Why I’m Still Proud to be an American

Readings for the Feast of Independence Day

Deuteronomy 10:17-21

Psalm 145:1-9

Hebrews 11:8-16

Matthew 5:43-48

This sermon was preached by the Rev. Daniel London, Ph.D. at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on Sunday July 1, 2018.

 

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be aligned with your love, O God, our strength, our courage and our freedom. Amen.

Today, the Sunday closest to the Fourth of July, we celebrate the founding of our more-than-200-year-old country in the context and container of a more-than-2,000-year-old sacrament: the Holy Eucharist. In the Eucharist, we remember that God created us and blessed us with memory, reason, and skill and we give thanks that God sent his only Son, born of a woman, to open for us the way of freedom and peace. On this Independence Day weekend, we remember and celebrate the core idea and value upon which our country was founded: this idea that all persons are created equal; that all people have been endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Although these words were written by Thomas Jefferson, who was a slave owner and who initially limited these rights to white men, his words have proven to be far more powerful and far-reaching and consequential than even he could have imagined. His core idea of equality and liberty helped us to see the intrinsic and equal value of every human being, an idea that resonates deeply with our Christian values and the fundamental Christian teaching that we are all made in God’s image.

We taught these Christian values to about 25 talented children this last week at our Music and Arts Camp, along with introducing them to a variety of creative techniques and musical instruments, including our Kegg Pipe Organ. One of our main theme songs for the week was called “Creating God” and it was inspired by the words of the Welsh retired Anglican bishop Jeffery Rowthorn, who poetically describes God in the song as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. On the first day of camp, I talked about God as our Creator who gave us all the gift of life and who wants to continue creating through us so that we can enjoy life in all of its abundance and fun. On the second day, we talked about God as our Redeemer, our Liberator, the one who frees us to be who God wants us to be, the one who opens for us the way of freedom and peace, the one who gives us all the gift of liberty. On the third day, we talked about God as our Sustainer, the one who holds us all in his hands of love and invites us to “let go and let God” guide us in our pursuit of happiness. The last lesson I shared with the kids was this idea of God dwelling within us, the Indwelling God. I explained that God is an Artist and, like all good artists, he signs his artwork with his signature to show that he made it and that he is proud of it. I explained that God sees each one of us as his masterpiece and that God’s signature is written on all of our hearts. And there’s nothing we can do to remove it. In the theme song, the Right Rev. Jeffrey Rowthorn writes that God’s arms embrace everyone, especially those who have been oppressed because of creed or race.

By teaching the children about God as the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer who has written his signature on all of our hearts, we were in fact teaching the children about our country’s core idea that all persons are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The Scripture readings appointed for this Feast of Independence Day also underscore this core idea. Psalm 145 verse 9 proclaims that the Lord is loving to everyone. The original Hebrew is brilliant in its brevity: tov Adonai l’col, which literally means “God good to all” not just some, not just his people, but to all. And in case we missed it there, Jesus drives this point home very clearly in the Sermon on the Mount when he says, “God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” God lavishly pours out his grace and love and gifts of life and liberty to everyone. Therefore, as children of God, Jesus says, we are also called to love everyone, not just our neighbors, not just people who look and think and speak and vote like us. We are all called to love everyone, even those whom we perceive as our enemies. We make vows to do this in our baptismal covenant when we say we will respect the dignity of every human being and we will seek and serve Christ in all persons.

Now the ways in which we follow Christ’s teachings and fulfill our baptismal vows and honor the core value upon which our beautiful country was founded may look different for each of us. One important way that we honor the God-given gift of liberty is by enjoying the freedom to disagree; and Episcopalians have been disagreeing with each other ever since we’ve been “Episcopalians.” In fact, our use of the name “Episcopalian” was a consequence of our declaration of independence from England and the subsequent tensions with the Church of England.[1] Disagreement is part of our DNA as Anglicans; and the church is one of the few places left in our country where people from different political backgrounds and persuasions can gather together in friendship and love to worship and engage in honest and respectful conversation.

Part of my job as priest and pastor is not to tell people how to vote but to remind us all of our fundamental Christian and American virtues and values, to remind us of our baptism and our baptismal vows, to preach the Gospel and to teach the Holy Scriptures. So on this Independence Day weekend, I remind us that we are all created equal; and the readings appointed for this feast highlight another core value of our faith and our country: and that is hospitality, especially hospitality to the poor, weak and vulnerable.

The reading from Deuteronomy teaches that God executes justice for the orphan and the widow (the weak and vulnerable), that God loves the stranger by providing food and clothing. Therefore, as God’s people, Deuteronomy says, we also are to love the stranger. Now the word “stranger” is actually not a great translation of the original Hebrew. God is not teaching his people to be naïve and to just let any random person into our home or tribe or family or land. The original Hebrew word that (I believe) is mistranslated as “stranger” is the word “ger.”  A more accurate translation of the Hebrew word “ger” is the English word “immigrant.” The immigrant is someone who wants to join the family and the tribe and who is willing and eager to work very hard to contribute to the good of the commonwealth and the good of the land. The reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us that our great spiritual father Abraham was also a ger, an immigrant, seeking to become part of that “better country.” In Genesis, we see that those who treated Abraham with hospitality were enormously blessed while those who treated him and his family with cruelty were severely punished by God.

Over and over again, the Bible teaches us to practice hospitality to the poor, the vulnerable and the immigrant. In chapter 2 of the Gospel of Matthew (from which we just read), Jesus is an immigrant child, seeking asylum and refuge in Egypt. Later on in that Gospel, Jesus says very clearly (in Matthew 25) that we will be judged not by what we believe but by whether or not we extended hospitality to those in need. He says that those who do not extend hospitality are sentenced to eternal punishment.

The Bible teaches us over and over again to practice hospitality and our founding fathers understood this teaching. They knew that a country that walls itself off and only looks inward ultimately collapses in on itself. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued that self-defeating path. Love is the key to the solutions of the problems of the world.”

I am personally thankful that our country understood and practiced this biblical teaching of hospitality in the 19^th century when my father’s Jewish ancestors arrived at Ellis Island from a shtetl in the Ukraine (much like the shtetl portrayed in the musical Fiddler on the Roof). At Ellis Island, our name was changed from “Lachmann” to “London” and we were privileged to become contributing members and citizens of this great country. During this Fourth of July week, I invite you to reflect on the story of your ancestors who likely arrived here from another country, unless of course you’re Native American. I invite us to give thanks for our country’s historic hospitality and to consider ways that we can continue to put into practice our great American virtues, that make me proud to be an American. I invite us to reflect on our personal and national history as we listen to the words of the 19^th century Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus whose poem “The New Colossus” is written upon a bronze plaque inside the Statue of Liberty, and whose words communicate beautifully the Christian and American values of equality, liberty and hospitality, values that make our country so great.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

 

          “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

            With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

            Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

            The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

            Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

            I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Amen.

[1] Because of English Canon Law, the Church of England could not consecrate any clergy person who did not take the Oath of Allegiance to the English crown. Since the church wanted to continue to have bishops who claimed apostolic succession, they had to go to the Scottish Episcopal Church, which ordained Samuel Seabury on Nov 14, 1784.