Jeremiah 14:20 — We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.

We had a prayer meeting in our church last night. I can’t decide if it was well or poorly attended. I’ll explain what I mean by that later. But the Holy Spirit certainly showed up.
We used the Lord’s Prayer as a model, and when we got to “Forgive us our debts” one issue that was brought to our attention was that of the sins of the nation.
This is a dreadful and solemn thought. It is fearful enough to know that we will be judged for our own sins. We must know, also, that our nation is under judgment.
I know there are those who will disagree, but what baser national ingratitude can there be for a people to reject their God? How terrible it is to drive His word from public life, and step by step to expunge its influence from public and private morality and the law of the land.
It might be, though, that even the moral ills such as abortion and same-sex marriage are not the greatest of our “national” sins.
This great nation was founded to provide for the free exercise of religion, and has been so greatly blessed that it should be a shining light, a beacon to the world. Alexis de Tocqueville said of America, in the 1830’s, “The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other”.
If you accept my premises then, like me, you may see a shift from a focus on faith-based responsibility to a focus on an ever expanding catalog of rights as a great national sin.
If you accept my premises then, like me, you may see a conscious step away from exceptionalism — away from a leadership position in the world — as a great national sin.
These great sins are not new. For more than fifty years now the armies of secularism have marched across the land. Truly the wickedness is ours and the iniquity is our fathers!
Yet is it fair to ascribe the faults to the secular armies of the world. Are the national sins not, truly, the sins of the church?
I find I have become less fond of some scriptures than I should be, because they are often used as blunt instruments to beat believers with. One such is 2 Chronicles 7:14:

if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

At the root of the sins of the nation, are there sins that we, the church, need to repent of? Have we been indifferent, or lacking in courage, or too busy with the things of the world? There were 3-400 people at the prayer meeting last night. Not a bad number. Or is it. If we have 3000 attending services every week, is that number in the prayer meeting a pointer to that indifference, or lack of courage, or business?
Where do the sins of the nation start?