I recall the passage from Acts 3:25 in which Peter, speaking to an assembly of Israelites, recalls the covenant that God made with Abraham:
You are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, “And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ (NRSV
“Families” in this context means “nations.” Therefore, Peter is reminding his hearers and us that God promises to bless not only Israel or America but ALL nations of the earth.
Some would say that some nations of this world do not “deserve” God’s blessings, and I couldn’t disagree more. These nations that we deem to not “deserve” God’s blessings need God’s blessings as much or more than we do in order to help them become the people God would have them (and us) to be. That is the wonderful story of grace – getting what we DON’T deserve. Plus, if we say that WE, as citizens of the United States, DO deserve God’s blessings, aren’t we being a bit prideful? Aren’t we tooting our own horns? Aren’t we being like the Pharisees who felt that WHAT we do determines whether or not we receive God’s blessings?
How powerful it would be for our nation to stand together and sing a song to the world that has the line GOD BLESS THE WORLD! Let us all join together to sing and pray for God’s blessings on all the nations of the earth. If need be, maybe we can strive to be channels of God’s grace, taking God’s blessings to the world!
(Originally posted at http://theology-of-t-roy.blogspot.com/2005/07/god-bless-america.html on July 2, 2005)
