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July 3, 2016
Matthew 28:16-20
Now the eleven disciples
went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but
some doubted. And Jesus came and
said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, and teaching them to
obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always,
to the end of the age.”
Micah 4:1-7
In
the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house
will be the
highest of all—
the most
important place on earth.
It
will be raised above the other hills,
and people from
all over the world will stream there to worship.
2 People from many
nations will come and say,
“Come,
let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of
Jacob’s God.
There
God will teach us his ways,
and we will walk
in his paths.”
For
the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion;
his word will go
out from Jerusalem.
3 The Lord will
mediate between peoples
and will settle
disputes between strong nations far away.
They
will hammer their swords into plowshares
and their spears
into pruning hooks.
Nation
will no longer fight against nation,
nor train for
war anymore.
4 Everyone will
live in peace and prosperity,
enjoying their
own grapevines and fig trees,
for there will
be nothing to fear.
The
Lord of Heaven’s Armies
has made this
promise!
5 Though the
nations around us follow their idols,
we will follow
the Lord our God forever and ever.
6 “In that coming
day,” says the Lord,
“I
will gather together those who are lame,
those who have
been exiles,
and those whom I
have filled with grief.
7 Those who are
weak will survive as a remnant;
those who were
exiles will become a strong nation.
Then
I, the Lord, will rule from Jerusalem
as their king
forever.”
Sermon: “God
and Country”
“Four score and seven years ago…”
No, that’s not right: twelve score and no years ago, our fathers [and mothers] brought forth on this continent, a new nation,
conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men [and women]
are created equal.
Lincoln’s fateful Gettysburg Address, words you
perhaps had to memorize once upon a time, spoken to a nation in civil war, was
an effort to help Americans step back, look at the big picture, and see who we
are, and who we were created to be as a nation.
It was a painful time. A bloody
time, which is why these words were first shared at the dedication of the
Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg.
Our nation longed for those words of Micah to become
a reality:
The Lord will
mediate between peoples
and will settle disputes between strong nations far away [or within
a divided nation]
They will hammer
their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will no
longer fight against nation [or neighbor against neighbor],
nor train for war anymore.
Everyone will
live in peace and prosperity,
enjoying their own grapevines and fig trees,
for there will be nothing to fear.
Ever
since our nation was born, 240 years ago, (still a young adult among the
nations of the world), we have tried to figure out what it means to serve God
and country. Which comes first? Do they go together? Do they not?
Some
folks will tell you that we were founded as a unified Christian nation, where
our founding fathers established a “city on a hill,” a nation set apart to
serve God explicitly through our governance.
Other
folks will tell you that we were founded as a nation of religious liberty,
where those fleeing religious persecution strictly established our land as one
of religious diversity, through separation of church and state.
Here’s
the fun part: they’re both a little bit right, and they’re both a little bit
wrong.
History
tells us an interesting story about the beginnings of our dear country. I’ll give you a hint: it ain’t too pretty.
The
first Americans were, of course Native Americans, whose encounters with European
immigrants often proved deadly. The
first encounter between different European settlers was equally violent. Seeking religious freedom, a Huguenot
(French Protestant) colony was established in 1564 at Fort Caroline, which is
near modern Jacksonville, Florida. The
Spanish didn’t appreciate this, so they established an operating base at St.
Augustine the next year.
They systematically wiped out the Huguenots, described by the
Spanish commander, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, in a gloating letter to the
Spanish King Philip II, saying they had “hanged
all those we had found in [Fort Caroline] because...they were scattering the
odious Lutheran doctrine in these Provinces.”
That odious Lutheran doctrine!
But really, this bloody encounter raises an important question about the
history of Christianity in our nation: which denomination are we speaking
of? Protestant or Catholic? And were we
established for the free practice of Christianity, but only Catholicism? Or only Protestantism?
A power pendulum swing occurred later on in our history, described in delightfully-punny fashion by an article[1] in Smithsonian Magazine:
“In newly
independent America, there was a crazy
quilt of state laws regarding religion. In Massachusetts, only Christians
were allowed to hold public office, and Catholics were allowed to do so only
after renouncing papal authority. In 1777, New York State’s constitution banned
Catholics from public office (and would do so until 1806). In Maryland,
Catholics had full civil rights, but Jews did not. Delaware required an oath
affirming belief in the Trinity. Several states, including Massachusetts and
South Carolina, had official, state-supported churches.”
So,
you see, both a little right, both a little wrong. This experiment in independence meant that
these United States were never all that united when it came to religion.
Thankfully,
the matter became most clear through that most essential of tools we human
beings have: dialogue! People talked to
each other. Argued with each other. Bore with one another.
Perhaps
it was our Creator fulfilling some of those Micah promises for
restoration:
“I will gather
together those who are lame,
those who have been exiles,
and those whom I have filled with grief.”
Perhaps
God mediated between people who did not agree, and bit by bit, our nation was
born.
The
setting was Virginia, and the arguers were familiar folks:
Tom
Jefferson, then Virginia’s governor, called for religious liberty, and
protection for practitioners of all religions (and no religion).
Pat
Henry disagreed. Ol’ “Liberty or Death”
wanted special protections for teachers of Christianity.
Enter
James Madison, who spoke along the lines of Tom J, saying, “the Religion then of every man must be left to the
conviction and conscience of every... This right is in its nature an
inalienable right” and “the same
authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other
Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians,
in exclusion of all other Sects.” Madison,
you see, had a vivid memory of Baptist pastors being rounded up in his home
state of Virginia. Madison’s takeaway
from the history of Christianity was that it had flourished in spite of, not because of, state
power.
Patrick Henry was defeated. Tom Jefferson’s earlier proposal was
modified and adopted by the Virginia legislature, as the Virginia Act for
Establishing Religious Freedom. Madison
took this understanding of separation of church and state with him to
Philadelphia, where a rather important piece of paper was written upon and
signed. And an officially secular
republic was born (though that crazy quilt of state laws shows it wasn’t always
understood).
Now, this doesn’t mean the founders themselves weren’t
religious! Their religion – mostly
Christianity – was what guided them to this understanding of a healthy
separation between church and state.
Because when you fight a war against a country where the head of the
state is also the head of the church, you begin to see how dangerous that
amount of power is.
History is fun, isn’t it?
As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day tomorrow, a day
where we rightly thank God for the freedoms we enjoy, it’s important to look
back, and see how difficult the path to those freedoms was. And it’s important to see what is a threat to
those freedoms, and what is not.
We find in Micah that God is not all that interested in a
theocracy – even with the people of Israel, that chosen people, God spoke of
bringing people from many nations, settling disputes between them, making
everyone live in peace and prosperity.
And we find in the great commission of Matthew, Jesus sends us out to
make disciples of all nations.
What an adventure this experiment in democracy has been for our
nation – it has not always been pretty, but as long as we have kept up
dialogue, disagreeing with respect and civility, we have become more and more
like that “city on a hill” John Winthrop (and later, Ronald Reagan) spoke
of. And as long as we remember our
history, especially its most painful parts, we become more and more like the
“asylum for the persecuted and oppressed” James Madison spoke of.
It is a common tool – as old as our nation itself – for
politicians of all stripes to use our religious convictions to divide us
(especially during an election season).
We can easily get caught up in that, thinking that we must “defend” God
against whatever heresy our time presents.
But Micah reminds us that God has heavenly armies we know nothing of!
It’s not our job to guard
God, especially if that means fighting our neighbor. It is our job to worship God, to share the good news of God, to love God first and
country second, and to work with all of our fellow Americans, of whatever
religious conviction, until there is liberty and justice for all. Amen.
[1]
“America’s True History of Religious Tolerance” by Kenneth C. Davis, October
2010. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-true-history-of-religious-tolerance-61312684
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