a private bitterly noted, “The monster hunger still attended us. Here was the army starved and naked and there their country sitting still and expecting the army to do notable things.”

The story of those long-ago soldiers and their extraordinary fortitude is told at Morristown National Historical Park. And perhaps it’s fitting that it’s our country’s first national historical park, because as the park handbook notes:

The encampment of the Continental Army at Morristown, New Jersey, sums up much of the Revolutionary War. [It] was a war more of waiting than of battles and fighting. For the patriots, perhaps this was just as well, because they tended to lose the battles. But waiting imposed its own trials on patience and the ability of the infant United States and its weak economy to sustain an army in the field. In a contest of patience and endurance, Great Britain might have retained her American empire simply by persisting longer in the struggle than the often-impatient patriots. Morristown tested the emotional and physical resources on which depended the Continental Army and ultimately the American cause.

Where would we as a country be if those brave men—who did indeed go on to do “notable things”—had not stayed true to the cause? In the midst of terrible conditions, they waited out the greatest nation in the world. They endured, even though they undoubtedly wondered if the struggle was really worth it. We know now that it was.

Perhaps in this season of life, two hundred and thirty years later, you find yourself in the midst of your own icy spiritual, physical or emotional chill, undergoing deprivation and hardship, not at all certain how it’s going to turn out. Take a lesson from these long-ago soldiers—but more importantly, look to the Baby whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.  Nearly two thousand years ago, Jesus did what George Washington could never do—He offered Himself as the sacrifice for all our sin, sorrow and sickness (Isaiah 53:4, 5). And He left behind His Holy Spirit to give us strength for each battle we fight along the way (John 14:16-18, 26, 27).

And the ending? We know that, too! It promises to be brighter than any Independence Day fireworks display and more beautiful than a pristine winter snowfall—with no more death or mourning or crying or pain to mar the picture any longer (Revelation 21 and 22).

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter
Long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him,
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak midwinter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty
Jesus Christ.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a Wise Man,
I would do my part,–
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.

–Christina Rossetti

Comments (2) Dec 15 2009