A Sermon on Independence Day

Yesterday my pastor was away, and I was in charge of the service.  I knew that we wouldn't do much with the fact that it was Independence Day--no patriotic music, no coffee hour with cupcakes iced with red and blue frosting.  I was happily surprised that we had some folks show up for service.

The Gospel for yesterday was Mark 6:  1-13.  I talked about the first part of that Gospel, that part about people not being appreciated in their home towns.  It was even worse than a modern reader would suspect.  Jesus was referred to as his mother's son, not his father's son--we know it's Mary, the chosen one, but people of Christ's time did not.  I talked about Jesus not being able to perform the kinds of work he wanted to do, and referred to last week's Gospel and discussion about the miracle that happened with the bleeding woman.  How much was Jesus in control of the miracles?

I talked about the rigidity of the patriarchal culture of Christ's time, and the Europe that the colonists had left behind.  I talked about the new colonies and how some of them had been formed with idealistic ambitions, and how quickly the new societies became rigid in similar ways to the Old Country.  Jesus is calling us to a new way, and then, now, and in the time of the colonists, we have a hard time leaving the old way behind.

Then I talked about the second part of the Gospel, where Jesus sends the 12 disciples out to do their work, 2 by 2, bringing very little with them.  It's an anti-colonial approach:  go and give good news, and if you're accepted, great, and if not, move on.  I returned to a topic that I bring up occasionally, that we celebrate this approach to discipleship and evangelism, but there are other approaches.  It's important to see this call in this Gospel as specific to these people, these men, and specific to a particular time and place.  But we have a different call.

I had been listening to the choir rehearse before the service, and I knew that they would sing a song about seeds, and I asked the congregation to think about seeds as they listened to the song:  where are we planted and what are we planting?

I reminded people that we are called too, and that it's never too late to respond to a call, as the dean of Southern Seminary reminded us at the last Synod Assembly in 2019.  I asked people what God was calling them to do.  I reminded people that it is not too late.  My spouse said that the faces of the congregation lit up at this reminder.  I returned to the metaphor of seeds and plants:  some times, plants look dead, and then they have a second or a third or a fourth life of blooming.

I finished with a nod to Independence Day by saying that on a day when we celebrate Independence, it's worth returning to that Declaration, particularly the end, where the men pledge their lives, their fortune and their sacred honor--where do we pledge our sacred honor?  How can we commit to a vision of that life that God calls us to create, a life where we will be free?