Holding the Torch High
For 107 years, the Statue of Liberty has stood in New York Harbor at the gateway to the New World. She has been a symbol of new hope and new opportunity for the people of the Old World who came to America in search of freedom.
This huge colossus is the world’s largest metal statue. She stands 238 feet high, weighs 225 tons, and is clothed in 32 tons of Norwegian copper. Although she is perhaps the most famous symbol of America, the Statue of Liberty was not born in the USA. She was conceived, designed, and built in Europe.
Her story begins in France, in 1865. In that year, America had just concluded a bitter and bloody civil war. Meanwhile, France had problems of her own. Napoleon III ruled as Emperor of France, and liberty and justice were in scarce supply. A Frenchman named Edouard René Lefebvre de Laboulaye chafed under the autocratic regime of the Emperor. He sought some way to make his feelings known without being hung.
He proposed that France should build a monument celebrating the American freedom that the French had helped to achieve a hundred years before, in the American War of Independence. This monument would be a gift to the American people to reinforce the ideals of equality and liberty shared by Americans and Frenchmen alike.
The idea was approved, and so, over the next few years, a young sculptor named Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, worked to turn the dream into a reality. The giant statue that he produced, at a cost of $250,000, was shipped across the Atlantic and erected on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor. President Grover Cleveland dedicated it on October 28, 1876. The statue was officially christened “Liberty Enlightening the World”, but she became better known as simply the Statue of Liberty.
In the following years, millions of immigrants sailed from Europe to America. For many of them, the Statue of Liberty became their first glimpse of their new home. One of those immigrants was a Jewish woman named Emma Lazarus. Upon seeing the Statue, she penned the words of this poem:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome;
Her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor
That twin cities frame.
“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!”, cries she with silent lips.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
That poem captures the essence of what the Statue of Liberty stands for, or at least stood for. Because today, on the 217th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the very freedoms symbolized by the Statue of Liberty are in jeopardy.
America is a nation that was forged by men and women who, by and large, recognized that they were the creatures of a sovereign God. The high premium that they placed on the value of the individual, the importance of a person’s rights and liberties, and the rule of law, came from the conviction that God had created each one of us. That fact gives us certain rights and freedoms to be sure, but it also gives us certain responsibilities. We, as human beings, are accountable to God for the way we live our lives. And that accountability is delineated in Scripture.
When our Founding Fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution, they wrote a document that was designed to work within that framework; a framework of divine absolutes. They never envisioned a day when America would discard the Word of God and try to make do with the Constitution alone. The very idea would have been inconceivable to them.
But today, in 1993, we seem to have come to that day. Our nation has, by and large, turned away from God. We have abandoned the divine absolutes that are recorded in the Scriptures. In spite of the fact that our coins bear the words “In God We Trust”, most Americans today do not trust in God; they trust in themselves.
They trust in their own wisdom, their own intellect. They pursue their own happiness They try to fulfill their own needs and achieve their own goals with no consideration for God’s standards and God’s righteousness. We live in a nation in which everyone does that which is right in his own eyes.
And because of that, our society is breaking down. Our government doesn’t work well anymore, in case you hadn’t noticed. If the early colonists could see how much we are taxed, and what those taxes are used for, they would be outraged. Our legal system has become oppressive, rewarding the wicked and punishing the good.
Our colleges and universities are failing to educate our young people; filling their minds instead with errant nonsense simply because it is the politically-correct philosophy of the day. American businesses and industries are struggling, because we have increasingly become a people who expect the pay and the perks of the good life without having to work hard to earn them. We have forgotten how to sacrifice.
Our families are breaking up in record numbers. Divorce has become so common that you are no longer surprised when a child and his mother do not share the same last name. Huge numbers of American children are being left to be raised by minimum-wage day-care workers while their parents pursue the almighty dollar. One and a half million American children per year are killed outright before they are even born. They are sacrificed so that their parents can pursue the American Dream.
Our cities are torn asunder by crime and poverty. Our society is riven with the strident demands of minority groups clamoring for special treatment and special rights. Our entertainment industry is saturated with greed, violence, and ungodliness. Our nation is in trouble.
So what does all that have to do with the Statue of Liberty, and with us as Christians? Simply this: just as the Statue of Liberty stands for something, we Christians stand for something, too. And what we stand for will determine whether or not America will ever be great again.
2 Corinthians 2:14-16 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?
In Ancient Rome, when this was written, a conquering general would be given a victory parade when he returned from battle, something like the big ticker tape parade we had in New York City following Desert Storm.
The general would ride at the front of the procession on a white horse. Following him would come his victorious soldiers in full battle dress. Then there would be floats, with samples of the plants and animals of the lands he had conquered. Then there would be the spoils of war - the treasures and equipment that he had captured from the enemy.
Finally, at the very end of the procession, would be the prisoners of war, who were now slaves. Many of them would be taken to the Coliseum and thrown to the lions for the entertainment of the crowd.
All along the route of this triumphal procession would be incense bearers. The smell of incense would waft through the air. To the Roman soldiers, this fragrance would be the sweet smell of victory. But to the prisoners of war, it would be the smell of death.
This is what Paul is alluding to in these verses. We Christians are like the incense bearers in our society. Through us, God spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Lisa Belvin works at Friendly’s Ice Cream. She is a server there; the one who scoops the ice cream out of those big barrels. She told me that by the end of the day, she has been working so closely with that ice cream that she even smells like it. I didn’t know that ice cream had much of an aroma to it, but Lisa tells me that it does. When she comes home, her mother says “You smell like ice cream.”
As Christians, we have on our lives the aroma of Christ. Now to those who are being saved, we are the aroma of life. But to those who reject Jesus Christ, to those who are perishing, Paul says, we are the aroma of death. Spiritually speaking, people can sniff out where you stand, and they will react to you accordingly.
Just last week, the New York gay and lesbian community held a march down Fifth Avenue. When they got to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, they stopped and began cursing and shouting obscenities and screaming abuse at the church. They carried on in the most unbelievable way.
Why did they do that? They did it because the church stands for divine absolutes. The church dares to make pronouncements on what it right and what is wrong. So the church is like the stench of death in these people’s nostrils. They hate it, along with anyone or anything even remotely connected with Christianity.
I heard a story this week about some pastors who, during last summer’s Democratic Convention, knelt in prayer on the sidewalk outside Madison Square Garden. People began shouting at them, spitting on them, and even urinating on them. Why? Because they were the aroma of Christ in that godless setting.
If you are walking with Jesus, do not be surprised if some people lash out at you. Don’t be surprised if your life provokes an almost irrational hatred or scorn from people when they find out you are a Christian. If you have ever seen a Christian appear on a television talk show, like Phil Donahue for instance, you will see him treated this way by the host and the audience. Scorn, abuse, and total disrespect for his views.
This has been going on for thousands of years. In the first century AD, Peter wrote to some Christians who were experiencing the very same things…
1 Peter 4:12-16 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.
I believe that one of the things that must happen, if America is ever to experience a spiritual revival, is that the church will have to suffer. Whenever Christians have been persecuted, that is when they have had the most powerful impact upon their society.
But whenever Christians have been comfortable, and when the church has been wealthy and prosperous and accepted in society, that is when the church has lost its spiritual power.
The Statue of Liberty holds two objects in her hands. One is a torch, the other is a book. The sculptor Bartholdi built the torch first. It was shipped to America where it was first exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876.
We Christians hold two objects in our hands, as well… the torch of the Gospel and the Word of God.
Jesus said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
A Christian who is walking with Jesus has a spiritual torch uplifted. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. The torch we carry is the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, for “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
And just like the Statue of Liberty, we also carry a book. Cradled in her left arm, Lady Liberty holds a tablet on which is inscribed in Roman numerals July 4, 1776. The tablet symbolized the Declaration of Independence - the charter of freedom for the American people.
The book we Christians carry is a much more important book. It is the Word of God, the Bible. It is God’s written revelation to us embodying His truth about who we are, why we are here, and how much He cares about us and loves us.
The Bible is our Declaration of Dependence. Dependence upon God for all that we are and all that we have. It is a book of absolutes. It is full of commands to obey and principles to put into practice. And if we do, we will be building our lives on a sure foundation.
Seven years ago, in the summer of 1986 when we first came to Lynbrook Baptist Church, the Statue of Liberty celebrated her 100th birthday. There was a gala celebration, with fireworks and concerts and special events. But first, the Statue of Liberty underwent a thorough facelift. A scaffold was erected around her, and for two years, the workmen scrubbed a century’s worth of dirt and grime off her.
There is a sense in which we, as the people of God, need spiritual restoration as well. Except that we don’t need it every 100 years - we need it every day! The business of living can be as corrosive to your spiritual life as acid pollution was to that great statue in New York Harbor.
The Statue of Liberty was restored from within a shroud of scaffolding. For two years, she was hidden from public view. Likewise, our spirits need restoring from within the veil of private communion with God. If you are not spending quality time with the Lord in quiet prayer and meditation, then you are running on empty spiritually-speaking.
America is in desperate need of a spiritual revival. But it will not happen until God’s people are revived. It will not happen until we take seriously our responsibility to hold the torch high for our culture, for our society, and for our nation. Until we rededicate our lives to serving the King of Kings. We are, literally, America’s only hope.