Memorial Day Sermon
May 30, 2010
Rev. Michael Burch
The sermon I have for you this morning, on this Memorial Day weekend, is neither an uncritical defense of war and militarism, nor a naive explanation of how we can end all war by a romanticized application of a peace and love. We need to be more scrutinizing than choosing sides. The memorializing of the fallen in battle is an important act that begs for thoughtful consideration of war and human sacrifice. What really are we saying when we honor those who have died in battle?
Origins of Memorial Day Remembrances –
The Origins of Memorial Day go back to the Civil War, when at the conclusion of this war almost 600,000 lie dead, a staggering 2% of the United States population at the time. This would be the equivalent of the United States fighting a war today that would lead to more than six million dead. Imagine it, six million. Memorial Day grew almost spontaneously within a year of the end of the civil war because the losses could not be forgotten, ever. The human tragedy of that war affected every family in the United States. War is vicious, brutal, and the damages often permanent.
In spite of the heroism we can point to in war time, Memorial Day is a remembering of tragedy, and there has been no tragedy relative to the loss of life, as horrific as the Civil War.
Memorial Day has also, over the generations, grown into a general time of respect for troops, for the soldier who puts so much at risk in the course of civic duty. There has long been an ideal of the “good soldier.” Reaching back into the ancient period, there was a clear notion of a good soldier, which mirrored the notion of a good citizen. The reason was because virtually all Greek and Roman citizens were soldiers too – only men held citizenship, and warfare for all men was an honor and the most expedient way to a noble or glorious death that could have afterlife benefits. The protection and survival of the city-state was essential, and first in importance. The virtues championed for such a priority were popularized through Stoic philosophy, but were foundational in Greco-Roman culture – there were four chief virtues that led one to ultimate virtue; Wisdom, Justice, Bravery, Self-Control, the latter two were especially applicable to warfare. To fight in the ancient style of battle one had to keep rank and file. The armies typically fought in columns that weakened when they dispersed. One had to0 exercise the utmost in bravery and self-control to hold your station in your column as bodies dropped all around you. The temptation to flee was great, but death on the battlefield was the ultimate personal accomplishment in many ways. So much was this case that countless soldiers in ancient battle chose to run themselves through with their own sword, perhaps falling over their sword, rather than flee when the encroaching enemy was about to overrun their adversary.
From the ancient perspective, battle made one a more virtuous and better person. It defined men, and prevented women from ever truly being recognized as having a capacity for virtue.
That was then, this is now – and we have to ask ourselves if warfare really makes us better people. We can and should both commemorate the fallen soldier in U.S. history and ask if we cannot do better by that soldier. Is death on the battlefield what soldiers long for today? Or is it to complete their service honorably and return home to their families safely?
Honor by warfare requires an enemy. The violence of warfare must be justified by the creation of a deserving enemy – an enemy so evil their destruction is not only warranted, but demanded. Yes, warfare demands a justifiable violence. Thus honor can require the creation, the construction, of the “perfect enemy.” How many foreign rulers have you heard likened to Hitler?
Creating, defining the enemy – a tried and true means of recruiting troops
We are no longer living in the ancient past when it comes to warfare – too much has changed. At the same time, we can hardly make a case that war has never accomplished a good – a relative good, albeit, but a good that people recognize as such. Who here would claim the Revolutionary War did not have a positive outcome? Who here would stand up and declare the Civil War a bad war when it led to the emancipation of millions of African slaves? And who here wants to argue the United States should not have gotten involved in WWII, and led the liberation so many from the inhumane Nazi concentration camps?
You might not like it, but there is a compelling case for war. We live in a world where we unfortunately believe we can only end some kinds of injustices with violence. We smash violence with more violence – and sometimes we would say, “it worked.”
As the popular 20th century theologian Reinhold Neibhur stated, humans have a capacity for justice, but an inclination for injustice
Is he right? Can anyone claim otherwise that humans have a capacity for injustice, but an inclination for justice?
We live in a world where peace songs and peace protests don’t make evil go away – but also live in a world where good intentions with the use of force often rarely go as planned.
Today, not only do soldiers think differently about service and battle, but our wars are so profoundly different than wars prior to the 20th century, much different than wars in the ancient world, though the perspective and ethic of ancient cultures regarding soldiers and war have survived in part until today.
But the wars we fight are beyond words. WWI and WWII combined, just two decades apart killed over 100 million people by many estimates! 100 million people! This is truly a new world, a new kind of warfare. All War is not the same. It’s almost as if we need a name for war before our era, and contemporary war – they represent different tragedies and have far longer lasting implications This is a new age – total war not realistic. There has to be a better way.
Or am I just being naïve? Perhaps, but I still believe that Jesus teachings are relevant here, although I recognize that his words are not those of a person schooled in international diplomacy, nor does Jesus give much nation state advice. Nevertheless, how can we read the gospels and not think that Jesus would at least say, “we can do better than this, and we must do better than this?
Stop for just one moment, and think of our collective national history. Not a single generation has passed and there not been warfare – it is astounding – follow me through history and see that longest period of peace we have seen was between 1865 and 1898, only 33 years. We are a militaristic state, as much as one would rather opt for the words, “a leader of democracy in the world.”
• The American Revolutionary War, (1775-1783)
• The War of 1812 (1812-1815)
• The Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
• The Civil War (1861-1865)
• The Spanish-American War (1898)
• WWI (1914-1919)
• WWII (1939-1945)
• Korean War (1950-1953)
• Vietnam War (1955-1973)
• Persian Gulf War (1990-91)
• Iraq War (2003 - )
• Afghanistan-Taliban War (2001 - )
This is a sobering realization, and one that must compel all of us to say, “we can do better.”
I’ve never served in the military. I have never had the experience of warfare. There is no doubt that that experience changes a person, forever – and understandably so. There is no experience to which one can liken warfare. It is brutal, merciless, ruthless, and tragic. And it has indeed taken the lives of many.
And yet, we have this real dilemma in trying to live by a blanket principle of condemning all war. We have seen war prevent what we believe to be greater evils. Who can criticize what the allies prevented in WWII, stopping a deranged Nazi dictator, halting Jewish atrocities, saving Europe? Who can criticize what was accomplished in the bloodiest of battles the civil war, a war that not only ended slavery in the United States but had a ripple effect in the western hemisphere crippling the slave trade elsewhere, and allowing America to begin its path of healing racial hostility and beginning the building of one society – And who can criticize the American Revolutionary war that led to the founding of America, a world shaping experiment in democracy and new found freedoms.
We can defend war well - and we do.
But my reflection on this Memorial Day, in 2010, is focused particularly upon the soldier – the service men and women who lives were cut short, and our memorial to them is not just a passing thought but an invitation each and every year to consider the lives of these many, so, so many service persons, who lost promising lives at young ages – for others. But we would all be exercising neglect if we did not take this time to contemplate very seriously the place of war in our world.
Some say war is inevitable as long as human beings are human beings. Some say war is preventable and that we can build a world without such forms of destruction, and loss of life.
My message this morning encourages us to remember the fallen in a way that causes us to take seriously the question of war, violence, ethnic and religious hatred – these are things for which the Gospel calls us to take up, and remedy.
I believe war is still and will continue to be a real and constant threat. Many Christians have concluded that participating in war can represent a greater good than non-resistance or pacifism. They might be right, but to fail to try to disprove that is wrong. That’s right, it’s wrong. We cannot afford a world wide conflict. The potential devastation with modern warfare technology is unimaginable.
I believe today, what I have not always believed - that one day the world will be without war. I’m not talking about a pie-in-the-sky, when Jesus comes back and makes the world a better place, idea – I’m talking about human beings, deciding that we can dispense with war as a punitive tool or a means to solving disputes. There will still be conflicts in this world, that will not go away. There may still be ways for one group to deliver punitive damage to another, but not necessarily by warfare. Not by way of nuclear disaster that can potentially destroys hundreds of millions of people in days and set cultures back by generations
We have to give consideration to the steps we need to take to end war as a political tool. We are called to strive for that faith. Governments ought to be held accountable for wars, and our criticisms of government can be productive to be certain – but, it is easy to blame governments for wars. We are not powerless before any government.
How do I start with me? How do I begin to break down the walls of hostility, hatred, and fear within me? How do I begin to finally say the best way I can honor the fallen is to do my part in making sacrifices for peace, in coming to understand my world as a world that does not just belong to me and those like me, but is a world shared by billions, in a world where war has devastated millions.
Listen to this Pauline letter, a synopsis of his words in the letter to the Ephesians. How can one deny that part of the Gospel’s mandate is not just peace with God, but for groups in hostile relationships, to break down the walls of hostility and peacefully co-exist, even work together.
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles… were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth and strangers to the covenants of promise... But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near, For Jesus himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility… that he might create in himself one new human in place of the two, so making peace…killing the hostility. So then you are…fellow citizens… being built together into one dwelling place by the Spirit.
In closing, we are called to respect the conscience of our sisters and brothers, those who take up arms and sacrifice their lives – those who refuse and not just hope for fewer fallen soldier to memorialize, but take up the labor within, the spiritual quest for a better day. There has been no simple solution or easy 1-2-3 steps to take, offered in this sermon. This quest must be a spiritual journey we all as individuals take up individually, and do better on our own account first. That journey, that commitment will lead to better ideas, better tools, better conflict resolution – it will allow us just to do better. I recognize that I am open to criticism for being too naïve. Perhaps… Perhaps….
On this day, Memorial Day, we pay tribute to those who have fallen, and we ask of ourselves what more can we do, what more can I do, to carry out the Gospel that Jesus has called us to – the Gospel of Peace and Reconciliation.
Let those who have ears to hear, hear -
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
SERMON: Reverence for Life April 18, 2010
April 18, 2010
SERMON: Reverence for Life
TEXTS:
Old Testament Reading: Numbers 22:22-35
New Testament Reading: Matthew 10:24-31
Who Was Albert Schweitzer? (1875 – 1965)
• Minister
• New Testament Theologian
• Medical Doctor
• Author
• Scholar of Bach – a mystical sense of the eternal
• Respected Organ Builder – organ revival movement
• Noble Peace Prize 1952 – for his Reverence for Life, ideals, and his work on nuclear non-proliferation
BEYOND THE POLITICIZING OF THE EARTH
The Environmentalism argument can sometimes be put forth in contention with progress and development pitted against the preservation of the Earth and the non-human life it sustains.
The debate of energy sources and how our technologies and resources can best be used to raise standards of living and secure a stable economy – and to what degree we should weigh our concerns for other life on the Earth and our intentions to co-inhabit this planet for millennia to come.
But none of these things prevent us from asking the question, “What does it mean to embrace a “Reverence for Life?” We cannot use a politicized debate about our relationship to the environment and the ethical questions of respecting life. In certain contexts our actions in relations to the life surrounding us supercedes political positions, and is a question about our image of the divine and our respect for the very source that sustains our own human life – Schweitzer’s pursuit if understanding the Jesus of History led him to an ethic about respecting life in its broadest sense. Reverence of life, Schweitzer said, was the fundamental human ethic to follow when attempting to live with moral integrity.
Three qualities capture Schweitzer’s “Reverence for Life.”
AWE
CURIOSITY
RESPECT
• To be in AWE of the magnificence of life
When we lose our awe for this life, even for a day, we are in need of renewal – and it is easy to do so that the Reverence of life tells us to remember each day the awe-inspiring life we wake up to that can be realized or captured in that bee buzzing outside the window, the opening of the tulips, a leaf tumbling across the grass, and the respectful greeting of a pet.
Reflect on the words in Job (select verses from chapter 39)
1"Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does? 4Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open 5"Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey, 6to whom I have given the arid plain for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place? 8He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing. 9"Is the wild ox willing to serve you? 11Will you depend on him because his strength is great, 19 "Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? 20Do you make him leap like the locust? He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword in battle. 24With fierceness he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. 26 "Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? 27Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? 28 On the rock he dwells and makes his home 29 From there he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it from far away.
*********************************************
• CURIOUS about the wonderment of life
(Wisdom of life, It is our teacher)
SCHWEITZER SAYS ONE MUST TAKE TIME TO LEARN FROM LIFE EXPRESSIONS AROUND US – AS JESUS TEACHES IN THE PARABLE OF THE VINE & THE BRANCHES, SO WE TOO ARE BRANCHES THAT ARE SUSTAINED BY OUR INVESTMENT – OUR AWE AND CURIOSITY OF LIFE – LIFE AS A FORCE, AS SPIRITUALITY, AS THE ESSENCE OF GOD’S NATURE. IF WE ARE NOT SEEKING TO BE CONNECTED TO LIFE, TO DRAW FROM IT LIKE A BRANCH DOES ALL ITS NOURISHMENT FROM A VINE – WE BEGIN TO WITHER…
SCHWEITZER:
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."
• RESPECT the will to live in its multifarious expressions (Embracing the will to live in present in all of life’s biodiversity)
"We are truly ethical when we obey the compulsion to help all life which we are able to assist, and shrink from injuring that which lives around us." Schweitzer
****************************
Reverence for Life says that the only thing we are really sure of is that we live and we “will-to-live,” according to Schweitzer.
This is something that we share with everything else that lives, from elephants to blades of grass – and, of course, every human being.
We are brothers and sisters to all living things, and owe to all of them the same care and respect, that we wish for ourselves.”
Schweitzer’s ethic of Reverence for life grew out of his quest for a deep and meaningful understanding Jesus. Schweitzer’s years of medical service among the poor, his fascination and love for music, including the time spent in mastering the art of organ building and the understanding and playing of Bach, all led to his personal epiphany…. that when he possessed, in all humility, a Reverence for life, it did not provide every answer for life, but it established a principle for living that was reflective of the gentle way in which Jesus lived in the midst of death and destruction, a principle which serves as a guide for us - to strive for the best expression we can put forward of revering the life god has given us, the life God has placed around us, and the spirit of life that gives us joy, enthusiasm, and purpose.
We walk upon this earth with deep respect Schweitzer says because the goodness of life is all around us and that spirit which enlivens it we sense within ourselves when we are listening
"Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity…. Do something wonderful for life, and people may imitate it."
SERMON: Reverence for Life
TEXTS:
Old Testament Reading: Numbers 22:22-35
New Testament Reading: Matthew 10:24-31
Who Was Albert Schweitzer? (1875 – 1965)
• Minister
• New Testament Theologian
• Medical Doctor
• Author
• Scholar of Bach – a mystical sense of the eternal
• Respected Organ Builder – organ revival movement
• Noble Peace Prize 1952 – for his Reverence for Life, ideals, and his work on nuclear non-proliferation
BEYOND THE POLITICIZING OF THE EARTH
The Environmentalism argument can sometimes be put forth in contention with progress and development pitted against the preservation of the Earth and the non-human life it sustains.
The debate of energy sources and how our technologies and resources can best be used to raise standards of living and secure a stable economy – and to what degree we should weigh our concerns for other life on the Earth and our intentions to co-inhabit this planet for millennia to come.
But none of these things prevent us from asking the question, “What does it mean to embrace a “Reverence for Life?” We cannot use a politicized debate about our relationship to the environment and the ethical questions of respecting life. In certain contexts our actions in relations to the life surrounding us supercedes political positions, and is a question about our image of the divine and our respect for the very source that sustains our own human life – Schweitzer’s pursuit if understanding the Jesus of History led him to an ethic about respecting life in its broadest sense. Reverence of life, Schweitzer said, was the fundamental human ethic to follow when attempting to live with moral integrity.
Three qualities capture Schweitzer’s “Reverence for Life.”
AWE
CURIOSITY
RESPECT
• To be in AWE of the magnificence of life
When we lose our awe for this life, even for a day, we are in need of renewal – and it is easy to do so that the Reverence of life tells us to remember each day the awe-inspiring life we wake up to that can be realized or captured in that bee buzzing outside the window, the opening of the tulips, a leaf tumbling across the grass, and the respectful greeting of a pet.
Reflect on the words in Job (select verses from chapter 39)
1"Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does? 4Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open 5"Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey, 6to whom I have given the arid plain for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place? 8He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing. 9"Is the wild ox willing to serve you? 11Will you depend on him because his strength is great, 19 "Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? 20Do you make him leap like the locust? He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword in battle. 24With fierceness he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. 26 "Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? 27Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? 28 On the rock he dwells and makes his home 29 From there he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it from far away.
*********************************************
• CURIOUS about the wonderment of life
(Wisdom of life, It is our teacher)
SCHWEITZER SAYS ONE MUST TAKE TIME TO LEARN FROM LIFE EXPRESSIONS AROUND US – AS JESUS TEACHES IN THE PARABLE OF THE VINE & THE BRANCHES, SO WE TOO ARE BRANCHES THAT ARE SUSTAINED BY OUR INVESTMENT – OUR AWE AND CURIOSITY OF LIFE – LIFE AS A FORCE, AS SPIRITUALITY, AS THE ESSENCE OF GOD’S NATURE. IF WE ARE NOT SEEKING TO BE CONNECTED TO LIFE, TO DRAW FROM IT LIKE A BRANCH DOES ALL ITS NOURISHMENT FROM A VINE – WE BEGIN TO WITHER…
SCHWEITZER:
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."
• RESPECT the will to live in its multifarious expressions (Embracing the will to live in present in all of life’s biodiversity)
"We are truly ethical when we obey the compulsion to help all life which we are able to assist, and shrink from injuring that which lives around us." Schweitzer
****************************
Reverence for Life says that the only thing we are really sure of is that we live and we “will-to-live,” according to Schweitzer.
This is something that we share with everything else that lives, from elephants to blades of grass – and, of course, every human being.
We are brothers and sisters to all living things, and owe to all of them the same care and respect, that we wish for ourselves.”
Schweitzer’s ethic of Reverence for life grew out of his quest for a deep and meaningful understanding Jesus. Schweitzer’s years of medical service among the poor, his fascination and love for music, including the time spent in mastering the art of organ building and the understanding and playing of Bach, all led to his personal epiphany…. that when he possessed, in all humility, a Reverence for life, it did not provide every answer for life, but it established a principle for living that was reflective of the gentle way in which Jesus lived in the midst of death and destruction, a principle which serves as a guide for us - to strive for the best expression we can put forward of revering the life god has given us, the life God has placed around us, and the spirit of life that gives us joy, enthusiasm, and purpose.
We walk upon this earth with deep respect Schweitzer says because the goodness of life is all around us and that spirit which enlivens it we sense within ourselves when we are listening
"Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity…. Do something wonderful for life, and people may imitate it."
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
November 2009
SERMON: Remembering the “Middle Ages,” or Forgetting the Unholy Stuff Between Paul and Luther.
TEXTS:
New Testament Reading: Acts 28:17-22
Old Testament Reading: Numbers 25:5-9
Before there was a sacred text called the New Testament, there were storytellers. Before Paul’s letters, before the Gospels, there were storytellers. It was the first preaching of a new utopian vision where Jesus’ expected return would bring a new world of peace and justice. Imaginations of a world with no war, a world of Peace have some to us since the days of Plato and his imagining a Philosopher-King who could rule in perfect peace and justice.
From the early Greeks through the modern period there is a traceable history of utopian hopes and visions expressed through stories, doctrines, laws, and yes, even wars. It seems we will do anything to move forward with our goal to create the perfect and just society – ironically, even kill.
Christianity passionately continued the utopian hopes, but important details were different. Utopia would not hang on the Greek idea of a perfect Philosopher-King, rather, these utopian hopes now hung on Jesus, the one sent by God, the Messiah. The history of Christendom is filled with the utopian dreams that began with Jesus’ preaching of the coming Kingdom of God –
“The Kingdom of God is coming! Repent!” preached by every generation until this day.
The church has largely seen itself and portrayed itself as the vehicle through which God has been building a more just and peaceful society, met with much cynicism even from Christians. From late antiquity to the early modern period the Church built monasteries and missions, to showcase if you will, mini-utopias, examples of religious community devotion that could yield utopian-like societies. The Amish and Quakers serve demonstrative Protestant examples. We can look to Judaism as well in the message is of the modern Jewish Kibbutz communities.
These traditions influenced early American founders and religious sentiments until today. We have heard many times America described as a “shining city on a hill” to the rest of he world – words uttered even in the most recent presidential inauguration speech of President Obama. The Church in the West has undoubtedly seen itself as a kind of savior for the world - bringing justice and equality to all.
But Colonialist Europe and early American history used language that divided the world into the “civilized” and the “savage” and explained the benefits of colonialism to themselves, but neglected to see its own contribution to injustice and in equality around the world.
Today, we have a broader view of the world and a different understanding of what Democracy means. In fact our idea of democracy has laid the theological foundation for the church. We cannot conceive of a good Christianity that does not also promote democracy and equality. We have moved beyond the Christianity that seeks foremost to alienate those outside the church with accusations of heresy or paganism – No, instead we have learned the importance and value of religious tolerance to the evolution of a more just and peaceful society. Whatever ideals we may still have of a utopian future, will include more open and tolerant views of religions and cultures different than ourselves.
But in this evolution of the church in the past several hundred years in particular can be for some a lesson we are apt to forget if not want to forget. The Christianity of the early modern period is one we sometimes feel we can easily forget. For we have a better understanding now of democracy, human rights, and equality.
But the hope of a better future is tied to our refusal to forget our failures. As it is in our own personal life so goes it with church – growth and moral development must always include remembering what we aren’t proud of so that we might make something we can be proud of.
We are today, the beneficiaries of Baptists, Quakers, early American seekers, like Roger Williams and that’s why we recognize the important contributions of Judaism as well with writers like Baruch Spinoza who advanced principles of Religious tolerance ahead of his time. This is an age of a more mature Democracy, still maturing. We can no longer limit our view of ethical religion to Christianity alone, no more than we would limit Christianity to one particular church – that fact tells us that we are in an important new place in history. And though we have been here for some decades now, we should not fail to acknowledge that we share a world with people of different faiths, and people with no faith. The early Church through the Reformation preserved ideas, traditions, and rituals that still define us today. But some of history we critique for growth, some of it we preserve for practice.
But we should also keep in mind, for the purposes of living out our faith gently, humbly, and with “ears to hear,” that the thousand years between Augustine and Christopher Columbus, makes up roughly half of the history of the Church – and while one kind of popular view of history tells some contemporary Protestants, including Baptists, that the most significant persons in Church history are truly Paul and Luther. Such a view of our history is far too limited, not to mention the oversights of these figures themselves – whether it be Paul’s low view of women, not shared by everyone in the ancient period, or Luther’s condemnation of Jews and Judaism to the extent of favoring serious measures of persecution against Jews in the name of God. Luther failed to add the unjustifiable persecution of Jews to his 95 objections against the Church – an unimaginable oversight from where we sit post-Hitler.
The lesson is that we learn immensely important things when we refuse to ignore the inexcusable periods of our history. I don’t know a dominating empire, nation, or religion that does not of moments in their histories that they would like to be forgotten. But we can learn much from that period that we most want to ignore, and I believe it is the exact exercise of faith that Jesus places such a premium upon… forgiveness, humility, and reconciliation.
To forget our past is to fail to practice our Christian faith as Jesus taught it. The individualized concerns of contemporary Christians are important, but the gospel lesson, in keeping with its ancient cultural values had many more communal or corporate concerns - mission there is a lesson in considering ALL of our past, even the past we don’t like, especially the past we don’t like. It is an opportunity to reflect on a past that is still part of who we are, a past that only benefits us to remember, and a past we seek to make better in the present. Shame and guilt should not prevent us – the consequences of reconciliation, under the watch of a gracious God and the wisdom that follows humility should draw us toward it.
We can celebrate Baptist soul freedom, expressed in the courage of Roger Williams, and the insistence of the early Baptist on religious freedom in political contexts. The examples of early Baptist and Quakers, should serve to inspire us to go further with the message they paid a price to preserve –
That seems to me to be one of the resounding lessons that comes to us as Baptists, and Christians – that we are still learning – we are still undoing dogmatic faith – we are still making lifting up the marginalized– we are still listening – we are still seeking.
In all this, our past inspires us not only through the lives of heroes who set examples of courage and innovation, but we are also moved by a past that could have been better, could have been more just - Both the heroically just and the shockingly inhumane are important histories to preserve. In them we are compelled to live out a faith that reaches back to its origins in Jesus and is contiguous with the present so that we see it with our eyes wide open and our hearts anticipating change. In this the Good News of the Gospel is celebrated.
Recommended Reading: “On the Jews and their Lies” by Martin Luther
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Luther_on_Jews.html
SERMON: Remembering the “Middle Ages,” or Forgetting the Unholy Stuff Between Paul and Luther.
TEXTS:
New Testament Reading: Acts 28:17-22
Old Testament Reading: Numbers 25:5-9
Before there was a sacred text called the New Testament, there were storytellers. Before Paul’s letters, before the Gospels, there were storytellers. It was the first preaching of a new utopian vision where Jesus’ expected return would bring a new world of peace and justice. Imaginations of a world with no war, a world of Peace have some to us since the days of Plato and his imagining a Philosopher-King who could rule in perfect peace and justice.
From the early Greeks through the modern period there is a traceable history of utopian hopes and visions expressed through stories, doctrines, laws, and yes, even wars. It seems we will do anything to move forward with our goal to create the perfect and just society – ironically, even kill.
Christianity passionately continued the utopian hopes, but important details were different. Utopia would not hang on the Greek idea of a perfect Philosopher-King, rather, these utopian hopes now hung on Jesus, the one sent by God, the Messiah. The history of Christendom is filled with the utopian dreams that began with Jesus’ preaching of the coming Kingdom of God –
“The Kingdom of God is coming! Repent!” preached by every generation until this day.
The church has largely seen itself and portrayed itself as the vehicle through which God has been building a more just and peaceful society, met with much cynicism even from Christians. From late antiquity to the early modern period the Church built monasteries and missions, to showcase if you will, mini-utopias, examples of religious community devotion that could yield utopian-like societies. The Amish and Quakers serve demonstrative Protestant examples. We can look to Judaism as well in the message is of the modern Jewish Kibbutz communities.
These traditions influenced early American founders and religious sentiments until today. We have heard many times America described as a “shining city on a hill” to the rest of he world – words uttered even in the most recent presidential inauguration speech of President Obama. The Church in the West has undoubtedly seen itself as a kind of savior for the world - bringing justice and equality to all.
But Colonialist Europe and early American history used language that divided the world into the “civilized” and the “savage” and explained the benefits of colonialism to themselves, but neglected to see its own contribution to injustice and in equality around the world.
Today, we have a broader view of the world and a different understanding of what Democracy means. In fact our idea of democracy has laid the theological foundation for the church. We cannot conceive of a good Christianity that does not also promote democracy and equality. We have moved beyond the Christianity that seeks foremost to alienate those outside the church with accusations of heresy or paganism – No, instead we have learned the importance and value of religious tolerance to the evolution of a more just and peaceful society. Whatever ideals we may still have of a utopian future, will include more open and tolerant views of religions and cultures different than ourselves.
But in this evolution of the church in the past several hundred years in particular can be for some a lesson we are apt to forget if not want to forget. The Christianity of the early modern period is one we sometimes feel we can easily forget. For we have a better understanding now of democracy, human rights, and equality.
But the hope of a better future is tied to our refusal to forget our failures. As it is in our own personal life so goes it with church – growth and moral development must always include remembering what we aren’t proud of so that we might make something we can be proud of.
We are today, the beneficiaries of Baptists, Quakers, early American seekers, like Roger Williams and that’s why we recognize the important contributions of Judaism as well with writers like Baruch Spinoza who advanced principles of Religious tolerance ahead of his time. This is an age of a more mature Democracy, still maturing. We can no longer limit our view of ethical religion to Christianity alone, no more than we would limit Christianity to one particular church – that fact tells us that we are in an important new place in history. And though we have been here for some decades now, we should not fail to acknowledge that we share a world with people of different faiths, and people with no faith. The early Church through the Reformation preserved ideas, traditions, and rituals that still define us today. But some of history we critique for growth, some of it we preserve for practice.
But we should also keep in mind, for the purposes of living out our faith gently, humbly, and with “ears to hear,” that the thousand years between Augustine and Christopher Columbus, makes up roughly half of the history of the Church – and while one kind of popular view of history tells some contemporary Protestants, including Baptists, that the most significant persons in Church history are truly Paul and Luther. Such a view of our history is far too limited, not to mention the oversights of these figures themselves – whether it be Paul’s low view of women, not shared by everyone in the ancient period, or Luther’s condemnation of Jews and Judaism to the extent of favoring serious measures of persecution against Jews in the name of God. Luther failed to add the unjustifiable persecution of Jews to his 95 objections against the Church – an unimaginable oversight from where we sit post-Hitler.
The lesson is that we learn immensely important things when we refuse to ignore the inexcusable periods of our history. I don’t know a dominating empire, nation, or religion that does not of moments in their histories that they would like to be forgotten. But we can learn much from that period that we most want to ignore, and I believe it is the exact exercise of faith that Jesus places such a premium upon… forgiveness, humility, and reconciliation.
To forget our past is to fail to practice our Christian faith as Jesus taught it. The individualized concerns of contemporary Christians are important, but the gospel lesson, in keeping with its ancient cultural values had many more communal or corporate concerns - mission there is a lesson in considering ALL of our past, even the past we don’t like, especially the past we don’t like. It is an opportunity to reflect on a past that is still part of who we are, a past that only benefits us to remember, and a past we seek to make better in the present. Shame and guilt should not prevent us – the consequences of reconciliation, under the watch of a gracious God and the wisdom that follows humility should draw us toward it.
We can celebrate Baptist soul freedom, expressed in the courage of Roger Williams, and the insistence of the early Baptist on religious freedom in political contexts. The examples of early Baptist and Quakers, should serve to inspire us to go further with the message they paid a price to preserve –
That seems to me to be one of the resounding lessons that comes to us as Baptists, and Christians – that we are still learning – we are still undoing dogmatic faith – we are still making lifting up the marginalized– we are still listening – we are still seeking.
In all this, our past inspires us not only through the lives of heroes who set examples of courage and innovation, but we are also moved by a past that could have been better, could have been more just - Both the heroically just and the shockingly inhumane are important histories to preserve. In them we are compelled to live out a faith that reaches back to its origins in Jesus and is contiguous with the present so that we see it with our eyes wide open and our hearts anticipating change. In this the Good News of the Gospel is celebrated.
Recommended Reading: “On the Jews and their Lies” by Martin Luther
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Luther_on_Jews.html
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