A man in a jail pleading with the jailer said, “Please, have mercy! I have a wife and 3 kids!”

 

The jailer replied to him, “I am sorry Mr. Brown, but you have served the sentence and you must go home now!”

 

  Jesus said this about our showing mercy in today's lesson:

 

Luke 4:36 “Be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”

 

   Today's Gospel is part of a long section of St. Luke's in which Jesus is talking to his disciples.

 

   In this section he tells them to love their enemies and to pray for them.

 

   He tells them “as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise”.

 

  This “golden rule” and many other of Christ's teachings were commonly found in school books in our public schools here in the United States, from their beginnings in this country, until the Supreme Court began finding a “separation of church and state” in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

 

   The First Amendment of course prohibited the establishment of an official church, (like in England where the Church of England still holds that position today), but had never before this,been thought to prohibit local public schools from teaching Christian beliefs or restricting prayer there.

 

   In fact the founding fathers of the U.S. in quote after quote plainly meant for this new nation to be Christian.

 

  Some of them plainly stated that this constitutional government would really only be able to work properly as long as it was a Christian nation.

 

   In 1962 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that daily prayer in public schools was a violation of the First Amendment. The results of that decision have been many.

 

   Crime, teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and our divorce rates have all risen dramatically since that time. Student test scores, by the way,  have also decreased.

 

 

  Of course there are other factors involved, but overall these unpleasant changes have as their root cause the country's moving away from Christian morality. Those teachings that our public schools had been instructing our children in before that ruling.

 

   We cannot however simply blame the Supreme Court or our elected government officials for the sad condition we find our country in today.

 

  Christians have not spoken out for Christ's teachings, or prayed for God's guidance for our leaders in all three branches of our government as we know that we should.

 

  If we are to improve our country's condition we need to realize that we cannot change things without God's help.

 

  We need to pray for his guidance in choosing our leaders, and pray for our nation daily.

 

  Without God's assistance our nation will sadly continue to decline, and so as we celebrate our nation's birth in the coming week, we need to rededicate ourselves to praying for Our Heavenly Father's help for our country.

 

Let us pray,

 

 

ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favour and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honourable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.