There is a well known, well loved song that has become embedded in the hearts and minds and lives of many Americans.  Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land has been taught to children for decades and remains an all-time favorite, sung in homes, schools, and even churches.  It is often brought out on patriotic occasions and used for public celebrations of our nation.  

In This Land is Your Land, Guthrie’s words express his great love for America and an abiding hope for its future.  But his words also call America to look deep and address some profound injustices and inequities that he both saw and had personally experienced.  Most of us aren’t familiar with this part of his intended message because the verses that address Guthrie’s perceived ills of America were dropped out.  I know that when I learned the words to This Land is Your Land, I never learned the following verses:

As I went walking I saw a sign there 

And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.” 

But on the other side it didn’t say nothing, 

That side was made for you and me. 

In the squares of the city, in the shadow of the steeple, 

By the relief office I seen my people; 

As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking 

Is this land made for you and me? 

The words that strike hardest for me are “in the shadow of the steeple.” Guthrie is talking about the church; he’s talking about us. What Guthrie is saying is that in the shadow of the steeple, people are in need.  His implied question and challenge is: what is the church going to do about it.  This Church is Your Church. This Church is My Church.  What are we going to do about all those about us, both in White Bear Lake and way beyond, that are in such desperate need.

On September 11th, we will be celebrating our Parish Homecoming.  The day will be filled with vibrant worship, renewed friendships, great food.  At our Parish Homecoming we will be celebrating God’s Spirit in our midst and reminded of the great love that God has shown us through Christ Jesus. But we will also be challenged to open our eyes and our hearts and our lives to see and embrace and love those on the margins, those in need.  We will be reminded that the Way of Jesus is one of sacrificial and inclusive love for all.  

The church that I want to be a part of is a church that lives a life that looks like that of Jesus, a church made for you and me and a whole host of other folks who look and think and live very differently from you and me. When Jesus paints word pictures of what the Kingdom of God looks like, it’s vibrant and diverse and surprising. My hope is that St. John’s may be a reflection of that robust Kingdom that Jesus describes.

Guthrie’s last verse goes like this:

Nobody living can ever stop me, 

As I go walking that freedom highway; 

Nobody living can ever make me turn back 

This land was made for you and me.

Those are pretty good words for our church to live by.  This Church is Your Church.  Come and be a part of creating Your Church to be a freedom highway for all.

~Father Art

If you want to hear a rendition of This Land Is Your Land with all the verses, here is Bruce Springsteen singing it in 1985: This Land is Your Land