PROPER 9C 2010

JULY 4, 2010

 

Well,  today is July 4th,  an important date in the life of our country, and I am glad that you are here. This morning I am going to ramble just a little bit. It seems as if the spirit of summer has overcome my usual, hard working nature, and I have been enjoying the heat and feeling pretty lazy. My mind drifted back to my teenage days.. yes, I was once a vibrant, young guy, not embarrassed to take off my shirt. I remember days jumping off the rocks into the cold Yuba River at Parks bar,  and then getting into the hot un-air conditioned car and being hot all over again in a few moments, but then stopping at a fruit stand that had 16 oz. Pepsi’s so cold that they had ice in them;  days swimming in the irrigation ditches,  or swimming in the creeks in the foothills;  and for me there is always something special about driving through a peach orchard at dusk,  smelling that strong scent of peaches. And one night,  being not very smart teenagers, we walked out on a train trestle and crawled underneath the tracks on the piling and sat there while the train passed over our heads just a few feet above us.  That was awesome!  For many summers I was the number one bin dumper at Di Digorgio Fruit Corporation.. dumping bins of pears into the water hour after hour.  But I was making money. Anyway,  I am sharing some of my memories to demonstrate my frame of mind this week. Summer is great!  Fruit, heat, swimming, vacation, fairs, hard work at times,  and even crummy sermons!

 

Since today is fourth of July,  I couldn’t help but think of the concept of freedom. Today is the day that we remember when the colonies declared that they were an independent country, separate from England and no longer its authority. This morning we also read a passage from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. My Bible, in its introduction to Galatians says that Galatians is : “Often called the Magna Carta of Christian liberty…”  With tremendous force and insight, and I would say inspiration, Paul undermines all systems of religious works and sets froth a still radical concept of religions which is inner motivated by God’s spirit and is not centered on outward religious works, but a religion that is grounded in the attitude and desires of the heart. And central to this concept of freedom, is the truth of the inherent dignity of each human being.  Since each human being is created in the image of God,  no human being has more value than another. It means that all should be free to live with equal dignity and freedom.

 

 

The writers of the declaration of Independence wrote this at the beginning of their document.

 

We hold these truths to be self – evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain un alienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 

Now as I read this passage and pondered it this week,  it seemed to me that these writers really did not know or understand history,  or the nature of man. For it seems to me that the truth that all men are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights, is absolutely not self evident.  Down through history,  I don’t think you can find a tribe or culture or nation that did not think, in someway, that they were better than other tribes, or that other people were not as equal as they were. Even in the great cultures of Greece and Rome, slavery and class differences were the norm. And what is so ironic about this statement of our founders,  is that even as they wrote this, not all of them applied this statement to the slaves in the colonies!  Or to the women!!!

 

But lets back up for a moment and ask ourselves,  how did this group of men come to write this amazing and radical truth,  even as they failed to live up to it themselves.

 

As I just said,  It is my contention that this truth is not self evident at all. It is my belief that our natural inclination is to always find others to look down on, to enslave, to make our lesser. Even in the history of our Christian faith, this inclination is so strong that we have owned slaves and legalized discrimination over and over again.

 

And yet, there is this truth,  so powerful,  like a mustard seed,  that it has infused cultures and the hearts and minds of people down through the ages that it has literally changed history, and our nation is a result of this powerful truth.

 

A few weeks ago, in our readings from Galatians, we read this passage:

 

Galatians 3:28 ( NRSV ) 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 

 

I would like to suggest to you this morning that this is one of the most radical truths ever written in the history of humanity. This statement is the seed  from which our declaration of independence grew. Nothing equals this. It is so radical, that even after 2000 years of hearing it,  it is hard to live out.. simply because it goes against our natural human inclination, or flesh, as Paul calls it. One need only look at the history of our country to see both how hard it is to live out this truth,  but also to see how powerful it is when it is lived out!  Years ago, in California,  our Spanish brothers and sisters came and found people living here. To most of them, they were uncivilized and pagan and therefore could be treated as inferior. This occurred in Mexico, Central America and South America and in other parts of our country.  Peoples were enslaved,  killed and impoverished. And as I have mentioned,  even the framers of our country owned slaves,  and even after the Civil War,  parts of our country legalized discrimination, while the rest often had hidden discrimination.

 

Down through our history,  as immigrants from different countries arrived, group after group was looked upon with suspicion and treated as  people not really qualified  to living in this country.  When the Irish began immigrating in large numbers,  they were of course looked down upon. Why, first they were Roman Catholics,  they were lazy,  and they liked to sing and drink!  And of course,  women are not capable of making rational decisions, so they cannot vote,  or hold positions of power in commerce or government.

 

But,  while there is this natural inclination to see ourselves as better than others, so that we can keep them in their place, there is also this truth of the gospel that rises up and judges us.. and, when it is lived out,  it changes the world. The Apostle Paul often uses an image of the flesh fighting against the spirit in each of our lives.  In a real sense, we all know what this battle is. Any Christian knows what it feels like when a Christian truth,  like forgiveness, or mercy, or patience, or love,  rises up and challenges our natural disposition. We are madder than H-E-L-L at someone, and then in church we pray to forgive others as we have been forgiven.  It is not easy,  but when we live it out, we experience and understand the power of forgiveness.

 

In like manner, civilizations and countries have entered into this same struggle down through the history of our faith. In the very beginning, the truth that all are created equal, that all are created in God’s image,  was not believed at all, by anyone,  and yet, it began to be believed by a small group of people who called themselves Christians. They might not have been able to live it out to its fullest expression, but as they tried,  in Galatia, Colossae, Philippi, Rome, Corinth and other towns and villages,  the mustard seed began growing, and people and places and ultimately nations were changed. Women and men, slaves and free,  rich and poor, began eating together and worshipping together and called each other brothers and sisters.  This was radical social change!

 

The concept of the inherent dignity and freedom of each human being,  no matter where the come from or who they are, which finds it origin in the teachings of Jesus and then expounded upon by the early Christians, is the truth which our founders wanted to build this country upon.

 

But we need to understand that a truth like this,  which is so radical,  means that this truth,  live other Christian truths, always rises up and challenges us,  and at times judges us. As I said a few weeks ago,  it is very easy to criticize and judge Christians,  simply because we are always failing to live up to our ideals. But the important truth that has become clearer to me is that  we have these ideals in the first place!  Without them,  we can’t be judged. If we believe that not all people are created equal, than we can’t be judged for enslaving them or putting them down. We are simply living out our beliefs. But if we say that all men are created equal, and are entitled to the same opportunities as we are for happiness and freedom, and THEN we enslave them, or values rise up and judge us.

 

This is both the beauty and the struggle in living out the Christian faith. There is a phrase in 1 Peter which I am not too sure I understand,  but it seems to apply here:

 


1 Peter 4:17 ( NRSV ) 17For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God…

 

I may be taking this out of context a little, but it seems clearer to me that we Christians always need to be humble and broken and aware that since we  profess high ideals we  often fail to live them out. We, of all people, need to be judged. But it is not a judgment to condemnation, but a judgment to strive to live a more faithful life.

 

Thus,  I think I can say, in our country,  the truth of the equality of all people has forced us to more and more live it out. Of course we had the great Civil War,  which cost us greatly. Women have had to struggle for equal rights. In our time we have had the  Civil Rights struggle and on and on we continue to strive to accept and embrace those who are different that ourselves.

 

So in closing, I want to first suggest that we need to cherish and be thankful for this both fragile and powerful truth that our founders, however weakly, embraced. Many years ago I was sitting in the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and people of all races and cultures were walking by,  and I thought,  what a great country. We might fail in many ways,  but to have so many different cultures and races still living the way we do, to me is incredible. I would not go so far as to say that we are a “Christian” nation, but the truth is,  who we are has been shaped and founded upon this one powerful Christian truth.

 

Finally, all of us have our natural prejudices against other people. Our challenge as Christian people is to face these prejudices,  let them be judged, and struggle against them. If our forbears had not fought against some of theirs,  we would be a totally different nation to day. We would have clear class differences, we would have slavery, and women would be second class citizens, and probably worse.

 

We live in a great country. May God give us the grace to continue to live up to our best ideals.  AMEN!