josephholubsermons
July 4, 2010
Pentecost 6
Luke 10:1-11
Pioneers in the Kingdom of God’s Grace
Today is our nation’s most
hallowed national day.
Looking back in history, on July 2, 1776, after weeks of debate, the
Continental Congress adopted what was known as “The Lee Resolution” or the
“Resolution of independence” declaring the united colonies to be independent
of the British Empire. During
the almost month long debate on that resolution, a committee was appointed
on June 11, 1776 to draft a document articulating the reasons for the
anticipated passage of the resolution.
After the passage of the “resolution of independence” on July 2, the
finalized text of the document was adopted two days later.
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was officially
consecrated signed by 56 representatives of the 13 colonies.
Do you know what happened
to those 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence?
I did a little research this week to learn more.
Of course, the very act of signing the Declaration was a act
of treason against the British Empire – an action which put their lives in
jeopardy.
In brief summary, five of the fifty-six were captured by the British and
suffered various forms or torture and hardship. Twelve had their homes
ransacked, looted, confiscated or burned to the ground. Seventeen lost
their fortunes. Two lost their sons in the army; another had two sons
captured. Nine of the fifty-six lost their lives, in the revolutionary war,
from inflicted wounds or hardships.
A few specific examples
include:
·
Carter Braxton of Virginia,
a wealthy planter and trader saw his ships swept from the seas by the
British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and
died in rags.
·
Thomas Nelson, Jr., of Virginia,
raised $2 million to help supply French allies by offering his property as
collateral. Because he was never reimbursed by the struggling new
government, he was unable to repay the note when it came due – wiping out
his entire estate. In the battle of Yorktown, Nelson urged George
Washington to fire on his home as it was occupied by British General
Cornwallis. Nelson’s home was destroyed, leaving him in poverty when he
died.
·
Francis Lewis
of New York had his home and properties destroyed and his wife imprisoned.
She later died as a result of the harsh conditions and poor health incurred
while she was imprisoned.
·
After signing the Declaration,
Richard Stockton, a NJ State Supreme Court Justice, rushed back to
his estate near Princeton to save his wife and children. Stockton was
pulled from his bed in the night and beaten by British soldiers. He
was jailed and deliberately starved. After his release, with his home
burned and all of his possessions destroyed, he and his family were forced
to depend on friends for sustenance, and he never regained his health from
the ordeal and he died a few years later.
These are but few
examples of the hardships and heavy price that these individuals and
their families incurred for the bold vision of greater freedom yet to
be realized. They each made
their own choices to make liberty from oppressive empire more important than
personal security, and they truly fulfilled the last line of the Declaration
which reads:
“And for the support of this
Declaration… we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and
our sacred honor.”
The thing that so
strikes me about these 56 who signed the Declaration is that most of
them were people of means, status and education.
By the standard of the times they were living comfortable and secure
lives. But they were driven and
motivated by a deeper vision of freedom and were willing to risk it all for
liberty’s sake. In that sense
they were pioneers;
pioneers of liberty and freedom.
That is the metaphor I wish to emphasize today – PIONEERS.
On this day
when we commemorate the difficult struggle and mighty effort
for freedom by our ancestors that forged the infant beginnings of our
nation, in this setting this morning we are mindful of a related
struggle and mighty effort for freedom and justice that goes on until
this very day; it’s a struggle and effort that goes on in
every nation, under
every flag and in
every land.
And, as followers and disciples of Jesus, it’s a struggle and effort
that we are called into anew each day.
As we explore the depths of
the meaning of Jesus in the gospels of the New Testament, we see that Jesus,
in proclaiming and embodying
the Kingdom of God in his own life, challenged the domination systems
imposed by the religion and the political empire of his day.
He challenged religion when
it used the name of God to marginalized and dehumanized people.
He challenged political empire when
used its power to favor a few percentage of the wealthy and powerful over
and against the masses of poor.
In the Kingdom of God embodied by Jesus, the least and the last are first,
and the proud and powerful are humbled; enemies and adversaries are prayed
for; the excluded unclean,
ostracized and outsiders are
included. The Kingdom of
God that Jesus proclaimed pursues peace, not through force and coercion, but
peace through the pursuit of social justice for all people.
You see,
Jesus was a pioneer, and as
his followers and disciples, we
are called to be pioneers –
Pioneers of the Kingdom of God – pioneers of grace.
To be such a pioneer can mean many things, among them these three:
In our gospel this morning
it reads, “And Jesus appointed 70
others and sent them ahead of him saying… I am sending you out like lambs in
the midst of wolves… carry no purse, no bag, no sandals…
Whatever house you enter, first say,
‘Peace to this house!’ And if
anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person,
but if not, it will return to you.”
There is a lot packed into
these verses, and much of its meaning is cloaked in
ancient idiom and to
extract precise meaning is difficult.
But, I get the sense from these verses that to be a
pioneer in the
kingdom of God is, first of all,
to travel light without a lot of baggage (physical and otherwise) and
to be open, even vulnerable, to those around you.
It is a mission in search
of hospitality and a mission upon which
hospitality is cultivated.
In biblical times a village was often judged by the
hospitality it showed to strangers.
These dispersed disciples would have been “strangers” to these
villages to which they entered.
Jesus’ meaning seemed to be that when they found hospitality, they were to
rest in it and celebrate it
because that is what the kingdom of God is all about.
It’s in an environment of hospitality that the kingdom of God
flourishes. If you don’t find
hospitality then simply move on until you do find it.
In the course of any given
week or month here at LOTM, many people come to our door – and they
have a wide range of needs – some we can meet – some we cannot – but we do
everything we can. But the
one thing they are all
looking for, in one form or another, is
simple hospitality – a
listening ear, a compassionate heart, a kind spirit.
They make themselves vulnerable to us – the question is will we be
vulnerable to them – can and will hospitality happen between us?
We open our building
to a spectrum of community and religious groups – and to a group they are
expressively thankful for our hospitality shown in that way.
I mention these things not to “toot our own horn” – not at all.
I mention them as examples of what it means to be a pioneer in
hospitality – a pioneer in the Kingdom of God’s grace.
A second way
to be a pioneer in the Kingdom of God is
to expect that God lives outside of us and our way; outside the boundaries
of our well-ordered and well-scheduled days. A pioneer follower of Jesus
adopts the attitude of seeing the next interruption that comes along not
necessarily as an inconvenience, but an
opportunity to
experience the presence of God and to share the grace of God.
When I look back on my life, I can see that the times I have grown
the most in my faith, been challenged the most and experienced most
profoundly God's presence have been on detours and twists in the road that
came as interruptions, surprises and inconveniences – even in the tragedies
and traumas I have experienced along the way.
A third way
to be a pioneer in the Kingdom of God is to live with fewer boundaries and
barriers. I think one of the
great “sins” of Christianity, in all of its expressions, is that we have
confined and bottled-up God’s incredible kingdom of grace behind so many
confining walls and constricting boundaries: boundaries of
denominationalism; walls of particular personal piety; barriers of
theological doctrine and viewpoint; behind boundaries of this and walls of
that.
Today is Independence Day for our nation, but in the Kingdom of God every
day is Independence Day. Every day God in Jesus Christ is calling
us out from behind our walls and boundaries setting us free to bring God’s
kingdom of grace and good news to the world without limitation or
restriction. The grace of God is not an
exclusive doctrine, but an
inclusive way of living and
embracing the world.
Jesus had vision, not of a singular nation, but a vision of the
Kingdom of God’s grace that supersedes every boundary.
However, he was perceived as a threat by parochial religious views
and powers of empire, so much so, they executed him.
But he is not dead – the kingdom of grace is not dead – his vision
lives on – his pioneer spirit lives on - in us – in others – his
resurrection presence is known and experienced.
The living out of and application of God’s Kingdom of grace will be not
always be easy in our kind of world. Fear and uncertainty will attempt to
dampen and squelch the pioneer
spirit within us.
That pioneer spirit was not defeated by the powers of domination and
empire in the lives of our ancestors of freedom and liberty we remember and
honor across our nation today.
They found inspiration, strength and support to bravely carry on by pledging
their “lives…
fortunes… and sacred honor”
to one another.
Pioneer disciples of Jesus
gathered here, can we do the same when it comes to the Kingdom of God’s
grace? Do we have the courage
and the will?