July 6, 2008
(Eighth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 9)
Patriotism
by The Rev. Bryan England, Deacon
Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67 •
Psalm 45: 11-18 • Romans
7:15-25a • Matthew 11:16-19,
25-30
(From
The Lectionary Page)
Maybe you have noticed that for the last couple of weeks, the preachers in this pulpit have tended to abandon the practice of preaching on the Gospel reading and teaching on the Old Testament reading instead. I, for one, have found the Gospel readings to be fairly uninspiring overall and downright confusing at times. This culminated last Sunday when, as I was taking my seat and Canon Sommer climbed into the pulpit, I remarked to Dean Terry, “Good luck with that one.” He responded, “She’s preaching on Genesis.”
I couldn’t fault her logic, and I was sorely tempted to do the same this week, but I found Genesis to be especially uninspiring as well. As you are aware it relates to how God guided the here-unnamed servant of Abraham in the selection of Rebekah as Isaac’s wife. I am a bit gun-shy about preaching on marriage after an incident in Muscatine, Iowa, when a choir member responded to a sermon of mine on marriage by abandoning his family and running off with the church’s organist. Neither could I find inspiration in preaching the relevance of parentally-arranged marriages to a Twenty-first Century congregation. The most I could wrest from this lesson is a word of consolation to those of you who are parents of teen-age daughters who want to pierce their nostrils and insert a nose-ring. “Well, at least Rebekah had one.” Sorry.
I rarely preach on the epistles of Paul, either, because I seem to disagree with the apostle in a great many things. As one who has never been a fan of the World Wrestling Federation, I was especially uninspired with today’s Pauline internal wrestling match between the mind and the body. I also think that Winona Ryder used the line, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?,” to tell Dracula it was OK to bite her on the neck in a bad movie I saw a few years ago. It did not seem an especially efficacious approach to me.
So, after struggling with the scripture for a couple of weeks, I ended up back at the starting point, today’s Gospel lesson from Matthew.
I had trouble with the opening metaphor, or parable. “To what will I compare this generation? It is like children singing in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not morn.”
Then it came to me, Jesus was saying both he and John were not being listened to. That, I can identify with! One of the great things about infuriating people with a sermon is the knowledge that they at least heard what you had to say. They probably got the meaning wrong, but at least they heard it!
Jesus’ listeners didn’t get the message, either. They concentrated on the wrong things and let the superficial get in the way of the message. John was an ascetic, and came to them “neither eating nor drinking,” and they dismissed his message as a case of demonic possession. Jesus came eating and drinking and they dismissed him as “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!”
They focused on the trivial aspects of the messenger to avoid focusing on the central importance of the message.
How like the political climate today. All this past week, the two major candidates for our nation’s highest office have focused on the theme of Patriotism. Barack Obama was criticized for not wearing an American flag lapel pin on his suit, and for allegedly not holding his hand over his heart during the playing of the national anthem. The superficial issue in John McCain’s case seems to be his age. Yet, knowing what we know, who can not vet a vice presidential nominee as someone who is a heartbeat away from the presidency. Additionally, General Wesley Clark stated that John McCain’s being shot down over North Vietnam and his five years of imprisonment and torture did not qualify him to be President, which on the surface is true, but it also seems to denigrate the way in which he endured those years. The triviality of what the media draws our attention to seems reminiscent of the 2004 election, when John Stewart made reference to the Swift Boat controversy with the tongue-in-cheek observation that, “John Kerry was being criticized for not being wounded enough, and George Bush was being criticized for not defending Texas enough, against Arkansas.” We focus on the arcane and the inane, to avoid focusing on that which is vital to our survival as a species, and as a nation.
What is the true nature of patriotism? It is especially suitable on this long weekend for us to reflect on this question for ourselves. Does it lie in flying a flag on the fourth of July, as so many of us did on Friday? Does it lie in way we hold our hands while reciting of the pledge of allegiance to the flag, or if we pledge allegiance at all? Remember, Americans were reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, with its ending clause “with liberty and justice for all,” while interning US citizens merely because of their Japanese origins, and while depriving African-Americans to the rights and liberties granted them under our constitution.
I think patriotism is deeper than that. I have spent most of my adult life under an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” At times that oath has prompted me to oppose the actions of the government I am a member of, when I see that government doing things that I feel are at odds with the principles of that document. Does my opposition to the war in Iraq make me less a patriot? Or my belief that a nation that cited “depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury,” as one of the reasons for breaking away from Britain, should probably not be keeping people incarcerated for years in Guantanamo Bay without that same right?
Some would say yes, but I counter that it is my patriotism, my love for my country and the principles upon which it was founded, which calls me to speak out when I see those principles being violated by those who have taken identical or similar oaths. At this time a year ago, every member of my federal agency received this booklet with the texts of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States. When I received mine, I asked, “Did the president get a copy?” They didn’t think it was funny, either.
This election year, it is up to you to perform the most sacred duty you can do as member of this nation. Register and vote. Generations of Americans have lived and died to secure and preserve that right and obligation for you. To not exercise it is to ensure they have lived and died in vain.
And when you do vote, concentrate not on the superficial, the outward appearance, your surface perceptions of the candidates for the various offices, but for the things they stand for, the causes they espouse. Look at them in the light of the gospel message you have received, and vote as if your children’s future depends upon it. It does.
This need to not concentrate on the superficial, the outward appearances, is true in our spiritual lives as well. Christ talked continually about avoiding the appearances of faith, the outward displays of piety, and to striving for the realities of faith in their stead. He was talking to a people who had been yoked for years by a law which was given to draw them closer to God, but which had become burdensome in the Pharisee’s obsession to observe every iota of often conflicting guidance. The outward expressions of their faith were actually keeping them from a true spirituality.
Christ’s answer was simple, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. . . For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” He was preaching a gospel that did not enslave, as did the law, but which liberated, instead, a gospel that could be summarized in love for one’s God, and love for one’s neighbor.
Those authors of the Declaration of Independence were seeking much the same thing, to cast aside tyranny, and to replace it with freedom. To do so, they cast aside their fear and mutually pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Can we but not do likewise?
Let us pray. Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
