[Propertalk] 3rd July - un-homily

[robertpmorrison at charter.net]

This Sunday we will be celebrating using, once again, a liturgy 
developed by Ernest Cockrell of California. We have several readings 
from historical documents followed by the Gospel of Independence Day, 
interspersed with hymns patriotic and reflective, all of which make up 
the sermon for the day.   Here are the readings and intercessions.

Bob


THE READINGS

A Reading from The Mayflower Compact by William Bradford November 11, 
1620

IN THE name of God, Amen.
	We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread 
sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, 
France and Ireland king, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken, 
for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor 
of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the 
Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually 
in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine 
ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering 
and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue 
hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, 
ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as 
shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the 
colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
	In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape-Cod 
the 11 of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King 
James, of England, France, and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland 
the fifty-fourth. Anno Domine 1620.


Declaration of Independence (Opening)

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
	When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people 
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, 
and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal 
station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a 
decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should 
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
	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, 
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That 
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is 
the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new 
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its 
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their 
Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments 
long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; 
and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more 
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves 
by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.  But when a long 
train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object 
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their 
right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide 
new Guards for their future security.


A reading from Abigail Adams

MARCH 31, 1776
ABIGAIL ADAMS TO JOHN ADAMS

         "I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by 
the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary 
for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more 
generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.
         "Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the 
husbands.
         "Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If 
particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are 
determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by 
any laws in which we have no voice or representation.
         "That your sex are naturally tyrannical is a truth so 
thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute; but such of you as 
wish to be happy willingly give up - the harsh tide of master for the 
more tender and endearing one of friend.
         "Why, then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the 
lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity?
         "Men of sense in all ages abhor those customs which treat us 
only as the (servants) of your sex; regard us then as being placed by 
Providence under your protection, and in imitation of the Supreme Being 
make use of that power only for our happiness."

MAY 7, 1776
ABIGAIL ADAMS TO JOHN ADAMS

         "I cannot say that I think you are very generous to the ladies; 
for, whilst you are proclaiming peace and good-will to men, emancipating 
all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives.
         "But you must remember that arbitrary power is like most other 
things which are very hard, very liable to be broken; and, 
notwithstanding all your wise laws and maxims, we have it in our power, 
not only to free ourselves, but to subdue our masters, and without 
violence, throw both your natural and legal authority at our feet."


A reading from Chief Seattle

"CHIEF SEATTLE'S 1854 ORATION"

	Yonder sky that has wept tears of compassion upon my people for 
centuries untold, and which to us appears changeless and eternal, may 
change. Today is fair. Tomorrow it may be overcast with clouds. My words 
are like the stars that never change. Whatever Seattle says, the great 
chief at Washington can rely upon with as much certainty as he can upon 
the return of the sun or the seasons. The white chief says that Big 
Chief at Washington sends us greetings of friendship and goodwill. This 
is kind of him for we know he has little need of our friendship in 
return. His people are many. They are like the grass that covers vast 
prairies. My people are few. They resemble the scattering trees of a 
storm-swept plain. The great, and I presume - good, White Chief sends us 
word that he wishes to buy our land but is willing to allow us enough to 
live comfortably. This indeed appears just, even generous, for the Red 
Man no longer has rights that he need respect, and the offer may be 
wise, also, as we are no longer in need of an extensive country. …
	 Our good father in Washington - for I presume he is now our father as 
well as yours, since King George has moved his boundaries further north 
- our great and good father, I say, sends us word that if we do as he 
desires he will protect us. His brave warriors will be to us a bristling 
wall of strength, and his wonderful ships of war will fill our harbors, 
so that our ancient enemies far to the northward - the Haidas and 
Tsimshians - will cease to frighten our women, children, and old men. 
Then in reality he will be our father and we his children. But can that 
ever be? Your God is not our God! Your God loves your people and hates 
mine! He folds his strong protecting arms lovingly about the paleface 
and leads him by the hand as a father leads an infant son. But, He has 
forsaken His Red children, if they really are His. Our God, the Great 
Spirit, seems also to have forsaken us. Your God makes your people wax 
stronger every day. Soon they will fill all the land. Our people are 
ebbing away like a rapidly receding tide that will never return. The 
white man's God cannot love our people or He would protect them. They 
seem to be orphans who can look nowhere for help. How then can we be 
brothers? How can your God become our God and renew our prosperity and 
awaken in us dreams of returning greatness? If we have a common Heavenly 
Father He must be partial, for He came to His paleface children. We 
never saw Him. He gave you laws but had no word for His red children 
whose teeming multitudes once filled this vast continent as stars fill 
the firmament. No; we are two distinct races with separate origins and 
separate destinies. There is little in common between us. …
	We will ponder your proposition and when we decide we will let you 
know. But should we accept it, I here and now make this condition that 
we will not be denied the privilege without molestation of visiting at 
any time the tombs of our ancestors, friends, and children. Every part 
of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, 
every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or 
happy event in days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb 
and dead as the swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with 
memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and 
the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their 
footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our 
ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch. Our 
departed braves, fond mothers, glad, happy hearted maidens, and even the 
little children who lived here and rejoiced here for a brief season, 
will love these somber solitudes and at eventide they greet shadowy 
returning spirits. And when the last Red Man shall have perished, and 
the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, 
these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when 
your children's children think themselves alone in the field, the store, 
the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, 
they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to 
solitude. At night when the streets of your cities and villages are 
silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning 
hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land. The 
White Man will never be alone.
	Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not 
powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only a change of worlds.


A reading from Frederick Douglass.

THE CHURCH AND PREJUDICE
(Speech delivered at the Plymouth County Anti-Slavery Society, November 
4, 1841)

         At the South I was a member of the Methodist Church. When I 
came north, I thought one Sunday I would attend communion, at one of the 
churches of my denomination, in the town I was staying. The white people 
gathered round the altar, the blacks clustered by the door. After the 
good minister had served out the bread and wine to one portion of those 
near him, he said, "These may withdraw, and others come forward;" thus 
he proceeded till all the white members had been served. Then he took a 
long breath, and looking out towards the door, exclaimed, "Come up, 
colored friends, come up! for you know God is no respecter of persons!" 
I haven't been there to see the sacraments taken since.
         At New Bedford, where I live, there was a great revival of 
religion not long ago - many were converted and "received" as they said, 
"into the kingdom of heaven." But it seems, the kingdom of heaven is 
like a net; at least so it was according to the practice of these pious 
Christians; and when the net was drawn ashore, they had to set down and 
cull out the fish. Well, it happened now that some of the fish had 
rather black scales; so these were sorted out and packed by themselves. 
But among those who experienced religion at this time was a colored 
girl; she was baptized in the same water as the rest; so she thought she 
might sit at the Lord's table and partake of the same sacramental 
elements with the others. The deacon handed round the cup, and when he 
came to the black girl, he could not pass her, for there was the 
minister looking right at him, and as he was a kind of abolitionist, the 
deacon was rather afraid of giving him offense; so he handed the girl 
the cup, and she tasted. Now it so happened that next to her sat a young 
lady who had been converted at the same time, baptized in the same 
water, and put her trust in the same blessed Saviour; yet when the cup 
containing the precious blood which had been shed for all, came to her, 
she rose in disdain, and walked out of the church. Such was the religion 
she had experienced!
         Another young lady fell into a trance. When she awoke, she 
declared she had been to heaven. Her friends were all anxious to know 
what and whom she had seen there; so she told the whole story. But there 
was one good old lady whose curiosity went beyond that of all the others 
- and she inquired of the girl that had the vision, if she saw any black 
folks in heaven? After some hesitation, the reply was, "Oh! I didn't go 
into the kitchen!"
         Thus you see, my hearers, this prejudice goes even into the 
church of God. And there are those who carry it so far that it is 
disagreeable to them even to think of going to heaven, if colored people 
are going there too.


Abraham Lincoln Second Inaugural Address Washington, D.C. March 4, 1865

	At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, 
there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the 
first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, 
seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during 
which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every 
point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention, 
and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be 
presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly 
depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I 
trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope 
for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
	On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were 
anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it - all 
sought to avert it. While the inaugeral [sic] address was being 
delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union 
without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it 
without war - seeking to dissole [sic] the Union, and divide effects, by 
negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war 
rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war 
rather than let it perish. And the war came.
	One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed 
generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. 
These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that 
this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, 
perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the 
insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government 
claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement 
of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the 
duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the 
cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict 
itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result 
less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to 
the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem 
strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in 
wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us 
judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be 
answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his 
own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs 
be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" 
If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences 
which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having 
continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that 
He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to 
those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure 
from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always 
ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope - fervently do we pray - that this 
mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it
continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and 
fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of 
blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the 
sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 
"the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether"
	With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the 
right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the 
work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who 
shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - to do 
all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among 
ourselves, and with all nations.


The Holy Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ according to Matthew 
(5:43-48):
	Glory to you, O Christ.

Jesus said, “You have heard that they were told, ‘Love your neighbour 
and hate your enemy.’ But what I tell you is this: Love your enemies and 
pray for your persecutors; only so can you be children of your heavenly 
Father, who causes the sun to rise on good and bad alike, and sends the 
rain on the innocent and the wicked. If you love only those who love 
you, what reward can you expect? Even the tax-collectors do as much as 
that. If you greet only your brothers, what is there extraordinary about 
that? Even the heathen do as much. There must be no limit to your 
goodness, as your heavenly Father’s goodness knows no bounds.”

The Gospel of Christ.
	Praise to you, O Christ.


The Deacon introduces the prayers, then the leader continues

     For the Nation		B.C.P. page 838

     Almighty God, giver of all good things:
     We thank you for the natural majesty and beauty of this land.
     They restore us, though we often destroy them.
                 Heal us, O God.

     We thank you for the great resources of this nation. They
     make us rich, though we often exploit them.
                 Forgive us, O God.

     We thank you for the men and women who have made this
     country strong. They are models for us, though we often fall
     short of them.
                 Inspire us, O God.

     We thank you for the torch of liberty which has been lit in
     this land. It has drawn people from every nation, though we
     have often hidden from its light.
                  Enlighten us, O God.

     We thank you for the faith we have inherited in all its rich
     variety. It sustains our life, though we have been faithless
     again and again.
                  Renew us, O God.

     Help us, O Lord, to finish the good work here begun.
     Strengthen our efforts to blot out ignorance and prejudice,
     and to abolish poverty and crime. And hasten the day when
     all our people, with many voices in one united chorus, will
     glorify your holy Name.
                    Amen.

Prayers for the Social Order

     For Social Justice		B.C.P. page 823

    Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so
    move every human heart and especially the hearts of the
    people of this land, that barriers which divide us may
    crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our
    divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace;
    through Jesus Christ our Lord.
                      Amen.

    For our Country			B.C.P. page 820

    Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our
    heritage:  We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove
    ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will.
    Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and
    pure manners.  Save us from violence, discord, and confusion;
    from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way.  Defend
    our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes
    brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues.  Endue
    with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust
    the authority of government, that there may be justice and
    peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we
    may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth.
    In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness,
    and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail;
    all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.
                         Amen.



Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)