Sermon Notes for Independence Day, 2010

 

The LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords,

the great God, mighty and awesome,

who is not partial and takes no bribe,

who executes justice for the orphan and the widow,

and who loves the strangers.

 

I’ve been reading on-line proposals of how Christians/Church should observe July 4^th:

• Some: full-throated celebration of all that is good in America
• Liberty
• Democracy
• Freedom of speech, religion and much more
• Some of these voices claim political & spiritual superiority over all other nations
• See America as new Israel
• Uniquely chosen by God for God’s work.
• Church, therefore, should;
• Simply celebrate & bless.
• No need for any prophetic critique of  our country’s ways.

 

• Other voices: Recall shadows -- & more -- in our past:
• Nation founded at cost: millions of Native American lives.
• “Liberty” didn’t include freedom for African-Am. Slaves, neither in
• Declaration of Independence, nor
• Constitution
• Racism and other ills still need attention.

Me – good Anglican – somewhere in the middle.

• Much good to celebrate in our country.
• But must also attend to where we fall short of God’s desires for every nation -- including our own.

 

Today’s Scriptures – appointed by Prayer Book fro Independence Day – help us see this.

• Letter to the Hebrews [1] evokes Abraham’s journey to promised land:
• Could be applied to pilgrims to these shores
• Yet Hebrews says that Abraham and patriarchs/matriarchs of Israel:
• Desired a better country, that is, a heavenly one.
• Therefore, attachment to any nation provisional for people of faith.
• Ultimate home – not here, but God’s kingdom
• Ultimate loyalty – not nation, but God.
• Gospel [2]
• Jesus’ call to love enemies
• God gives good to all, just & unjust, alike.
• God’s love is universal, for all.
• America loved by God – but not more than other nations.

 

But looking at national life today,  I was most drawn to lesson from Deuteronomy. [3]  God’s word to Israel; God’s word to us – and all nations -- too.

 

The LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords,

 the great God, mighty and awesome,

who is not partial and takes no bribe,

who executes justice for the orphan and the widow,

and who loves the strangers.

 

 God is not partial and executes justice for orphan and widow

o      Israel a patriarchal society where:

§        value = being attached to a man

§       Orphan and widow weakest, poorest, least important

o      God takes their side over against rich & powerful

§       Those able to wield money/influence to get what they want

o      God wants God’s people to side with/care for poor.

Challenge to our treatment of weakest, poorest, least important

o      Recession

§       Has hit all, but poorest hardest.

§       Often victims of predatory, dishonest lenders

·       Sub-prime mortgages

·       Lost homes, life savings -- if any.

§       Greater job loss than those better off

§       Many fewer job opportunities going forward

§       Will take years to recover, if ever.

§       Stuck in life-crushing poverty for rest of lives  -- as was true of many even before recession.

o      Education:

§       Children in poverty often lack:

·       Good teachers

·       Decent schools

·       Supplies (e.g. computers)

·       Community support

·       Result:  limited futures, cycle of poverty

o      Must wonder what God thinks of how widow and orphan equivalents fare in USA.

§       Do we execute justice for them as God wants?

 

• Deuteronomy:  God loves the strangers
• Israel: A tribal culture where:
•  Place in tribe gave identity & value to individuals
• Those outside tribal structure a threat to be feared, often attacked
• Strangers = most marginal, despised people.
• But God loves the strangers
• Tells Israel not to forget that they, too, were ultimate strangers in Egypt – slaves.
• Tells Israel to love the strangers as God does

Challenge to our national treatment of the strangers.

·       Current wave of anti-immigration sentiment:

o      Draconian Arizona Law aimed at Latinos & elsewhere

o      Inflammatory language about “them”

§       Racial/cultural profiling great risk

§       Even as many happy to benefit from cheap labor

o      Don’t know whether my Italian ancestors –   those WOPs (With Out Passport) – were as feared and discriminated against as Latinos now, but I’d bet it was similar.

o      People of color/ancestors likely experienced worse.

·       Americans often forget that vast majority of us are descendants of immigrants.

·       Forget, too, God of Israel, God of Jesus Christ loves stranger – so we must, too.

·       Must wonder what God thinks of how strangers fare in USA.

Improving treatment of poor and strangers complex.  Not easy to address even when there is political will to do so.  Much harder since …

·       Political system more likely to reward rich & powerful

• equivalents of orphan & widow get short shrift
• Little access in halls of power.
• Justice for poor not where God wants it to be.
• Political system has little use for the Strangers called immigrants/aliens
• They don’t vote
• Fear of the Other big right now.
• Politicians kowtow to angry constituents.
• Love of the Stranger not where God wants it to be.

 Here’s the Irony –

§       What Deuteronomy says God wants is in line w/best ideals of America:

o      Poem engraved on Statue of Liberty’s base:

 

"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!"

o      Pledge of Allegiance: “Liberty and Justice for all –“

§       Including widow & orphans = poor.

§       Including stranger

§       If we were more faithful to what God calls us to, we’d be

o      Better Christians and better Americans

Conclusion:

• As we celebrate nation’s heritage/history and  good in it
• Celebrate with awareness of where we fall short of:
• Nation’s ideals
• God’s desire.
• work and pray  for a fuller realization of what God wants for this and every nation.

Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. [4]

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