This is the message I presented at Tompkins Corners United Methodist Church for Trinity Sunday, 15 June 2003. The Scriptures are Isaiah 6: 1 – 8, Romans 8: 12 – 17, and John 3: 1- 17. This was also Father’s Day.
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In the early part of 1775, the Continental Congress passed a series of resolutions calling for the thirteen colonies to defy the provisions of the Stamp Act recently enacted by the British government. As part of those resolutions, the Continental Congress called upon each of the thirteen colonies to support these resolutions. So it was that on March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry rose before the delegates of the Virginia Convention meeting in St. John’s Church in Richmond, VA to give perhaps the most impassioned speech of the pre-Revolutionary period.
And though this speech, with its ringing closing statement of “Give me liberty or give me death”, was the clarion call for war with Britain, it was at its heart a cry for justice. Like so many of those who called for action, Patrick Henry could not see how life under British rule and its colonial policies of taxation without representation could be considered fair under any circumstances. And like many, neither could he see a resolution of the problems through negotiation. If the colonists were to achieve the freedom they sought in this country, actions were necessary, not words of accommodation and one-sided compromise.
But more importantly, Patrick Henry understood that peace could not be achieved at the expense of liberty. For as he spoke, it is said that he had visions of his wife, Sarah Shelton, in his mind. As he spoke of the coming and inevitable war with Britain, he knew of the war his wife was fighting with the demons of mental illness.
Society’s cure for mental illness in those times was to simply lock up the mentally ill and treat them as a threat to society. To have peace with society, Patrick Henry could have put his wife in a mental asylum but he chose to keep her at home. Two rooms in the basement of their home were set aside for her so that in the rare moments of lucidity, she could be with the family and the children. But though it was her home, it was still a prison. Sadly, Sarah died just a few months before Patrick Henry rose that day in March of 1775.
On this day, when we celebrate peace with justice, it is important to know that you cannot have one without the other. When someone uses that phrase so often as the call for freedom, “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?” you will know what drove Patrick Henry to seek freedom for this country.
Some twelve years ago, I first used this reference to Patrick Henry. A colleague of mine, after seeing a draft of the sermon, commented that I was one of the more conservative Methodists that he knew. This came as quite a shock to me since I knew several preachers who were more conservative than I and I have never thought of myself as conservative. He also said that what I wrote was a justification for actions, such as the bombing of abortion clinics, that he would have approved but which I then and still today find reprehensible.
Patrick Henry’s call for action in the defense of liberty rings well in many right-wing political circles and is found on many right wing based web sites. One site, in fact, is a fundamentalist church whose pastor used the speech in a sermon a year ago as a call for Christians to take action against the moral decay and decline of civilization. But the actions that others take today and justify with the words of Patrick Henry spoke are no better than the actions they oppose.
Peace with Justice is not just a slogan but rather an affirmation of what this country is about. But it cannot be found in ways that take away freedom. You can never have freedom if members of society are oppressed and equal opportunities are not given to all.
Utilizing violence, especially in today’s world, as a means to solve violence will never work. It is easy to use the call for action and war as Patrick Henry did. Perhaps war was inevitable in 1775 but that was because neither side was willing to take the steps to successfully resolve the conflict.
We still live in a world where hatred and violence are almost commonplace, expression of love and compassion are most clearly needed. We live in a world which almost daily invokes Exodus 21: 23 – 24, “But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” So it is that we need to be reminded that Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’” But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” (Matthew 5: 38 – 39)
Jesus continued by commanding us to love our enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matthew 5: 43 – 44) Jesus was responding to the saying that you could love your neighbor but should hate your enemy. This phrase, “hate your enemies”, can be found nowhere in the Old Testament but it was then and still is today an accepted part of society. Jesus spoke of the love that we were to give to all people, not just those we like. God does not lower the standards of righteousness simply to accommodate our sinfulness; rather, he gives us the power to keep His righteous standard.
The causes of war are poverty, oppression and hatred. Until such time as those causes are eliminated there can never be peace. Some will chastise me for what I say today. But then there were those who took exception to what Patrick Henry said. But if we are to be true to the Gospel message, if we are to show that God’s love is real, then we must speak out.
That I believe is a critical role of the church, to speak out against injustice, to speak out against oppression, to speak out against hatred. How many times did Jesus challenge society to do the right thing, how many times did Jesus do that which society did not want done?
Being a part of society, being the conscience of society is what the church is all about. It is what should have been the case from the beginning of the church but has not been. But it has to be more than just words. There must be action behind the words. When John Wesley began his ministry, others had cried out from the pulpit with concerns for the lower classes and poor of England. But it was done with the assumption that the only way for those in need to be saved was by emulating the upper classes.
Wesley believed that it was not necessary for the working and lower classes to be like the upper classes. Salvation was not a matter of a better life style; it was and should be the acceptance of Jesus Christ as one’s own Savior. So the role of the church was to help them find that path. And if that path was blocked because society put up obstacles, then the church should be tearing down the obstacles.
Like Nicodemus, people come to the church seeking answers. And the answers he received that evening years ago caused him great concern. For he was being asked to reconsider how he saw his life.
The acceptance of Christ as one’s Savior is a life changing experience. It is the experience that Nicodemus was troubled about; it is an experience that causes much trouble even today. It is not so much that we must, as Nicodemus asked, return to our mother’s womb but rather we must change the way in which we live.
This causes us, just as it caused Nicodemus, trouble. For we cannot see a way to change our lives. Unfortunately, in this day and age, too many people claim to be born again but still live the same life as before. And because they do not change their lives, their thinking is limited and out-dated.
If we look at the verses in John that come right after today’s reading, we see that acceptance of Christ as the Savior brings a new light and a new understanding to the ways of the world. But if we do not believe, if we do not accept then we continue in the old ways, ways that lead to failure.
With Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit, we lead a new life. Our actions and decisions are based upon what our new life is about. This is, what I feel, Paul was saying to the Romans. It is the spirit of God that guides us in our life after coming to Christ. So it should be the Spirit of God that people see in our actions.
In accepting Christ, we are given a new life and a new way of seeing things. We must see what we do in terms of what Jesus did and why He did it. We must see life in the same terms as Jesus did. The Gospel reminds us today that it was love that provided the reason for God’s actions; it will be love that provides the reason for our actions. If there is not love in what we do, then we are as guilty as those who claim to be born again but judge and condemn those who are not.
Just as Patrick Henry called for action in 1775, so too is God calling us today, asking us as he did Isaiah, “Whom shall I send?”
We now that we should answer God’s call. We know that only by our efforts will the Gospel be realized. But we are reluctant to answer because we do not how it will be done. But just as Nicodemus was perplexed and reluctant to accept the idea of being born again, so too are we. We know that a life in Christ will yield the results we seek; but we are reluctant to give away what we think is our freedom.
But the freedom that we think we have is simply enslavement to the power of sin and death. The true freedom we seek will come through Christ and all we have to do is hear the words of Paul again to know that is true.
We know that, with the Holy Spirit in our lives, we have a new direction and a new sense of how things can be done. The question of the day is “How will it get done? How will we, as individuals in this world, change the world around us?” We know that the answer lies in our acceptance of Christ.
