Sermons

Lessons in Democracy

Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple– truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Here we are in the 247 years of this experiment in Democracy.  This is the 16th year I have done this service in at least five different parishes, and I want to be cautious as a Canadian on July 2nd.  I am not comfortable with celebrating the country’s birthday and a church service.  Because of the shift in the body politic, a service like this can be viewed as really close to the edge of Christian nationalism.

The definition of  Christian nationalism is “[it] seeks to merge Christian and American identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America’s constitutional democracy. Christian nationalism demands Christianity be privileged by the State and implies that to be a good American; one must be Christian. It often overlaps with and provides cover for white supremacy and racial subjugation”

I love this country and what it stands for, and I want to say that this service is “lessons in democracy;” it is not a celebration.  It is not called Celebrate AMERICA, and trust me, those church services happen all over this country.

Making this morning about celebrating America can muddy both the aspiration of this experiment in democracy and it can be viewed as aligning ourselves with Chrisitan Nationalism.  We are not a Christian nation; we are not a nation that needs you to be Christian to be a citizen of the United States.  When St. Marks celebrates the freedoms of this democracy and celebrates the foundational documents, it is not us putting a stake in the ground.  We do not say you must be Christian to be a citizen or participate in this experiment.

Our flawed aspirational democracy took a hit this week with the ruling on Religious Freedom Laws and the Supreme Court saying that you do not have to do something against your Christian Values.  It is a stunning defeat against all discrimination laws in this country, not who we aspire to be. Though many would tell me this is about Speech, it feels much more personal.  It will be interesting when the first  Muslim cab driver refuses to give a ride to someone from the airport because they have alcohol from the duty-free shop.

Let’s see where the religious freedom people stand then. Or the Jewish cashier who won’t scan your pork ribs at the grocery store. When will we admit that it is their so-called Christian Values that they want to protect?

So when we hear these readings, please hear them as a call to be who we want to become. Who we aspire to be, not who we are yet.  The work is before us. We are called as people to keep naming the things that are not normal; Dr. King says that it is normalcy that will kill who we want to be, who Jesus and the teachings of Jesus call us to be.

Many places will celebrate the US.  Our call is to follow Jesus and invite others to follow their sense of the divine spark, and in that, we can become the country we want to celebrate.

Amen