23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.
We can learn from history - Biblical history can show us who we are and who God is, manifested in His actions toward His people. A study of American history, regarding the role of the Lord in the sustenance of our nation, can be instructive and inspiring as well. In the name of political correctness and the mistaken notion of separation of church and state, people have attempted to erase the presence of God from the journey of our nation. But, He has been there, and will continue to be there - and it would be my hope that our collective lives, as well as our individual lives - would be in step with His principles.
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It is always helpful to learn from the past - remembering God's blessings and evidence of His hand, as well as to learn from missteps that we have made. Think about these words from Deuteronomy 6:
10 "So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build,
11 houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant--when you have eaten and are full--
12 then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
Quick - whose picture is on the $10 bill? No, the person wasn't even a President, he was the first Secretary of the Treasury - Alexander Hamilton.
And, his life is depicted in...a Broadway musical, which is easily the hottest ticket on the Great White Way. That's right - it's American history meets hip-hop, and Christianity Today reports that there's a healthy dose of Biblical references in this presentation.
Alissa Wilkinson wrote the article; she's on the faculty of The King's College in New York City. She writes:
One of the main storylines in the musical, as well as the real-life story, is the tension between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. Burr's character serves as the narrator, and he owns a third of the Biblical references. In real life, Aaron Burr was the grandson of noted preacher Jonathan Edwards.
Some of the references the Wilkinson points out include the notion of Providence in installing Alexander Hamilton in his lofty position. There are references to the "Promised Land," describing a sort of longing for freedom.
In a song called, "Wait for It," Burr, according to the writer:
Susan Lim, a professor at Biola, in that other story, highlights the fact that Lin-Manuel Miranda, the composer of Hamilton, based the musical on a biography by Ron Chernow. She writes that:
For one thing, we can be challenged to dig deep into American history - and the spiritual underpinnings of our great nation. The story of America, I believe, is a story of Providence, of divine intervention, of a people that pursued God's blessings and His freedom. The foundation for our system of government, the Constitution, was made, as John Adams said, for a moral and religious people - I think that if we fail to recognize that, we will see a government that is no longer effective and that will show signs of chaos.
We're seeing that today - just as the dissenting justices predicted in Obergefell, there are the ominous signs that those who refuse to accept, because of deeply held religious beliefs, the concept of same-sex marriage will find themselves under the threat of penalty. I am deeply concerned about attempts to force ministers to officiate at gay weddings or the negative repercussions for Christian organizations who do not support this newly-created extra-constitutional relationship called gay marriage. That decision was a dramatic departure that had no foundation in law or morality, and continues to create chaos.
I think that the story of Alexander Hamilton also speaks to the limitations of politics. When we consider the acrimonious nature of our American political discourse, deplorable as it may be, you can see the effect of power and greed on fallible human beings. And, the time of Hamilton was not some glorious age, either - after all, he died in a duel with rival Aaron Burr - you won't see something like that in Cleveland this summer in a contested Republican convention. We need to continue to be in prayer for the selection process and for those leaders who have been selected, that they will fill the purpose for which God placed them there. So, stay involved - in prayer and in the process of keeping our leaders accountable.
10 "So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build,
11 houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant--when you have eaten and are full--
12 then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
Quick - whose picture is on the $10 bill? No, the person wasn't even a President, he was the first Secretary of the Treasury - Alexander Hamilton.
And, his life is depicted in...a Broadway musical, which is easily the hottest ticket on the Great White Way. That's right - it's American history meets hip-hop, and Christianity Today reports that there's a healthy dose of Biblical references in this presentation.
Alissa Wilkinson wrote the article; she's on the faculty of The King's College in New York City. She writes:
This display of biblical literacy is good for the show: it enriches both its sense of history—the Founders, whatever their individual beliefs, were conversant in the Bible—and in several cases builds out the story’s themes and characters in ways that make them even more complex and fascinating.
So I investigated, and here are the results: 18 times Hamilton directly references the Bible or Christian theological concepts, with short explanations, for any fan of the soundtrack or the show. I’ve ordered them by the order in which the tracks appear on the album. (And I hope I didn’t miss any.)Isn't that refreshing - political leaders who were conversant in the Bible, not just using the Bible as a prop for a platform.
One of the main storylines in the musical, as well as the real-life story, is the tension between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. Burr's character serves as the narrator, and he owns a third of the Biblical references. In real life, Aaron Burr was the grandson of noted preacher Jonathan Edwards.
Some of the references the Wilkinson points out include the notion of Providence in installing Alexander Hamilton in his lofty position. There are references to the "Promised Land," describing a sort of longing for freedom.
In a song called, "Wait for It," Burr, according to the writer:
...particularizes the force that takes things away from him over and over (“everyone who loves me has died,” he sings) as Death and Love and Life and, of course, Hamilton. This construction pops up again in his last big number, “The World Was Wide Enough,” when Burr tells us about his fatal duel with Hamilton, who in one sense stole his future from him even in death: “Death doesn’t discriminate / Between the sinners and the saints / it takes and it takes and it takes / History obliterates / In every picture it paints / It paints me and all my mistakes.”There are themes of loss, of temptation, pride, and...death, referred to as "the other side." Wilkinson says:
The phrase “the other side” recurs throughout the show: Hamilton tells Burr in “The Story of Tonight” reprise that he’ll see him “on the other side of the war,” and tells Lafayette in “Yorktown” that he’ll “see you on the other side.” But he invokes the term most obviously, and with different implications, in the moments after he’s been shot and the world slows to bullet speed while his life flashes before his eyes. In this moment, he starts to see those who have passed away already—his friend John Laurens, his mother, his son Philip, George Washington. They’re on “the other side,” which is to say in heaven, and that’s where he’s headed, too, to finally take a break and wait for Eliza.There's a reference to the "sign of the cross." Referencing another Christianity Today article, the story states that Hamilton was religious as a young man, less so for a long while, but then returned to his faith after the tragic death of his son Philip. The “sign of the cross” he refers to is employed by some Christian denominations, in which the forehead, chest, and shoulders are touched, often accompanied by the statement “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
Susan Lim, a professor at Biola, in that other story, highlights the fact that Lin-Manuel Miranda, the composer of Hamilton, based the musical on a biography by Ron Chernow. She writes that:
In the hundreds of pages that inspired the musical, a reverberant theme resounds throughout: that God loved this destitute orphan and opened doors for him. His rise parallels the story of a shepherd boy who became king. And like King David, General Alexander Hamilton had his own adulterous affair, political coup, and preventable tragedies. Yet God’s tender heart and longsuffering kindness were woven throughout Hamilton’s 49 years on this earth.Referring to Hamilton:
As a child of the Enlightenment and relentless pursuer of the truth, Hamilton despised religious fanaticism and searched for “logical proofs.” With the legal mind and intellectual tenacity he applied to the US Constitution and Federalist papers, Hamilton surveyed the Scriptures and religious evidence. “I have studied [Christianity] and I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man,” he concluded.It is very interesting to me how a musical that is based on American history has captured the imagination of theater-goers. I haven't seen it, and cannot endorse it, but there are certainly some principles about which we can think.
For one thing, we can be challenged to dig deep into American history - and the spiritual underpinnings of our great nation. The story of America, I believe, is a story of Providence, of divine intervention, of a people that pursued God's blessings and His freedom. The foundation for our system of government, the Constitution, was made, as John Adams said, for a moral and religious people - I think that if we fail to recognize that, we will see a government that is no longer effective and that will show signs of chaos.
We're seeing that today - just as the dissenting justices predicted in Obergefell, there are the ominous signs that those who refuse to accept, because of deeply held religious beliefs, the concept of same-sex marriage will find themselves under the threat of penalty. I am deeply concerned about attempts to force ministers to officiate at gay weddings or the negative repercussions for Christian organizations who do not support this newly-created extra-constitutional relationship called gay marriage. That decision was a dramatic departure that had no foundation in law or morality, and continues to create chaos.
I think that the story of Alexander Hamilton also speaks to the limitations of politics. When we consider the acrimonious nature of our American political discourse, deplorable as it may be, you can see the effect of power and greed on fallible human beings. And, the time of Hamilton was not some glorious age, either - after all, he died in a duel with rival Aaron Burr - you won't see something like that in Cleveland this summer in a contested Republican convention. We need to continue to be in prayer for the selection process and for those leaders who have been selected, that they will fill the purpose for which God placed them there. So, stay involved - in prayer and in the process of keeping our leaders accountable.
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