National Days commemorate change: events that shaped the
nation’s identity. What defining moments do nations select?
Russia Day: declaration of sovereignty (not
independence) of the Russian Federation
from the Soviet Union in 1992. Independence
Day, July 4, l776, Declaration of Independence from Great
Britain by American colonies now the United States.
St. Patrick’s Day, symbolic of conversion of Ireland to Christian faith.
Bastille Day, destruction of the fortress prison in Paris: symbolic of the monarchy’s downfall,
releasing the only seven prisoners within, four of them counterfeiters.
The
archetypal National Day is known to the prophets as The Day of the Lord (or
sometimes, That Day), when all the shonky politicians, unjust judges, greedy
rulers, corrupt enforcers, negligent bosses and violent thugs will meet their
God and become acquainted with a new nation and a new creation. In the second
book of Isaiah comes a vision of the nations streaming up to the mountain of
the Lord, destroying their weapons of destruction, and ‘neither shall they
learn war any more.’
Jesus reads
Isaiah in Nazareth,
his own place, the vision of enlightenment given to the blind, deliverance to
the captives, liberty to the oppressed: the declaration of the acceptable year
of the Lord. There are plenty of unacceptable years. What do nations select to
commemorate? How will the nations stand on the Day of the Lord?
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