Jerusalem in a Green and Pleasant Land

 

Constable, "The Hay Wain"

Spiritual Sunday

Julia and I, visiting Alexandria, Virginia last week, had a chance to attend a very interesting church service at Christ Episcopal Church.    As it was July 3 and as this was a church attended by George Washington, patriotism and spirituality intermingled.  Since these two form an uneasy alliance—patriotism can take the form of idolatry, forbidden by the second commandment—I take the occasion to reflect upon their relationship here.

First I’ll describe the service.  It began with a reading of the Declaration of Independence.  Later, from a pulpit that must be 10 or 12 feet above the congregation, we heard a sermon (powerfully delivered but not all that deep) by the White House chaplain.  Among the hymns we sang were the “National Hymn” (“God of our Fathers”), “America the Beautiful,” and “My Country, ’Tis of Thee.”  The lessons were read from George Washington’s personal Bible (complete with food stains), which the church owns and which is brings out for this special occasion.

I appreciated a note appearing in the service bulletin about “the National Hymn” because it showed that the church was attuned to the dangers of the idolatry of nationalism  Here’s what it said:

While many debate the appropriateness of patriotic music sung in worship, this hymn has long been accepted without issue—largely because, though the hymn is American in origin, it is a hymn of praise and prayer for peace which does not refer to any specific nation; it can be sung by any freedom-loving people.  The text was written for the centennial of the Declaration of Independence in 1876.  It was used again in 1892 to mark the centennial of the adoption of the United States Constitution.

I got to thinking about whether there is religious poetry that can speak to a love of country without hijacking God in the process. There are very good reasons for America’s separation of church and state: when God gets employed by one political faction against another, God is diminished to a human scale and fanaticism is unleashed.  This happens anyway, of course, but we don’t have to have it as national policy.

A poem that came to mind is one of the most misunderstood in the language, one that has been used for both religious and patriotic purposes.  Some consider it England’s unofficial national anthem.  I’m thinking, of course, of William Blake’s Jerusalem.

Who would have thought that a poem written in support of England’s working class would be put to music (by Sir Hubert Parry) and used to spur on the troops in World War I?  Here’s the poem:

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.

The answers to the questions in the first stanza may be “yes.”  Those in the second are definitely “no.”  God is having a hard time making His/Her presence felt amongst the air pollution and human misery that marks the industrial revolution.  What is needed is a new resolve to build heaven on earth.  Ezekiel’s chariot of fire, a symbol of the interpenetration of the spiritual and material worlds, must be called upon.

As I say, one must be careful in negotiating the intersection of religion and politics.  In a number of poems in “Songs of Innocence and Experience,” Blake is blistering in his attack on organized religion and how it supports the forces of oppression. When he speaks of desire, however, he is also well aware of how egotistical human ambition can pervert even noble causes.  In “The Grey Monk,” for instance, he warns that the revolutionary can perpetuate tyranny:

The hand of vengeance found the Bed
To which the Purple Tyrant fled
The iron hand crushed the Tyrant’s head
And became a Tyrant in his stead.

What is needed is a revolution that comes from a spiritually clean space—a space that is gestured towards, but perhaps not adequately explained, by “bow of burning gold” and “arrows of desire.”  Blake’s “mental fight” is particularly important.  He must examine his own motivations in the process.

Religion can be a positive force in politics when we use it to examine our souls and act with humility.  I understand the America founders as praying for guidance when they speak of their “firm reliance on divine Providence” in the Declaration of Independence.  I hear Abraham Lincoln, throughout his presidency, praying to God to help him step beyond the darkness that he sees as all too present within the human condition.  By contrast, if George W. Bush really believed that he was on a mission from God when he ordered the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, then what I hear is someone valuing certainty above all and arrogantly and smugly trying to bend God to his agenda.  I don’t hear any mental fighting.

Let us devote our efforts to building Jerusalem in our green and pleasant land.  And while we do so, let us pray to God, or invoke Lincoln’s “better angels of our nature,” to help us stay focused on the general good and not be seduced by self.

Added Note

The Episcopal/Anglican Church was so desirous of keeping “Jerusalem” as a hymn, despite its call for spears, arrows, and swords, that it changed the words while keeping Parry’s music.  Of course, it’s not the poem if the words are different, but you’ll hear the echoes. Blake was not a fan of the Anglican Church, but I think he might approve of the sentiments here.  The “little child” is probably a gesture towards  “Songs of Innocence and Experience”:

O day of peace that dimly shines
Through all our hopes and prayers and dreams,
Guide us to justice, truth, and love,
Delivered from our selfish schemes,
May swords of hate fall from our hands,
Our hearts from envy find release,
Till by God’s grace our warring world
Shall see Christ’s promised reign of peace.

Then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb,
Nor shall the fierce devour the small;
As beasts and cattle calmly graze,
A little child shall lead them all.
Then enemies shall learn to love,
All creatures find their true accord;
The hope of peace shall be fulfilled,
For all the earth shall know the Lord.

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