“The day
after Christmas would normally have been a quiet day in Washington D.C., above
all on Capitol Hill. But December 26,
1941 (71 years ago) was different. It
was only nineteen days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and both the
Senate chamber and the overflow gallery were packed to hear British Prime
Minister Winston Churchill address a joint session of Congress.
With the
Capitol ringed by police and soldiers, the lectern bristling with microphones,
and the glare of unusually bright lights in the chamber for the film cameras,
Churchill started his thirty minute address with a light touch “If my father had been an American,” he said,
“and my mother British, instead of the other way around, I might have gotten
here on my own. In that case this would
not have been the first time you would have heard my voice.”
Churchill
then rose to his central theme. Britain
was standing alone, but reeling. Most of
Europe lay prostrate under the Nazi heel.
Hitler was well on his way to Moscow.
Half of the American Navy was at the bottom of the Hawaiian harbor, and
there was little or no air force to rise to the nation’s defense. He therefore delivered a stern denunciation
of the Japanese and the German menace, and warned about “the many
disappointments and unpleasant surprises that await us” in countering them.
At the heart
of the prime minister’s address was a famous question to his listeners in light
of the Japanese aggression: “What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible that they do not realize that
we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a
lesson which they and the world will never forget?”
All crises
are judgments of history that call into question an existing state of
affairs. They sift and sort the
character and condition of a nation and its capacity to respond. The deeper the crisis, the more serious the
sifting and the deeper the questions it raises.
At the very least, a crisis raises the question “What should we do?” Without that, it would not amount to a
crisis.
Deeper crises
raise the deeper question “Where are we, and how did we get here?” Still deeper crises raise the question
Churchill raised, “Who do other people think we are?”—though clearly Churchill
saw the ignorance in the Japanese mind, rather than in his hearers’. But the deepest crises of all are those that
raise the question, “Who do we think we are?” when doubt and uncertainty have
entered our own thinking.
This last
question poses a challenge and requires a courage that goes to the very heart
of the identity and character of those in crisis, whether individuals or a
nation. Only in a response that clearly
says and shows who they are can they demonstrate an answer that resolves the
crisis constructively and answers history’s judgment by turning potential
danger into an opportunity for growth and advance.
History is
asking that question of America now: What kind of people do you Americans think
you are?” We are now nearly eight
decades after the Great Depression, seven decades after Pearl Harbor and World
War II, four decades after the tumultuous and influential sixties, two decades
after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the bipolar world, one decade after
September 11 and in the midst of two of the most revealing and fateful
presidencies in American history.
The
sifting of America has come to a head, and the question, “Who are you?” or “What
kind of people do you think you are?” or “What kind of society do want America
to be” is now the central question Americans must answer.
Another time
of testing has come. Another day of
reckoning is here. This is a testing and
a reckoning—let me say it carefully—that could prove even more decisive than
earlier trials such as the Civil War, the Depression and the cultural cataclysm
that was the 1960s. As citizens of the
world’s lead society and leaders of Western Civilization you Americans owe
yourselves and the world a clear answer at this momentous juncture of your
history and international leadership—a moment at which an unclear answer or no
answer at all are both a clear answer and a telling symptom of the judgment of
history.”
Os Guiness, A FREE PEOPLE’S SUICIDE
BRITAIN’S
PRIME MINISTER WINSTON CHURCHILL asked, “What kind of people do they think we
are?”
OS GUINESS
asks “What kind of people do we think we are?”
JESUS asked, “Whom
do you say I am?”
Matthew
16: 13 When Jesus came into the coasts of
Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the
Son of man am?
14 And they said, Some
say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one
of the prophets.
15 He saith unto them,
But whom say ye that I am?
16 And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered
and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18 And I say also unto
thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it.
19 And I will give unto
thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven.
Ultimately
it is our answer to our LORD’S question that determines our identity, our
personality, and our destiny.
WHO DO YOU
SAY I AM?…DETERMINES OUR IDENTITY for it is our faith in Him that delivers us
from the kingdom of darkness into the glorious liberty of the children of
God. Praying for the Christians at
Colossae the Apostle Paul rejoices:
Colossians
1: 12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to
be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who hath delivered us
from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son:
14 In whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
15 Who is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16 For by him were all
things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:
all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all
things, and by him all things consist.
18 And he is the head of
the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that
in all things he might have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the
Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
20 And, having made
peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21 And you, that were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he
reconciled
22 In the body of his
flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in
his sight:
WHO DO YOU
SAY I AM? -- DETERMINES YOUR PERSONALITY – the very expression of your
character, your-self. Christ will have nothing to do with
half-hearted, half-measures. He demands
all of you. Our response to His demand
determines our behavior, our traits, our persona.
When asked
why my mother in law is so careful about living the Christian life one lady
explained, “Oh, she’s a Christian through and through!”
WHO DO YOU
SAY I AM? –DETERMINES OUR DESTINY! There
will be no Christ-haters in the City of God.
There will be no Christ-deniers in the City of God. There will be no almost-persuaded in the City
of God. There will be no half-hearted
Christians in the City of God. There
will be none without splinters in their hands—for Jesus invites, if any man
will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me!
