Two Inspiring Invitations – Sunday, July 15, 1984
“Come Follow me.” These welcoming words from Jesus brought a better life and a brighter hope to the discouraged and downtrodden of His day, and they have done the same for millions more in the centuries since He spoke that invitation.
There is another invitation from a different time which has also brought hope to those who suffer in poverty, prejudice and bondage. It is the one engraved on the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”1
Like the words of Jesus, these words have also invited people to change their lives and destinies.
Many who followed the Christ believed the rewards would be worth the price and knew there would be a cost associated with their discipleship.
Likewise, those who cast their fate and future with this land of freedom, find that freedom isn’t free. Happiness isn’t handed out, and even the golden door is a door of opportunity that must be pushed open.
The founding fathers pledged their lives, fortunes and honor so we who followed would have an opportunity to pursue happiness. Whether we find it is up to us.
And so, both invitations require something more than just wanting to be free, and happy, and blessed. Desire, faith and hard work is necessary.
Jesus said to His disciples, “Ye are the light of the world.”2 Here again is a similarity to the promise of America. The lamp lifted by that golden door is not a single torch atop a statue. That is only the symbol. The symbol of a combined flame of millions of Americans lifting a light of hope to the world to join with us in pursuing freedom and dignity for all mankind.
Perhaps in the last analysis the two invitations are one. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.”3 No people in history has ever savored such an abundant life as Americans. But more than material prosperity is the love of God and respect for one another which are basic for any successful society. These are the services and sacrifices required of those who would follow Jesus, and they are the same works which win keep the torch of liberty burning brightly in this blessed land.
1 Inscription on the Statue of liberty
2 New Testament, Mattt1ew 5:14
3 New Testament, John 10:10
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July 15, 1984
Broadcast Number 2,865