The Idea
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
July 5, 2015
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
1 Samuel 8: 11-18
Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
I'm excited to be back from vacation. We had a
wonderful time, but it is always great to be back to work, and I'm extra stoked
to get to preach today because in all my years of ministry, including my time
as an intern in Hampton, I've never gotten to preach around the Fourth of July.
We have always been heading to the beach now, rather than just getting back. So
this sermon has very much been on my mind for years. I've always wanted to
preach on the idea of America and how it fits into the context of history, how
it fits into, I believe, the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. . . and mark that
I said the "idea" of America. . . because America is not a land, not
a people, not a flag, not anything that could be misconstrued as an object of
idolatry, but instead it is an idea, and it is an idea I believe to be based in
the witness of God's revealed Word, though often "we the people,"
have countless examples of how we fail to live up to the idea of what America
is. . . choosing instead to be
distracted by labels, symbols, and the trappings of the idea. I had trouble
deciding which New Testament Passage to choose to accompany and guide this
message because so many fit it partly, so I chose this one because it is quite
formative, telling, and important for us to remember these days, as the idea is
like it has been since its inception, being constantly challenged. Colossians
3: 7-17
7 These are
the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.8 But
now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and
abusive language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another,
seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices 10 and
have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge
according to the image of its creator. 11 In that renewal there
is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian,
slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!
12 As God’s
chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,
humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if
anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord
has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all, clothe
yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were
called in the one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with
gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. [1]
I was especially drawn to verse 11, the piece that talks
about the change in distinctions, how life in Christ removes them. It is such
an important idea that it is also found in Paul's other letter to the
Galatians, where he says, "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no
longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are
one in Christ Jesus."[2] What an
important message, and certainly central to the American Idea, but I went with
the Colossians passage because it outlines the context. . . that it is a new
life in Jesus Christ we are living, and that the Old Life is all around us, and
provides context for the changes that are brought about by the new life, by the
new faith, by what Christ makes possible, and like the Christian life has
context and growth, so too does the American Idea, for many aspects of what we
take for granted, as "just the way it is" these days, are very much
radical, untested, and experimental in the history of the world. So I want to
take some time to tell that story today. As many of you may know, I've been
working on writing an epic that tells this story, but today I thought I would
give the short version, and maybe I can use it as a kind of an outline for that
larger work.
Into a world of Sin, human beings
have believed in a lie. . . it was a lie that started in the Garden of Eden,
when we came to question the existence, the veracity, the truth about God,
creating, ordering, and making a world for us that is Good, providing for our
needs, and making a home for us, making us in his image. Having lost sight of
that truth, through the lie of sin, we turn on each other. . . we believe that
we must struggle and make our own way in the world. We come to mistrust each
other, even falling into the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. . . Now in a
world where we must work, in a world where we must struggle, in a world where
we cannot trust each other, where we cannot count on our work being safe, our
property being safe, our families being safe, our person and dignity being
safe, we instead make our own way, we fight, we hoard, we take, we protect, we
fear, we hold onto grudges, or as Paul puts it, we become overcome by "anger,
wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language. . . and we lie." We lie
because in a world of lies, one more lie is an attempt at control, control we
never actually have, but are constantly seeking. We each fight over control of
our little lives, our little universes. Now in this world of conflicting ideas
and partial truths, the strong become powerful, and might makes right. . . and from
the might. . . the truth gets formed. Leaders, kings, and emperors grow and the
more they can control, the more of their truth can be spread, this truth
becomes religion, and religion and power are mixed together. . . rituals and
gods, become based on the idols of control. Polytheistic Paganism is the
religion of power, and the Philosophic insurance policy that the institutions
of power will remain. Faith and power interconnected and indivisible. . . this
is the way of the world.
But then in the 1000 years before
the coming of Christ, in many remote places, in each of the centers of
civilization, new ideas begin to emerge, seemingly independently, but emerging
in each is a new idea about the transcendence of truth, that the world is
connected, ordered, and that there is truth beyond what any one man could
claim, even if they happen to be king or emperor. It is on this axis that the
world begins to turn, though gradually, and fragilely and only partially in
China, and Persia, and India, and Egypt, and Greece, and of course centered
around a group of people, long exiled, and then allowed to return to settle in
Jerusalem, rebuilding a temple on the ideas collected in a set of Scripture,
founded in Law, Wisdom, and Prophets. It is in this world, especially within
the tradition of Hebrew Monotheism and the Greek World of the Philosophy of
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, that God sends his Son into the world to reveal
the complete truth, redeem humanity, forgive sins, set the record straight,
revealing the limitless nature of His Power and Love, that it not only
transcends truth, but is the complete truth, divine and connected to God the
sole creator of the universe, the great poet who set all of this into motion.
And Christ teaches against the grain
of human history ideas like loving your neighbor, and turning the other cheek,
and going the extra mile, and about saltiness, and exemplary cities on hills,
and lost sheep, and seeking the one who has been lost, and celebrating about
the importance of even one, returning to the fold, the importance of the
individual, every, and each, having importance, being made in God's image,
being important enough for Christ to go to the cross, personally for each, not
through representatives, like kings or priests, elites, but personally, not by
what we have done, but by what he is giving. . . ideas like grace, and love,
and the fact that they are more powerful even than death, for on the third day,
the stone was rolled away, and death was defeated and life was made anew. . . and
the same Christ who was nailed to the cross was now running free in the world,
proclaiming and changing it forever. . . a new reality, perhaps as it always
had been hiding somewhere in the truth beyond the lies of Sin.
But despite the Render unto Caesar,
and the other distinctive features about this new reality, after years of
persecution, the Christ truth was married again to power, much like the old
Pagan ideas that had always been a part of the world, much like the Old
Testament passage, warning of the double edged sword of having a king. . . and
therefore a symbol of God's rule on earth. . . . What happens when corruption
ensues, when might again makes right, when the wants and desires for control of
the rulers becomes disconnected from the will of God they are supposed to be
representing? Both Kings and Priests again come to have all the power in the
new Christendom, and you can see the results in the history of medieval Europe.
. . War, crusades, ruthlessness, inquisition, corruption both political and
religious, taxation, indulgences, false and empty promises about the meaning
and cause of pain and disaster like Plague, disease, and crisis, for there was
no check on power and might, for the truth again had become caught up in it
all, God's will mixed up with the wishes of the Kings and priests and even
Popes.
But God's truth would emerge through
the rising trouble, even out of it, for the Crusades brought to Europe
remembrances of the axial changes of the 1000 years heading toward Christs'
birth, and the Biblical Account of Jesus, we called the New Testament was set
free from the powers, made readable and accessible by the ordinary person, and
the results were transformative, for knowledge of the truth is power because it
is light and light overshadows the lies of the darkness always. . . and once
the truth was beginning to be able to shine, it kept shining brighter and
brighter. Reformation. . . the world was changing and life was changing, and
people were being set free to relate to Christ personally, with no mediators,
set free from controlling rituals, and the superstitions of the powerful. Truth
was again being seen as a transcendent reality that was un-owned by anyone, but
instead living outside, so that it could be sought after equally by everyone.
Because we were now set free by Christ, and the words of Colossians and many
like it could be made true. . . .
11 In that
renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!
12 As God’s
chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,
humility, meekness, and patience.
Not hoarding, not controlling, not forcing, not oppressing,
but freeing, defined by compassion rather than fear, kindness rather than
oppression, humility rather than knowing all, meekness rather than might, and
patience in faith rather than the holding tight of doubt, because despite it
all God is in control, and loves us, and is good. Pretty high ideas aren't
they. . . It was in this new world, that the Enlightenment and the First Great
Awakening laid the spiritual and intellectual framework that wrote the
Declaration of Independence. Dripping from Jefferson's words was the idea of
the gospel. . . Men, created equal, with former distinctions disappearing: like
race, or station, or gender. . . although we have never quite lived up to the
idea, it was there, like a shining light for us to reach higher and higher, to
grasp beyond even our own abilities in humility. That these men should be free
to discern the truth as it relates to them, that their lives, each life
mattered, and was important, and was crucial to the unfolding of God's plan. .
. that the truth about right and wrong was much more powerful than might. . .
for tyranny existed even if it wasn't spoken of. . . the king didn't have to
agree for it to be. . . . Natural Law, transcendent truth dictated rather than
the dictator, and so laws would need to be based in Natural Law, or they
wouldn't hold water, they wouldn't last, they wouldn't have merit, and they
could then be challenged, civilly, through this notion of Civil Disobedience.
Only within this American Idea could the civil disobedience, of following moral
law, over municipal law be such a powerful thing. It is just dripping with the
truth as told by Christ, who certainly knew something about standing up against
authority.
Now today we debate over
symbols and labels and the like, all idols that fall far short of the idea, and
the idea is what should connect us, but does it? The idea is important, and it
is being overshadowed by the trappings, the flag, the notion of exceptionalism,
the richness of the economy, the so called American Dream, rooted in house,
job, a white picket fence, and 2.3 children. We protect the people, while
enslaving them by notions of safety and fear. The idea of America depends on
the belief in Transcendent truth, it depends on the notion of a provident God,
it depends on us seeing the dignity and importance of the individual, that the
whole is made up of each, and each is the framework. These are important cornerstones
of the idea of America because without them we are just a land that we can
build a wall around, we are just a people that can use each other to get ahead,
and we are just symbols and idols we can use to control debate and divide us
from each other. More and more this is what we are forgetting as we go further,
we fear rather than love, we control rather than let be, and we grasp, claw,
and fight, rather than believing that someone else's point of view may have
merit. We cannot forget that the idea of America is centered in Christ, not in
name only, not in a Medieval notion of Christendom, not in a limiting and
dividing way, but in a way that brings people together, beyond labels, beyond
distinctions, beyond things that we can try and control, beyond fear that the
world is spiraling out of control, but in faith, that God is very much in
control, even despite us. . . that we can again, like Jefferson wrote, and our
Presbyterian ancestor in faith, John Witherspoon asked to be added, with a firm
reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each
other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. Despite all
the times that we have fallen short of this idea, despite how we continue to
fall short of it today, now seeming worse than ever, that these simple words,
hold the key to unlocking the power of our Idea, not the American Dream, which
Shakespeare wrote, that dreams are the "children of an idle brain,
begotten of nothing but vain fantasy," but the American Idea, which is
rooted in transcendent truth, knowing with all humility that we seek the
American Idea, constantly, knowing that though we cannot live up to it, it is
self evident that it is good, and continues to be, and should ever be sought
after. May God grant it to be so, and to bless each of us as we seek it arm in
arm freely together.
Today's Anthem:
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