"This is my song" ...

This is my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
And skies are ev'rywhere as blue as mine.
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.
- Words: Lloyd Stone (1934)

This was the presentation hymn at All Saints today: a moving tribute to patriotism that transcends tribalism.

I was celebrating at the 9:00 service ... which is the one where the kids come up around the altar for the consecration. So while we were singing the presentation hymn I was looking at 30-some little people all looking up at me. And it occurred to me in that moment they were all born after 9/11 ... or were so tiny in 2001 that they don't remember what the world was like before the Twin Towers fell and the Pentagon was attacked and the passengers of Flight 93 crashed their plane into the fields of Pennsylvania -- giving their lives to save others.

They don't remember what the world was like before 9/11. But they know what the world is supposed to be like. They know that whoever they are there's a place for them -- because they don't ever remember not being welcome at the altar. They know that they're part of turning the human race into the human family -- because that's the message they hear week after week at All Saints Church. And they know that they are fearfully and wonderfully made – and so is absolutely everybody else.

And so this hymn -- this Song of Peace -- didn't tell them anything they didn't already know. That the God who created them in love created every other child in their human family in the same love. That the God who inspires their prayers inspires children of all other faiths in their prayers. That the song of peace is for their land and for ours.

September 11, 2002 – the first anniversary of 9/11 – was the first time I celebrated at the All Saints altar. There is a lot of liturgical water under the bridge since that day … and I’d be hard pressed to count all the many, many moments of grace and power they represent. And yet I've never been more aware of what a privilege it is to preside at that altar ... to bless that bread and wine … to present the gifts of God for the people of God … to be part of making God’s love tangible … than I was today. With those thirty-some eyes looking up at me while we sang:

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
And skies are ev'rywhere as blue as mine.
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.