As we celebrate the 4 th of July in the splendor of our green summer I think of the great American hymn, “America the Beautiful.” It’s been around for over 100 years, first written as a poem by Katherine Lee Bates in 1893 and then into music by Samuel A. Ward a few years later. Behind it was a trip up Pike’s Peak which Ms. Bates made by horse after the recently-completed railway broke down.

When I remember our Olson family trip up that railway and the view from the top of Pike’s Peak—all the way to Kansas!—the power of the hymn takes on deeper meaning. Our view certainly was from “purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain”. Driving across the Great Plains in the fall one can see the “amber waves of grain”. But as the hymn moves on it takes on deeper themes of heroes “who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life.”

Yes, the hymn sings to the powerful (and mixed) themes of our history. But it also calls us to something more—a higher morality, a higher calling. And within that calling is humility: “God mend thine every flaw; “May God thy gold refine, Till all success be nobleness, And every gain divine.”

Like a good sermon or God’s work on us, it catches us where we are but doesn’t leave us there. It moves us to a deeper place, to greater virtue. Simple idolatry says, “America: Love it or leave it.” This hymn doesn’t say that. It is a prayer asking God to bring out the best in us, all the potential that lies within our country.

In our current days of unrest and distress we need the challenge but also the comfort of this hymn. About this hymn composer Robert Kapilow said this a few years ago:

“there are four phrases, each of four measures. There are only two rhythms in the piece, and every single phrase is identical. People want a sense of comfort, to have the universe be predictable. That’s what “America the Beautiful” is all about. Though the world may be unpredictable, this song is immensely predictable, because it keeps traveling the same journey over and over again.

(Minnesota Public Radio, 4 November 2008)

May your celebration today be bright. May our country’s future be blessed. May our humble calling to “nobleness” be successful.

– Rolf Olson, Visitation Pastor

Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea.

Oh, beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev’ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law.

Oh, beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved, And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness, And ev’ry gain divine.

Oh, beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam, Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea.