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Weekly Sermons>
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Jul 6, 2008 --
The Freedom of Religion
1.
On New Year’s Day 1802
Thomas Jefferson stood in the doorway of the White House
and received a delivery of a 1,235 lb brick of cheese.
Painted on the casing of this massive wedge were the words,
“Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”
The cheese was a gift to the president form a Baptist church in Western Massachusetts.
The reason for the gift was that in the previous year’s presidential election
the campaign of John Adams attacked the religious faith of Thomas Jefferson
accusing him of being an infidel and an atheist.
These Baptists may have worried about Jefferson’s faith,
but they greatly respected his defense of religious liberty.
They didn’t want the government telling them what to believe.
Thomas Jefferson represented their beliefs
and they showed their appreciation
with this gigantic brick of cheese.
2.
This story is told by Steven Waldman, author of the new book,
Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America.
In the book Waldman states that America was settled to promote Christianity.
Hence, the establishment of a state church was very much the intent of the Founding Fathers.
In fact, before the Declaration of Independence was signed
colonial governments from New England to Virginia
passed legislation to uphold the Christian faith
as a state supported religion.
But Waldman argues that the legislation failed for two reasons:
a. The sheer religious diversity of the colonies in the new land. The settlers did not share a common belief.
b. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin argued that individual conscience and religious faith is by nature free and cannot be dictated by the state.
This is why John Adams labeled Thomas Jefferson an atheist,
but Jefferson knew that for the nation to work
it could not have a state church,
nor could the state interfere in the sacred matters of the citizenry.
Waldman writes:
“The Founding Faith was not Christianity and it was not secularism.
It was religious liberty, a revolutionary formula for promoting faith
by leaving it alone.”
3.
The focus in our gospel this morning is Christianity.
The question chapter 11 of Matthew’s gospel asks is,
will the crowds accept the new faith
that John the Baptist had introduced
and that Jesus Christ had revealed?
Jesus’ answer is no, at least for the wise and the intelligent.
I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent.
But not all reject this new faith.
The wise and intelligent don’t get it,
but the young infants do.
God has hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, but as Jesus prays,
you have revealed them to infants.
The Christian faith cannot be earned.
The wise and the intelligent cannot deduce the faith through their reasoning.
Neither can the Christian faith be forced,
The strong and mighty cannot impose their faith on others through coercion.
The Christian faith is only offered through invitation.
It is a gift, freely offered.
This is why children get it!
Children get it, but Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin also got it.
What they got is that the Christian faith cannot be imposed upon a nation.
To be an American does not equate in being a Christian,
for if it did, the Christian faith would be forced.
And that becomes tyranny.
Hence the inscription on the wedge of cheese:
“Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”
4.
I am struck by what Paul Tillich,
Harvard professor and classic modern theologian,
has to say in regards to this morning’s gospel.
As Jesus concludes his words he invites the weary crowds carrying heavy burdens to
Come to me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Tillich asks:
What kind of burden is this? Jesus doe not tell us that he will ease the labors and burdens of life and work. Jesus cannot and does not promise more pleasure and less pain.
So what, then, is the burden Jesus seeks to lift?
Tillich continues:
The burden Christ wants to take from us is the burden of religion. Religion is the yoke, imposed on the people of his time by the religious teachers, the wise and understanding. Those who labor and are heavy laden are those who are sighing under the yoke of the religious law.
5.
Paul Tillich and Thomas Jefferson are on the same page.
Tillich explains how Jesus knew that the Pharisees and the Scribes
could not impose their interpretation of Jewish law on the crowds
and call that religious faith.
In the same way Thomas Jefferson knew that the new nation he was helping to build
could not impose Christianity on its citizens and call that religious faith.
Certainly the Judeo-Christian faith of the Founding Fathers shaped their views
and influenced their decisions as they built this nation;
but they realized that to name the United States of America as a Christian nation
would be the beginning of tyranny.
6.
As much as we like to think that the United States of America is a Christian nation it is not.
The freedom of religion gives rights to all religious bodies to worship freely
and without fear of discrimination from the government.
We have no state church.
We have no official state religion.
Sometimes Christians are threatened by this.
Our dander is raised when public discourse questions the words
“One nation under God,” in the pledge of allegiance.
But as citizens and as Christians
we must respect the wisdom of our Founding Fathers
as they separated the church from the state in the constitution.
A state religion becomes legal by its very nature.
And as Paul Tillich has written that is the heavy burden that Jesus lifts in our gospel.
I conclude with the words of John Buchanan editor of the Christian Century, as he writes:
The heart of the American Revolution is individual liberty and freedom of conscience. The American experiment with freedom, especially with religious freedom, is still unprecedented, and it remains that worth celebrating.
Amen
Please contact us by phone at : (908) 876-3547 or via Email at : zionlongvalley@comcast.net
© 2008 Zion Lutheran Church of Long Valley New Jersey
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