PENTECOST PROPER 9: YEAR A 2008

Every other Thursday I drive to Athens for a meeting of half-a-dozen clergy of different denominations. It is part support group and part therapy gathering that is led by a family therapist and I have been a member of that group for nearly twenty years. I am the token Episcopalian.

The hour’s drive from Gainesville is a time to listen to my Ipod or, occasionally, I will listen to talk radio, which I chose this past Thursday. Specifically, every now and then I will listen to Neil Bortz as a means of balancing out the opinions of National Public Radio. Needless to say much of the talk was about our freedoms, the political candidates and the Supreme Court. The latest court ruling was welcomed by many and challenged by some. Freedom and rights were discussed in light of the fact that we are a “Christian nation” and somehow all of that got equated with God, the Ten Commandments, the Bill of Rights, and the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. I came to the conclusion that there are a lot of angry folks out there in radio land and many of them are very confused about their history.

For instance, the Ten Commandments are a Jewish document, supposedly given to Moses by God, for the purpose of identifying and governing the new Hebrew nation.

Thomas Jefferson is the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, but it is based largely on the political philosophy of the Englishman, John Locke.

James Madison introduced the Bill of Rights which is a compilation of the English and Virginia Bills of Rights that preceded it.

And the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag was written by Francis Bellamy, a nineteenth century socialist. It did not contain the phrase, “one nation under God”. That phrase was adopted by Congress in 1954 and it was chiefly sponsored by the Roman Catholic Knights of Columbus who wanted to contrast godless Communism with Godly American Christianity.

It is this last fact of history that I want to focus on for this Fourth of July weekend. We proclaim proudly that we are “a nation under God”. However, the Pew Foundation studies our religious habits and, periodically, reports our behavior. Recently it reported that 89% of us proclaim that we are religious, but only 42% regularly attend a worship service and most of those are women over fifty. Forty-nine percent of worshipers have changed denominations at least once from that in which they were raised. Denominational loyalty is a thing of the past. Most of the old-line denominations are losing members. The predominant philosophy of worshipers is that of consumerism. We shop around for what pleases us and makes us happy. We prefer one-stop shopping, therefore, the mega churches that provide childcare, lively music, PowerPoint sermons and Starbucks coffee are doing well. So, what does it mean to be “one nation under God?”

Does “under God” mean that I join an army of crusaders to recapture the Holy Land in the name of Jesus and kill as many Jews and Moslems as possible? That’s what Pope Urban II urged in 1092.

Does “under God” mean that this nation is more Godly than other nations? The Pew Report would suggest not.

Does “under God” lend credence to George Bush Sr.’s proclamation after bombing the fool out of Baghdad that, “Yesterday our fliers did the Lord’s work”?

What does it mean to be “under God”? Well, our best example is found in the Old Testament. There God promised Abraham that he would make of his linage “a great nation”. That promise was made again to Moses who was called to lead the Hebrews out of bondage into freedom and nation status. God promised, “I will be your God and you will be my people.” Moses acted on that promise and led his people into the Sinai Desert for the long and arduous job of nation building. They were God’s people, they were “under God”. But it wasn’t long before they too, began to ask, “What does ‘under God’ mean?  The answer came from God through Moses. “You are to be obedient and faithful.” Obedience was driven by the Ten Commandments; this, God says, is how you are to behave. And Moses knew that these new nation-people could be seduced by other, less demanding gods, warned them, “You must remain faithful.”

So what happened? Well, as soon as Moses was out of sight up on the Mount Sinai, the people said, “He isn’t coming back!” “We need a new God to worship!” And they pooled all their gold and made this pathetic little image of a bull to worship. They substituted a glittering little statue for a living God that had just delivered them from bondage.

Why did they do that? Why do we do it? Why do we turn our backs on one who wants us to be free? Well, look no further that Paul’s words in today’s epistle.

“I know what is right and what is wrong. I desire to do what is right, but I find myself doing what is wrong. So I find it a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. Wretched man tat I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

You see, the truth of the matter is that we are flawed. We know what we are supposed to do, but we don’t do it. We know about obedience, but we rebel. We know about faithfulness, but we succumb to infidelity. If we are truly ‘under God” then we are guilty as sin!

So what hope is there? Here is the Good news! “Come to me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me…and you will find rest.”

Three things, three steps that lead to freedom:

First, Come. You’ve got to come to Jesus. The Pentecostals have got that much right! How trite that sounds! How we have trivialized that idea. You’ve got to come to the one who loves you more than you’ll ever know and wants only that you offer up your weary and broken self. It doesn’t mater where you do that or how, just do it. Come just as you are, not as you would like to be or as you often pretend to be.

Second, drop the burden you are carrying. Hand it over, whatever it may be, a broken relationship, a craving for a particular substance, a fantasy about who you wish you were, that’s your offering.

And third, put on the yoke. See yourself as you really are and know , without a shadow of a doubt, that this one we call God, loves you far more than you can imagine. Put on the yoke that is given to you, the yoke of total dependence.

What does that look like? Well, let me tell you about my friend, Mike. I met mike over twenty years ago. He was a war hero of the Viet Nam conflict, flew over 100 missions. He was shot down and rescued by a helicopter taking small arms fire from the Viet Cong fifty yards away. He doesn’t know how many missions he flew stoned on pot or liquor. He came home to a failed marriage and a job flying for a well-known package service. His last flight for them was from Memphis to New York. E remembers taking off and the next thing he recalls is taxing up to the terminal in New York. The company put him on medical leave. He went into detox and they forced him to go to AA meetings. I met him when friend brought him to one of my parish’s AA groups. He sat and drank the coffee and wished it was scotch. It was along time before he told even a part of his story. It was even longer before he could say, “My name is Mike and I’m an alcoholic.” Eventually, he started coming to our early service. When I asked him how he was doing he said, “I’m looking for my higher power.” It took a while but eventually he came as he really was, and he laid the burden down….every single day, one day at a time. I’m not sure he found his higher power or the higher power found him. What I do know is that he carries that chip in his pocket that, at last count, had the number 22 on it. And that’s what “Under God” looks like. Amen.