[Propertalk] Independence Day 2018

[Robert P Morrison]

Here are a few notes for our celebration tomorrow. We use the 1662 BCP
as it was the one in use when the founders were working away.
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY INDEPENDENCE DAY

	DEUTERONOMY 10:17 -21 4th JULY, 2018

	MATTHEW 5:43-

	 Last Sunday the sermon began with the prayer of confession we
usually use, revolving around loving God. Here’s the first reading
this morning, however, using both King James’ English and the older,
broader-termed description of “fearing God” – fearing in the
sense of showing the utmost respect that one can muster.

	 That makes sense. The fear – in the contemporary sense – the
fear that you and I may feel comes from wondering whether or not we
HAVE done our best. And, lest we wonder whether or not we may have
missed it, yes, the word “love” IS mentioned in the first reading
too. However, the love which we’re commanded to offer is to the
stranger – not necessarily the weird, but the person who doesn’t
usually sit beside us in a church or on a train or plane. The stranger
may well be the person in front or behind us in the grocery check-out
line; the stranger is the person who is not yet our friend because we
haven’t yet had a chance to talk much to her or him and ask her or
him to come sit with us over a cup of coffee and a frosted cup cake in
the parish hall.

	 “Love the stranger” – “Fear God” – two sides of the same
coin, picked up in what Jesus said to His best friends. “You have to
do more than just keep the law,” He said.

	 It can be so easy to say that we’ve done what the law requires.
Basically, the laws regarding drivers talk about keeping within the
speed limit and at a speed appropriate to the road conditions, about
signaling one’s intentions to slow down or to turn around, about
obeying signs placed strategically along the road we’re taking. The
laws don’t say anything about cutting people off in traffic, or
about yelling at the person who doesn’t start immediately after the
light turns green. To do these, to behave as if we respected the other
drivers on the road – that takes grace, often, as the very word
implies, grace that we never knew we had, because God gives it to us,
makes it available if we can recognise and receive it.

	 This is at least one of the things which Independence Day
celebrations call us to acknowledge. First, we remember that we
can’t do or know everything by ourselves. We have to keep our mind,
our heart, our spirits open at all times, to see what the other, what
the stranger is doing and what the stranger is needing. More than
that, though, in addition to being aware of what others around us need
and may be trying to talk to us about, we’re to keep alert to the
fact that God is present, that God is willing and eager to share with
us the grace that we need in order to live a life of love.

	 Another thing which we remember today is that, no matter who we are
– remember, as Deuteronomy quoted, “God regardeth not persons”,
God doesn’t take physical appearance, or the number of friends on
Facebook, or even the number of people we have on the phone list we
keep in our pockets – none of that is what impresses God; we
remember today that are here because of what hundreds, if not
thousands, have said and done before us. People experienced
dissatisfactions, or difficulties, or fear, and so they moved from one
place to another; they risked everything they had to get to a port and
find a ship to cross what could be wild seas; they arrived and, over a
few generations, they crossed this land till Albany was founded, was
platted, was built up and we came along.

	 A few in our current congregation were born here, but most of us
moved here at varying ages, depending on help and word of mouth to
give us encouragement. We live here because of what our forebears did
for us. And, when you come down to it, we are here, specifically in
this building, because of what God did, what Jesus did, what a small
but enthused group of people did to encourage us in our faith.

	 And, yes, we remember today that we have those “certain
inalienable rights”, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
Pursuit of Happiness”. Nothing is written into the Constitution
about religion other than that it is a freedom which we may choose for
ourselves, but this too is something we celebrate – whether or not
to respond to God.

	 Still, all of this comes back to how we take what we’ve been given
and share it for the good of all. How do we respond to the stranger?
How do we love the one who is not well-known to us? How do we do for
others what God and our ancestors have done for us?

	 There IS freedom encompassed in our celebrations today, but it is a
freedom which bears an awesome responsibility within it, because we
believe it is granted us not as the world gives it, but by God. Keep
this proud boast, then, as a recent translation of the last verse of
Deuteronomy puts it, “our God has done for (us) these great and
terrible things which you (and I have seen for ourselves.)” Minister
to all without exception. Pray for those whom you and I may consider
our persecutors, because ALL are God’s children, and God wishes to
bless us all with grace.
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