The Grand Old Flag

You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow. That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer us! God has spoken in his holiness: “With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Vale of Succoth. (Psalm 60:4-6 ESV). Election Day is tomorrow. If you have not yet voted in early balloting, please vote. Thinking about the many issues that are before us in various states, I also began to think about our history. In 1777, during the American Revolution, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution stating that "the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white" and that "the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." The national flag, which became known as the "Stars and Stripes," was based on the "Grand Union" flag, a banner carried by the Continental Army in 1776 that also consisted of 13 red and white stripes. According to legend, Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross designed the new canton for the Stars and Stripes, which consisted of a circle of 13 stars and a blue background, at the request of General George Washington. With the entrance of new states into the United States after independence, new stripes and stars were added to represent new additions to the Union. In 1818, however, Congress enacted a law stipulating that the 13 original stripes be restored and that only stars be added to represent new states. It has flown over many battlefields since. For those of us in Christian churches there is another flag that we bear allegiance to. The Christian flag is actually one of the oldest unchanged flags in the world. It was conceived at Brighton Chapel, Coney Island, New York, Sunday, September 26, 1897, and was presented in its present form the following Sunday by its originator. The featured speaker failed to arrive for the Sunday School Rally. The Sunday School was holding an old-fashioned Rally Day of the kind, which was so much the custom in years past. For this occasion, a favored speaker had been engaged, but for some reason undisclosed did not show up. Superintendent Charles C. Overton, in the emergency, called upon his own gifts of innovation to fill in the time. An American flag lay there across the pulpit. Overton addressed his words to the flag and its symbolism. Then like a flash came the thought, why not also a Christian flag? His impromptu but constructive ad-libbing was to produce a verbal picture of what is today, and for the past one hundred years has been, the Christian flag. Call it chance, or providence, serendipity, or the plan of God, on that day, the Christian flag was born. The white on the flag represents purity and peace. The blue stands for faithfulness, truth, and sincerity. Red, of course, is the color of sacrifice, in this case calling to mind the blood shed by Christ on Calvary, represented by the cross. It really is a visual image of that rallying point God has raised for us. In Christ we have a place of security that can never be shaken. In Christ we have a place of eternal life. That’s the banner that flies over us! What a flag to fly!