Ever since I started as a deacon in Valdosta back in August 2021, I have been wanting the three Episcopal Churches in the city to find a way to come together and do some activities together for the benefit of the larger community. Part of what I've been waiting on is the arrival of a rector at Christ Episcopal Church, the largest of the three congregations. That happened...finally...this spring. And the Rev. Hal Weidman made a way for us to start combining our efforts by inviting St. Barnabas, Christ the King, and St. James Quitman to participate in a joint service in celebration of Independence Day.
Hal asked me if I had people at St. Barnabas who would want to participate. I quitely inquired at my church to see if I could get at least one person from our congregation to serve on a federal holiday. Then another heard about it and offered that she would be happy to do something. So we had a psalmist...and an intercessor.
"What would you like for me to do?" I inquired of Hal. The rector was leaving the field wide open, so I said, "Well, why don't I preach."
"OK, good."
That was all determined mid-June. Then, last week, the U.S. Supreme Court wrapped up its most current session, releasing a series of opinions that were hard for me to stomach.
- Race can no longer be used in university admissions because students should demonstrate their merit. Never mind the racial disparities that have been compounded since the days the country reneged on the "Forty acres and a mule" promise made to blacks freed from slavery! Legacy admissions...those ones where having had family members attend the school...wasn't touched. Having parents educated at certain colleges must be merit enough for some kids.
- President Biden's student loan forgiveness program was found unconstitutional. Now thousands of college graduates are again saddled with paying back loans to lenders such as Sallie Mae, which (from experience) jacks up the interest rates midway through your payments.
- And the most egregious case: a web page designer named Lorie Smith in Colorado didn't want to have to design web pages for same-sex couples getting married. The 6-3 ruling from the Court said she doesn't have to and dealt a blow to all states and municipalities that have adopted anti-discritmination laws applied to businesses doing business with the public. What makes this case so bad (besides the obvious discrimination): Ms. Smith filed this case seven years ago when her "business" was a mere dream that she had. Then she and her lawyers claimed in court filings that she was approached by a couple...Stewart and Mike...who wanted her to design their same-sex wedding site. Trouble is "Stewart" is a straight cisgender man, happily married and living in California where he has a web site designing business. He doesn't know who "Mike" is and he didn't even know he was named in her complaint until reporters started calling him for comment on the case!! So the whole thing was built on a lie to allow Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Federalist Society-approved justice from Colorado, to write an opinion taking a swing at hard-earned civil rights for the LGBTQ community.
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I realize that it feels like it’s about 100 degrees outside…and that this is the 4th of July.
But as I was sitting down to write this sermon… I found myself thinking about a scene from the Christmas holiday classic…that Claymation story…Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer.
It’s the scene after Hermie the Elf decides to runaway from Christmas town…and Rudolf has just been revealed to be different…and can’t play with the other reindeers.
Hermie pops up from the snowbank…much to Rudolf’s surprise.
Hermie declares, “I don’t need anyone. I’m independent!”
Rudolf…feeling the power of that word…declares that he’s also “independent.”
And Hermie offers: Whaddya say we both be independent together?
And a couple of misfits head off to start a new life away from bullies and the tyranny of conformity.
Call it Christmas in July…but that’s what came into my head.
We’ve named this day Independence Day.
A time to celebrate our liberty and freedom from what was the oppressive rule of King George the Third.
In our national celebrations…this is the day of hamburgers, hot dogs, apple pie and fireworks that blow up real good.
In our culture…as articulated by Hermie and Rudolf…independence is a virtue.
It’s that whole idea that we’re able to make it on our own…
Be our own person…
stand on our own two feet…
rugged individualism…
and as the old Burger King slogan says…we can have things our way.
Interestingly…the Scripture lessons appointed for this day point to a different idea.
It seems that liberty and freedom are found in our INTERdependence.
A sense that we are to look to God as the supreme source…the centerpoint… from which everything else flows.
And then live with each other…helping each other…loving each other.
The reading from Deuteronomy makes no bones about reminding us that…like our biblical ancestors…we live in a land of great riches…a land where we…too…were once strangers.
The land belongs to God; we’re just the stewards…the caretakers of it.
It’s a land where God shows no partiality…takes no bribes… executes justice for the orphaned and widowed…and feeds and clothes the stranger.
And God commands us to Love those who aren’t our kinfolk.
In the Gospel…Jesus reinforces this same message…taking it one step further:
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Really?
Yes…he says. Really.
Because the sun rises and the rains fall on both those who we like…and those who we wish would go away…leave us alone…quit getting in our faces.
I think these words from Deuteronomy and Matthew’s Gospel…are prescient readings to have on a national holiday where we’re celebrating our United States…at a time that feels tense and fraught.
Anger seems to be in the air everywhere.
Too many people think the way to solve a disagreement is to pick up a gun.
We’ve seen in local communities here in Georgia… Macon and Warner Robins specifically…neo-Nazis protesting outside a Temple during their Shabbat evening service…and a spate of anti-Semitic threats.
There are those manufacturing culture wars…provoking fear of anyone who might be considered “other.”
Our E Pluribus Unum…isn’t feeling particularly “unum.”
Our sense of our interdependence…our need to see and love one another… seems more frayed than ever.
I was listening to an interview with Presiding Bishop Michael Curry from back in November 2020.
Bishop Curry noted that the phrase E Pluribus Unum…From Many One…comes to us from the philosopher Cicero.
The idea of it being that when each person makes a commitment to care about the other as much as they care about themselves…that’s when true unity happens.
Hmmm. Sounds like “love your neighbor and your enemy”…what Jesus said.
And Jesus sounds like Deuteronomy.
The vision articulated by the Founders of this country…imperfect men as they were… was the noble and desired mission of creating a country where all men are endowed with the inalienable rights of the Creator to enjoy life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
Did I mention that these were imperfect men who penned these words?
Because of course we know that while they expressed an ideal that is wonderful and worthy…how it manifested has not always been as wonderfully realized.
Men…meant white northern European men.
Black men…indigenous men…and women of any sort…weren’t part of the equation.
Some may still think they aren’t part of that grand vision.
But we should remember that God is a God of resurrection.
And that God will use and take every misstep…every promise left waiting…and will provide a way.
Just as Abraham and Sarah and their descendants died in faith without having received all that was promised…God did create from them nations as many as the stars of heaven.
They saw the promises of God in the distance…and kept going…moving forward in a Godward direction.
We…too… must keep working toward what is in the preamble of our U.S. Constitution: that effort to create a more “perfect” union.
And we might want to be mindful of what “perfect” means.
The perfection Jesus commands of us…his followers…is not about being flawless.
It’s about loving God with all our heart, mind, and strength so that we can remain centered in love even when…and especially when… we’re living in tumultuous times.
We must stick to love…and not turn away from each other in some sort of self-centered act of protection.
Because true love is about being willing to risk being hurt.
It’s about trusting in God enough that we seek to serve and care for each other.
It’s about listening to each other’s stories…even the difficult and painful ones…because this is how we help to bind up the brokenhearted and build a community of love and justice for all.
More than 100 years ago…Florida natives James Weldon Johnson and his brother John Rosamond Johnson gifted us with the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
The final stanza works as a prayer for this Independence Day:
God of our weary years
God of our silent tears
Thou hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou hast by thy might
Led us into the light;
Keep us forever in the path we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee;
Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world we forget thee;
Shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand
True to our God, true to our native land.
In the name of God…F/S/HS.
