04/26/2026
Before We Were the Land’s
Sermon, April 26, 2026
The earth is the LORD's and the fulness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein.
So wrote King David three thousand years ago.
The land was ours before we were the land’s.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people.
So wrote Robert Frost more recently.
Biblical history and American history both began with the promise of land. This American land of course has shaped us all, but the book we arrived with has shaped us as well. Indeed, that book, the Bible, shaped us to be ready for this land before we knew it was there. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote:
“I think I can see the whole destiny of America contained in the first Puritan who landed on those shores . . . “
With Bibles in their hands the first Puritans arrived, well aware of our psalm for the day:
The earth is the LORD's and the fulness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein;
well aware of our reading from Isaiah today:
Behold, you shall call nations that you know not,
and nations that knew you not shall run to you,
because of the LORD your God,
and of the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
They came here to found a city on a hill, to be an example to all the world, a leader among all nations, not through strength of arms but through moral example.
We are made Americans by a having a land in common and a story in common. The essence of that story is living in covenant; living in covenant with God and with one another in mutual respect and responsibility; living in covenant with this great land; because we were God’s before we were the land’s.
Nations Isaiah knew not and nations we knew not indeed have come to America for protection and for leadership;
for protection because we are wealthy and powerful;
for leadership because we are trustworthy and reliable;
people who abide by covenant;
people who put people and ideas together for something new and creative.
Walt Whitman wrote:
Here is not merely a nation but a teeming nation of nations.
The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetical nature.
The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.
In America people torn apart by history get put back together. That is the story of America. We have torn ourselves apart and put ourselves back together a startling number of times. And we will do it again.
Isaiah said millennia ago:
as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and return not thither but water the earth . . .
so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
you shall call nations that you know not,
and nations that knew you not shall run to you
People who knew God not and people who never heard of America have come to us and made us great; not just here but throughout the world; not just in our own estimation but in the eyes of the world.
There is yet more light and truth to break forth from God’s holy word
on this continent,
on the west coast of this great continent,
in the state of California,
in the county of Saint Matthew.
May God give us the strength and courage and forbearance to be that light and that truth, at home and throughout the world.
