A Sermon for the Nation

Independence Day

Delivered by the Reverend Everett Francis

On this Fourth of July Sunday, we remember and celebrate the beginnings of our nation. Our forebears were readers of the Bible. They searched the Scriptures and their minds for clues about the basic purposes of national life. They found, in the Hebrew Scriptures, a text which summed up their hope for their great experiment: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof;" (Lev. 25.10) and they had that text inscribed on the Liberty Bell. Let it be the basis of our Communion meditation.

God is at work for liberty. In the affairs of men and women, and of nations, God is at work to bring forth liberty. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” God seeks liberty for all his children. God is at work bringing liberty: "Proclaim liberty.”

Liberty is about more than the form of government. The original setting of the words from Leviticus had to do with economic and not political liberty. It was about the restoration of all purchased land to the original owner and provided for the equal division of property. The permanent accumulation of land in the hands of the Jew was prevented, and those whom fate or misfortune had thrown into poverty were given a second chance. It would be good to read that chapter.

Liberty is multi faceted. It involves politics, economics, education, and religion. To the poor, disabled, uneducated - proclaim liberty. To the losers in life, the powerless, the aged, those left by the wayside - proclaim liberty: a second chance, new opportunity.

But as soon as we have liberty, we have multiple opinions, needs, and desires. The governor of Florida wants to put a moratorium on drilling to protect the beaches and tourist industry in his state. The governor of Louisiana doesn’t want a moratorium; he wants to protect the jobs of the oil workers. The environmentalists say ‘respect and protect God’s creation.’ Tough decisions. If we do our own thing, we step on someone else’s toes. Those with the most power are free to do their deadly damage. Liberty requires restrictions and protections. It requires a sense of responsibility for the community and to the God who is working for liberty for all.

We're in a strange and alarming situation in our country, aren't we? We distrust, with good cause, many in positions of power. Our disillusionment is not limited to politicians; it includes corporate leaders, investment bankers, lawyers, clergy, the media, young people, old people, city people, country people --- there is a breakdown in civic trust and social morality.

I say breakdown . . . That’s not quite accurate. We are sinners. We have been and we shall be. Our form of government was devised to deal specifically with the fact that we are sinners: that we are limited in our understanding and that we tend to be self-centered and corrupted by power. Churchill: Democracy is the worst system ever invented except for all others. Neibuhr: Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, his inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. And so we have checks and balances, laws, constitution, and elections.

The alarming thing to me is not our skepticism, but our indifference. I share the skepticism about what government can do, the public interest of business leaders, or the impartiality of the news media. Therefore, we have a responsibility, as citizens, to work and support efforts for reform.

I don’t have any one solution to all the ills of the day. Our governments are working on banking reform, tax reform, health care reform and education reform as they should. Liberty is an endless pursuit. The proclamation and pursuit of liberty is a never-ending quest.

We are drowning in a sea of self-interest. We must reexamine the politics of self-interest. We will never get rid of self-interest entirely. Our interests are served best as we arise above self. God calls us to look out for the interests and needs of others. The Epistle for last week was Galations 5:1 (NRSV) “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof.

There are two – no three – three things I want you to remember about this sermon. The first is that: no one person, no one party, no one profession, no one generation, no one solution has all the wisdom and truth. It comes from community and compromise as we listen to one another with love. The reality is that when we give liberty to others, we protect our own. Lincoln was right, “In giving freedom to the slave. We assure it to the free.” “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence.”

The second thing is that the pursuit of liberty is hard work. Liberty – freedom – is not doing your own thing. It is the hard work of compassion and love. We sang as the Gospel Hymn ‘America the Beautiful.’ It is a grand hymn about this great country. When Katherine Bates wrote it she had another verse which we have left out. It goes:

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

And the third: This service is a Festival of Liberty. Jesus took the Passover and made it into a Holy Communion. He took the Passover Feast wherein the people of Israel remembered God as one who delivers people from slavery and leads them to a new land; He took that feast and added to it the reality of His living presence to empower us to become free from what enslaves us. We partake of it as people on pilgrimage, as people on a journey from slavery to freedom. He comes to empower us to be freedom loving and freedom creating people.

Let us keep this feast of freedom, and then go forth to proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof.