7th Sunday of Pentecost
July 7, 2013
Fr. Philip Eberhart
Freedom and Sacrifice (Audio File)
I want to begin this morning
with a quote from the second paragraph of Geo. Washington’s First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789: (click title to read the whole speech)
Such
being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public summons,
repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in
this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who
rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose
providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may
consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a
Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may
enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success
the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great
Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your
sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow- citizens at large less
than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand
which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every
step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation
seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in
the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united
government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct
communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the
means by which most governments have been established without some return of
pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings
which the past seem to presage. These reflections, arising out of the present
crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You
will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there are none under the influence
of which the proceedings of a new and free government can more auspiciously
commence.
Just
over 300 words this paragraph comprises almost 1/5 of the whole speech that
Washington gave on his first inauguration in New York City, at Federal
Hall. Just a block away was the
small chapel of St. Paul, a part of Trinity Episcopal Church, Wall Street,
where the new president and the entire congressional cohort went immediately
after the speech to pray.
Washington led them out, in fact, with these words:
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as
they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take
my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of
the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor
the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect
tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a
form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their
happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged
views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success
of this Government must depend.
On this Sunday morning after the
4th of July, I thought it fitting for us to consider the beginnings
of our nation and its dedication by our leaders to Almighty God. And to say that this was an isolated
incident in the annuls of American History is to completely overlook, twist and
disfigure the beautiful partnership that our history tells of between our faith
in God and prayer to Him as our Supreme Sovereign and the deliberations of our
leaders in government throughout our history, from our very founding moments on
the shores of Jamestown and Plymouth, down to the prayers of and for today’s
legislators in every facet of government, national, state and local.
Today is a day for us to
remember and to consider the cost of freedom for a nation – One Nation, Under
God! And to consider the source of
Freedom, True freedom – a cost that we must continue to pay – a cost that we
must continue to PRAY!
Last Sunday, as we fell on our
knees in prayer – a national time of prayerful repentance – we were reminded by
our lection from Galations, that “ it is for freedom that Christ has set us
free!” The source and defender of freedom is God himself, and
we but partner with Him in this great endeavor. Freedom is first of all Freedom from: freedom from the tyranny of sin first,
in the redemption and cleansing we find in the blood of Jesus Christ. After that Freedom is Freedom to or
freedom For: Not for our own
pleasures and desires, according to the warnings of Paul in Galations, but
freedom for the good of others and freedom to become agents, ambassadors, if
you like – ambassadors of reconciliation to God first, and then ambassadors of
“life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Friends, these “unalienabile
rights” are not ours apart from the gracious granting of our Father in
heaven. And they are maintained by
constant vigilance toward Him and His will, and in supplication of His provision
and protections of them, by His sovereign hand. We are not sufficient in and of ourselves to provide them
for ourselves, but must turn our eyes to the grace-filled hand of God for such
sufficiency and to His mercy and grace, in the face of our constant
iniquities. We must, daily, in
prayer and supplication, involve the God of men and nations in the affairs of
our lives: our businesses and
financial enterprises; our local, state and national government; the
deliberations of our judiciary at every level; the needs of those around us and
our own needs – that He will extend his beneficent hand of grace and provision,
of love and protection, to us and to our children and to our churches and
communities of faith, and to all who know and who know not his love for us all. We are agents, with Him, friends, in
the formation of our future, based on the promises, great and precious, which
He has given us in His Word and throughout the history of covenant that we take
part in as God’s People.
Our leaders are trying to tell
us today that we are no longer a Christian nation, but that statement denies
the roots and foundation of our society.
We are engaged in a great struggle today in which we are told that God
has no place in the public square and in public discourse -- that prayer is and should be
completely private and thus, silent in the discourse of men and nations. But the history that we celebrate this
week of Independence, is one of Dependence! We are in need of such dependence now more than ever in our
history, as we seek to repair the breach that Godless Humanism has blown in the
walls of our society, in our schools and homes – where God has been un-invited
– unceremoniously thrown out – of public view, let alone public discourse. We go on into a future while denying our
past! We are part and party to
letting this happen – wringing our hands and whispering foreboding worries and
threats – but doing little that actually makes a difference.
Our first line of defense,
friends of faith, is prayer. That
formula which the Founders knew and which our first president spoke of in his
first address to Congress on his Inauguration – is still if effect. Prayer is our first recourse in this
battle, for without the help of God in this confrontation, we will be swept
aside, like the old remnants of vessels and fabrics once hallowed, but now
rubbish.
Our second line of defense must
be involvement – no commitment to involvement. We have spoken before of the
difference between the chicken who is involved in breakfast and the pig, who is
committed! There is a necessary
level of sacrifice that is required of Christian men and women to become
involved in the processes of self-government – a sacrifice that we in America
have eschewed. We have for
decades, avoided the personal inconvenience of vigilance in politics, in
government, in education, and even in our own spiritual lives. The American church is lazy and pursues
a “grace that is cheap.” No cost
religion brings no value freedoms.
These are difficult words, I
know, but with last week’s Call2Fall and with the decisions of our government
and judiciary in the past months and years, we may need to amend our priorities
and awaken to the threats that loom for a Free, Christian Society in this
country today. Friends it is time
for us to Pray the Price!
Freedom, it has been oft
repeated, is NOT FREE! Our
spiritual freedom cost Jesus Christ his own blood and body, which we partake of
as His guests at His Table this morning.
We remember the cost every time we partake, the cost He paid for our freedom! Likewise there is a cost involved for us, who follow Him as
His disciples and as ambassadors of reconciliation in the world today. We must dedicate ourselves anew to the
propositions of our faith and of our land:
I want to end with some further
quotes from two familiar documents: the Declaration of Independence and
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address:
We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men …
From the last PP
We, therefore, the Representatives
of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing
to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do,
in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly
publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be
Free and Independent States;
And the last sentence:
And for the support of this
Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence,
we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Even in the Declaration of
Independence there is a subtext of our Dependence on God!
And in the last line of A.
Lincoln’s Gettysburg address he concludes that short but monumental speech with
these words:
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great
task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of
devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in
vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and
that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish
from the earth."
And so this morning let us stand
and affirm anew the creed we all believe and pray again for this great land,
that indeed, God may Bless America.
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