Message July 4, 2021

Message given at Church of the Good Shepherd Episcopal in Covington, GA 

 https://www.youtube.com/live/rHZ5kPKX3gM?feature=share&t=1200

Happy Independence Day. A brief lesson on why this is a unique holiday in the United States in that our history as a church is directly linked to the birth of this nation.

Prior to the Declaration of Independence of the United States, we were part of the Church of England who swore an allegiance to the Crown as head of the Church.

In order, as new members of a new nation, to not be considered treasonous or traitors, we had to reorganize and rebuild. Catholics and Methodists found themselves in a similar quandary.

William White, Rector of Christ Church in Philadelphia, a familiar city name in US history, began to reimagine the future of the Episcopal Church of the United States. He was a companion to the Founding Fathers of the United States including George Washington, Benjamin Frankly, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. No longer under the Crown, William White began to imagine, like the Founding Fathers, a church built on voluntary associations, tiered at the local, regional, and national levels, and composed of clergy and laity.

Alongside William White, William Smith in Maryland began the process of conventions, also like the process of the conventions towards statehood and becoming a nation. He began the formation of a democratic form of church governance in this new church. The first general convention, the meeting of clergy and laity was set for 1785. Democracy was born in the church.

Our disposition towards being ruled by kings and queens as head of the church became anathema. Alongside our political freedom, we sought a freedom to worship available uniquely in this new United States. Countries who follow our footsteps into democracy face similar challenges. Once governed ty the Church of England and the Monarchy now must find new ways to be identified. New forms of governance. Not only has our independent spirit affected the creation of our democracy it has affected the creation of our denomination, and our way of thinking.

And yet, our scriptures remind us that in God’s realm, He is King. Jesus Christ is called Lord. We seek God’ mercy for our actions. We use the language of servants. We come before an altar to acknowledge one greater than us who can grant us life.

And at the same time, we have a church that fights the language of kingship and Lordship and servanthood.  Because our independence, our democracy, we removed the physical “Crown” of the church as no longer having the Divine right o rule over us. And with this thinking, like our ancient Roman brother and sisters, we transferred some of our politics into our belief system and into our religious faith.

Our Roman rothers and sisters took a way of life and reorganized the church under Constantine. Christians got their freedom in the newly recognized national religion of Constantine, but at what price.

Fortunately, as Episcopalians we have a three-legged stool: Scripture, Tradition, and Reason.

We are closely tied to scripture. We read probably more scripture than most denominations, even though we might have fewer Bible studies. In our scripture today, the Lord God addressed the prophet: O Mortal. O Mortal. O Mortal. We are reminded that we are mere humans. With a life span beginning and ending. Ezekiel is so humbled by the presence of the Living God, a King, King of the Universe, that he cannot even stand in his presence.

This King is sending Ezekiel to a land of rebels to give them a Word. A word that will determine their fate. He calls them impudent and stubborn.

My friends, we live in a democracy. We are independent. Are we also a nation of rebels? Impudent and stubborn? Are we a nation rebellious towards God, impudent towards God, stubborn towards God?

Has our democracy and our independent thinking released us from the obligations we have from acknowledging the King of the universe that holds our very lives in our hands?

O Mortal.

“To you I lift up my eyes,

To you enthroned in the heavens.

As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their maters,

and the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,

So, our eyes look to the Lord our God until he show us his mercy.

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy,

For we have had more than enough contempt,

Too much of the scorn of the indolent rich,

And the derision of the proud.”

 

Pride. Today is typically a day of pride for our country. It is Independence Day in a nation that prides itself on being independent and strong. We are independent thinkers and independent doers with independent thoughts and independent freedom of speech. We can live independently, work independently, travel independently …

We are “do-it-yourselfers” fixing our own cars, and houses, and sinks, and computers. We fix lawnmowers, and bikes, and boats, and broken playgrounds. We fix people in hospitals, we fix minds with psychiatry and psychology, and mend hearts with chocolate bar-b-que and beer.

Being dependent in a nation that prides itself on independence causes great stress and distress for those who lose the ability to be independent or those who are forced or subjugated into dependence, incarcerated, or cast away, or locked up or oppressed.  In a nation with a dominant independent racial majority with a history of subjugating others, the concept of independence and freedom is a paradox. It is a privilege. It is a right, and yet still a freedom to be fought for. It is not guaranteed. Independence is not everyone’s reality. It is an ideal and more importantly, to us as a church, it is a myth.

Think about it. Every single one of you in this place is completely dependent on every other person in this place.

How so? In this microcosm of Good Shepherd Episcopal, we are a body of believers that interacts with each other in spirit, mind, and body. We have mutually agreed to be at this place at the same time to do the same thing for the same or similar purpose. We have independently used our free will to come to mutually acceptable terms about what being her means, and what we will all do when we get her.

We came independently, or we are watching independently, but we are completely dependent on each other.

I depend on JJ, Jere, and Alyssa to manage the technology, Joanne, and the choir to prepare and provide the sound of beautiful music, Jackie to complete the bulletin, Lois to do the readings and water the plants, and Peni to intercede – in addition to the flower guild, the altar guild. I depend on Adrian to usher, the Vestry and Health Shepherding team to make good decisions, the congregation to show up and participate, the Diocese, the bishop …. And the list goes on.

Most of all, I am completely dependent on God’s saving grace, Christ’s mercy, and the Holy Spirit’s presence to live, to breath, to be. I am not independent at all.

I am interdependent in cooperation with all of you. We are interdependent on each other.

Interdependence is a healthy relational exchange between mature people who agree on specific forms of behavior that are mutually beneficial. Interdependence is the goal of healthy human interaction.

To celebrate Independence alone is to leave a wide gap in what is possible for us as a nation and as a people.

Interdependence is the relationship that allows a “privileged” race or class of people to realize they are completely dependent on other races and classes of people. It removes the air of superiority, humbles the proud, levels the playing field, removes the barriers, elevates the oppressed to a status of mutual value.

In our gospel today, Jesus was despised as a prophet because he was a carpenter. Let that sink in. Jesus was despised as a prophet because he was a blue-collar worker, a carpenter.

My friends, you need every immigrant worker to be united with their family members so their family unit can be whole and complete. As the body of Christ, when one member suffers, all members suffer.

My friends, you need every addict to receive care and healing. When one member of the body suffers, we all suffer. My friends, you need every river stream, and body of water free from pollution, because those waters when polluted destroy some member of the body of Christ. So, we pay attention to Rio and what happens to our companion church there, because when one member suffers, we all suffer. We are on body, not independent, but completely interdependent on each other.

We are a democracy in function for the purposes of our governance but let us not translate that into thinking that with God we are in a democracy. With the body of Christ, we are not a democracy. If my eye decided to go on vacation without my foot, or my hand to play tennis while my ear went to a concert, and they could not agree with each other, I might be called rebellious and stubborn. Our democracy gives us a way to communicate with each other respectfully, to acknowledge the value of each member of the body and each member of our country. But let us remember that we are one body, with one head who is Jesus Christ, our Lord, our King, our commander, and Good Shepherd who loves us and cares for us and wants all good things for us. Let us set aside Independence for Interdependence and celebrate that Christ has brought us together to serve one another with humility and love. Let us set aside pride in a nation for thankfulness that a carpenter did not give up in his hometown. That Jesus the Christ came as a humble day worker to bring us a message of salvation so that those of us who might think more highly of themselves than we ought can remember that it is the humble who reign in Christ’s kingdom.