Sermon for July 5, 2015
Independence Day (Observed)
The Rev. Vicki K. Hesse
St. Philip’s In The Hills,
Tucson, AZ
Lord, Open our Lips,
that our mouth shall proclaim
your praise. Amen
Listen to this sermon here.
Good
morning!
The
4th of July
has
always been my favorite holiday.
During
my youth,
my
mother went all out with hospitality,
inviting
friends and neighbors to our home
for
a day of play and a special feast.
We
churned homemade ice cream,
snacked
on deviled eggs
and
enjoyed my mother’s special Paella dish followed by dessert of Baked Alaska Flambé.
It
was a favorite holiday because
we
shared it with friends and neighbors.
It
was a celebration not of independence,
but
interdependence,
marking
how we depended on each other
not
only for the joy of the day
but
the sustenance of our whole lives.
On
the 4th of July,
we
hold the tension of two messages:
One:
“you
are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism
and
marked as Christ’s own forever”[1]
and
Two:
“I
pledge allegiance to the flag
of
the United States of America,
and
to the republic for which it stands…”[2]
On
July 4th, there is a special aura
surrounding
the character of “independence,”
fueling
the US break up
from
the authority of England
and
manifesting in the American Revolution’s
permanent
chasm
between
the colonies and their distant rulers.
July
4th is the day the Founding Fathers
ratified
with pride, our national independence:
statehood,
sovereignty and completeness.[3]
However,
the Founding Fathers
did
not want just to be free from foreign rule,
they
also wanted a new way of
being
in community.
Which
is why they,
“mutually
pledged to each other their lives,
their
fortunes, their sacred honor.”[4]
So
it is that every 4th of July
we
reflect on our dependence upon each other,
of
which the readings remind us.
The
letter to the Hebrews recalls
those
who died in faith of God’s promises,
who,
like Abraham,
set
out not knowing where they were going,
but
trusted in the Lord.
Like
those refugees and immigrants,
we,
too, are strangers and foreigners
on
the earth, seeking God’s reign,
not
our own.
We
are not owners of the land,
Hebrews
reminds us, we are stewards.
And
as stewards, we are called
(as
read in Deuteronomy):
·
to welcome the stranger with love,
·
to feed and clothe the stranger
·
to act with justice to
the weakest and most
marginalized
in the community.
In
the gospel reading from Matthew,
Jesus
critiques cultural independence
that
was found even in his day, when he says,
“you
have heard it said
“You
shall love your neighbor
and
hate your enemy.”
He
goes on to criticize unchecked individualism and self-reliance, rooted in
mistrust.
Into
this individualistic society,
Jesus
said to them, and to us
LIVE
with interdependence,
love
your enemies, pray for hostile ones,
and
welcome,
feed and clothe the stranger and act
with justice
with
those on the margins.
With
Jesus’ help, we can love and pray for all
with
whom our lives are interwoven –
no
matter how strange or weak or hostile
or
pained or painful they are.
Pray
for those who persecute you, Jesus says,
because
prayer opens hearts
and
weaves us together.
Because
being dependent on others
can
be a sign of strength.
Because
when we trust another person,
we
reflect the Body of Christ:
where
we need everyone –
with
unique gifts and eccentricities
and
quirkiness –
we
need everyone in order to be complete.
So
who in your life needs prayer and love?
Who
needs restoration into
God’s
interdependent community?
Take
a moment to hold that person in your heart, or as they say in 12-step program:
perhaps you can become willing to become willing
to
hold that person in your heart –
just
for a moment.
pause
It
is in the tension between
our
baptism and our pledge of allegiance,
that
we enter worship today.
We
enter worshiping and witnessing to the truth
that
we are citizens of a community
wider
than our nation.
We
enter as members of the body of Christ,
Christians
without borders.[5]
In
baptism, we pledge allegiance
not
to any earthly power
but
to the sovereign God of the universe
revealed
in Jesus.
In
baptism,
we
join the ongoing story of salvation & freedom
that
marks every day as “dependence day.”
In
baptism,
we
acknowledge our reliance on God
and
our dependence on community.
And
God’s mark on our lives -
as
one of the beloved, interwoven community -
transcends
all other identities-
whether
female or male or trans,
black
or white or brown,
gay
or straight or questioning.
God
loves us for who we are.
So
while we honor “independence” day
of
our nation, we also declare our
“dependence”
on the triune God.
The
triune God into whose name we are baptized
renews
and restores
our
connection to the whole created order.
The
triune God into whose name we are baptized
calls
us to live an interdependent life
so
that we may become channels
of
love, mercy and justice in the world.
The
triune God into whose name we are baptized
grants
us the true freedom
that
we enjoy on the 4th of July
and
every day.
How
do we celebrate this dependence on God?
Pause
– well, here’s a story.
The
last scene of the film
“Places
in the Heart,” shows
a
small church in Texas (in 1935)
that
is holding a communion service.
While
the few people in the sanctuary
are
eeking out the hymn Blessed Assurance,
something
unexpected happens.
As
the parishioners pass the bread and wine,
more
people appear in the pews –
those
whose lives are woven together:
the
bank president
who
tried to foreclose on a young widow;
the
white men
who
lynched a black boy
after
he mistakenly shot
the
town’s beloved sheriff;
the
players in the honky-tonk band
and
the groupies who followed them
from
dance to dance;
the
African American laborer
who
had helped the young widow
bring in a prizewinning
crop of cotton and the Klansmen
who drove him out of
town; and, finally,
the
sheriff himself
and
the boy who had killed him.
‘The
peace of Christ,’ the sheriff says to the boy
as
he shares the bread and wine.
‘The
peace of Christ,’
the
boy whispers in return.[6]
pause
Today,
in the tension of flag and font,
God
transcends the choice
with
a sacrament of interdependence:
which
we call “Communion” -
the
bread of life and the cup of salvation.
God
invites us to an eternal feast,
the
Feast of Resurrection,
where
in communion with all the saints,
past,
present, and yet to come
we
celebrate our dependence on each other.
The
good news today is that
Through
the font and the feast,
God’s
love binds us together
for
the joy of the day and
for
the sustenance of our whole lives.
Amen.
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