Good Government in Rome and America
July 4 John 8:31-33
By Pastor Edward F. Markquart,
Grace Lutheran Church,
Des Moines, Washington
Today is July 4th. Today is our festival of freedom.
There are two quotations which are the basis of the sermon for today: The one from Thomas Jefferson: “For we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” ... And then from Jesus, “If you continue in my word, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.”
Political freedom. Religious freedom. Today is our festival of freedom.
The date was June 7th, 1776. A group of thirteen men were gathered together in a small room and they were debating. They represented the thirteen different colonies, and there was no unanimity among them. The debate was hot and furious, and finally there was a motion by Richard Henry Lee that said: “I move that all thirteen colonies be free, independent states.” The resolution was seconded by John Adams. The debate continued; it was intense; and the vote finally passed with the overwhelming majority....of seven to six. It was a slim vote. It was not a unanimous decision by any means.
A subcommittee was then formed, headed by Thomas Jefferson, who was to write the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration was put before Congress on July 2nd, 1776, and it was ratified immediately by twelve of the states. But you needed thirteen, thirteen out of thirteen. It had to be unanimous for it to pass. One state was holding out: New York; and New York held out for two more days. On July 4th, 1776, it was finally unanimously ratified. And we then heard these great words which became etched into American history and into your personal history and mine: “We hold these truths to be self evident....that all men are created equal....and that they are endowed by their Creator .... with certain inalienable rights ....and among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Those words have been etched into your heart and mine, into your history and mine.
The Declaration of Independence continued: “Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions…we declare that these united colonies have a right to be free and independent states.” In other words, the authors appealed to the Supreme Judge of the world as the authority that gave them the right to pursue political independence. In the words, the Supreme Judge of the world, you feel the religious undertones of the Declaration.
The last words of Declaration of Independence are also memorable: “With firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” And they did. All fifty six people who signed the Declaration gave their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.
Throughout the years, like you, I have read many articles about the lives of these fifty six human beings, and you cannot help but admire their integrity and courage. One of them said, “Either we will hang separately or we will hang together.” Of the fifty-six people who signed the document that day, more than half of them suffered deeply because of their commitment to independence. Two were killed immediately in battle; five were soon captured and tortured by the British; twelve had their homes burned; nine others died of hardship related to the war. .... Francis Lewis of New York, who originally refused to sign the document, lost his home and his property and went into hiding. The British could not find him, but they found his wife, and she died shortly thereafter in jail. Yes, he paid the price for freedom with the death of his wife. ... And then there was John Hart, from New Jersey, who hid in the woods as the British were attacking his home; and he hid nearby in a cave for a year, escaping his enemies. When he finally came out, he discovered that his wife had died, and so, at the age of seventy, he went and joined the army to fight for freedom...at the age of 70. Yes, it is true; these people not only pledged their lives, fortunes and honor; they gave their lives, fortunes and sacred honor. The original fifty-six signatories set the pattern that men and women will sacrifice all for political freedom.
But we are not only impressed with their integrity and sacrifice, we are also impressed by their deep commitment to God, to religion, to Jesus Christ, and the ideals of Christianity. Their ideals, their Christian ideals, and the ideals of the French Enlightenment inspired democracy. All of these people were deeply religious men. Democracy was born in the hearts and minds of religious people.
For example, John Adams, who became the second President of the United States, wrote the following words to his wife, Abigail, on July 2nd, 1776: “The second of July, 1776, will be the most memorial epic in the history of America. I am lead to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations on every anniversary festival. It ought to be a commemoration as a day of deliverance with solemn acts of devotion to God.” With what? Commemorated how? With solemn acts of devotion to God. With fireworks displays? Parades down the mainstreams? Family barbecues. Yes, all of these things help us remember July 4th. But more important than these, according to John Adams, were solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. In other words, John Adams was a deeply religious man, and he commemorated July 4th with prayers of solemn thanksgiving to the Almighty.
It was not only John Adams who was devoutly religious. So was Thomas Jefferson who embodied the very Spirit of our Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote: “We are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights....by our Creator, with a capital letter C. Jefferson said that the source of these now famous inalienable rights was...God, who was the Supreme Judge of the world, the Divine Providence on whom we are to rely on for protection. ..... George Washington was also a man of deep faith. We know the stories about his religiously inspired courage at Valley Forge. ..... And who was that member of our first Congress who wrote into our Declaration of Independence, that every session of Congress was to begin with prayer? Who insisted that each and every session of Congress was to begin with prayer? It was none other than Benjamin Franklin himself, the greatest agnostic of the group. And William Penn from Pennsylvania said that if “we are not ruled by God we will be ruled by tyrants.” What I am suggesting to you is that at the very core of democracy, at the very source of democracy, at the very beginning of democracy were deeply religious human beings.
Democracy works most effectively when there is a bedrock of religious idealism beneath it. And if you want to have democracy continue to function in America today, it will not last long unless our democracy is wedded to the spiritual power of religious piety and deep faith in God. As God’s Word says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord’s.” (Psalm 33:12)
You personally know the words of the Declaration of Independence. These words are like John 3:16. You fill in the blanks and complete the following sentences. “We hold these truths to be ..... ..... that all men are ..... ..... and that they have been endowed by their ....... with certain ......... ........ And among these are ....., ......., ...... ..... ...... ... .......... You know these words; they have been etched into your soul. They have been etched into the soul of this nation. They are like John 3:16. They are “democracy in a nutshell.”
Now, the meaning of these words of the Declaration of Independence have been newlyinterpreted in every succeeding generation. For example, it was nearly a century later, in the 1860s, Abraham Lincoln wrote that “there needs to be a rebirth of freedom in every generation.” You need to hear those words a second time: “there needs to be a rebirth of freedom in every generation.” And so for Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s, he said that all people are created equal, and everybody knew what he was talking about. Slavery. Black slavery. All people are created equal; that meant Negroes are created equal. Now that very idea had also been espoused earlier by Thomas Jefferson when he originally wrote the Declaration of Independence. In one of the original versions of the Declaration, Jefferson stated that Negroes were created equal, but the time wasn’t yet right for that ideal to born. But a century later, the time was right. And so it was Abraham Lincoln who gave new meaning to what equality meant for his generation; that all people, of all races, are created equal, and a great war was fought over it.
Every generation applies the principles of freedom in a new way. The idea and the ideal of freedom continues to spread in new ways in each and every generation.
Well, times move on and we move on to the 1900s and then there was another issue, another application of the principle that all men are created equal. In the early 1900s, who were “all” men? Women, of course. The woman’s suffrage movement. All people are created equal. Women are created equal. A new idea. A radical idea. That women are to have the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And with that movement came the right to vote and the right to hold public office. Women voting. Women holding political power. What radical new ideas those were. Lincoln said: there needs to be a rebirth of freedom in every generation, and I agree. In the early 1900s, it was women are created equal.
In the later 1900s, nearly a century later, women from all over the globe gathered in China for a massive rally. Women from every nation on earth rallied around the belief of the equality of women, the empowerment of women, the rising up of women. This wasn’t “all American women are created equal.” Not “all European women are created equal.” Rather, all women of the globe are created equal. And so a century after the women’s suffrage movement, a new global generation discovers what it means to be created equal. And the idea and the ideal of God-given equality continues to spread in new ways in every generation. We hold these truths to be self evident, that all people are created equal, and that concept of “all people” is forever expanding.
All people are created equal. Today poor people are created equal. We know that originally, in the United States of America, a person had to own property in order to be a voter, and eventually our nation came to the conclusion that people did not have to own property in order to vote. All people are created equal, including the poor. Every generation struggles with and applies the principles of freedom in a new way. Poor people can now vote. Poor people are now part of the little word “all.” And all around the globe, poorer nations are rising up and discovering that they, too, are equal and that they, too, have inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is not only the rich, the prosperous, the landowners who have inalienable rights. “Inalienable” is a legal term meaning “rights that can’t be taken away from you,” and poor people also have these God-given inalienable, not to be taken away, rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s not just the wealthy landowners who have these rights. Yes, that concept of “all people” is forever expanding.
And so we ask: is it self evident that all people are created equal? Yes or no? ....Are children people? ..... Is it true, is it self evident, that all children have certain inalienable rights? ...... Do all children have an inalienable right to life? ..... If children have a right to life, do they have a right to those essentials needed for life such as food, water and shelter? ..... Can you have life without food? ...... Life without water? ..... Is it self evident that all children have a right to life, that is, to food and water and shelter?
And I ask you today: Is it true that your grandmas and grandpas, or anyone living in nursing homes in the United States or in poverty row in aging tenement houses throughout our nation, is it true that all these old people are created with certain inalienable rights? Yes or no? Do all old people have the inalienable right to life? ... And the basic essentials that make for life? Food, water, shelter? For all old people on the earth?
What a grand dream. What a spirit-filled visions our forefathers had. What I would like to suggest to you is that in every generation there needs to be a rebirth of freedom, and a rebirth of what freedom means for that generation. We hold these truths to be self evident that all people are created equal, and that all people are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, rights that cannot be taken from them, and among these God given rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those are incredible visions that need to find new meaning in every generation.
It was 1988 and there was a man by the name of Michael Gorbechav who became the president of the Soviet Union. I remember those days in 1988 when there was the possibility of something entirely new happening in Russian history. Freedom. That seemed impossible, so very impossible, that there could be a birth of freedom in the Russia for the first timeever. The Russians had known only feudalism, then the czars, then the communists. How could they learn freedom? With no history of it?
Then the Berlin Wall crumbled down, and there was a rebirth and a celebration of freedom in Germany. And then all across Latin America and all across South America, democracy after democracy was born. And I recall some of my acquaintances saying, “Well, those people aren’t educated enough for democracy to work. Those people aren’t wealthy enough for democracy to work. They are simpler, more primitive people; they can’t handle democracy. They don’t have a middle class. They don’t have the traditions necessary for democracy to work” I thought that Thomas Jefferson had said: It is self evident that all people; not all rich people; not all educated people; not all middle class people but that all people are created equal and that all people are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Today, countries throughout the entire world have been finding their freedoms.
This past week I had the privilege of reading Henry Steele Comminger’s analysis of Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. I loved the last line by Comminger: “These ideals of freedom are not confined to America but they entered into the mainstream of history on every continent.” Listen again. The ideals of freedom have entered into the mainstream of history on every continent.” How true that has become!!!
And so we come together today to celebrate this festival of freedom and its continuing renewal and rebirth.
Well, today we not only celebrate that great passage from Thomas Jefferson, we also celebrate that great passage from Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, who said: “If you continue in my word, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” And Jesus is not talking about democracy; Jesus is not talking about political freedom; he is not talking about the right to vote. Jesus is talking about personal freedom, religious freedom, Christian freedom. I ask you: what does it mean to be free in God? What is Christian freedom? What is religious freedom? What does it mean to be a free human being even when you are in prison, to be free even when you live under a dictatorship? What does it mean to be free in Jesus Christ?
The person who is most helpful to me about these issues is Helmet Thielicke who has written a book entitled, “Freedom of the Christian Man.” I often quote him on Reformation Sunday but I will quote him today on Freedom Sunday. Thielicke tells us what it means to be free: To be free in God, to be free in Christ, is to be the kind of person you are intended to be. That’s a strange definition of freedom: Freedom is being the kind of person you are intended to be. It is God’s intention that you be a kind, good, loving, productive, creative person who worships God. And then you are free, when you are the kind of person that God intended you to be.
Let me explain by means of an analogy. Let’s say that you go up to the Woodland Park Zoo. Please use your imaginations and take an imaginary trip up to the zoo where you see elephants. Are the elephants free when you see them at the zoo? No. How do you know that they are not free? It’s obvious. Because there are all kinds of gates and bars and motes around them. Well, so what? Well, we know that the elephants are intended to be in Africa or Asia, running out there in the Serengetti plains. They are intended to be part of big herds, wandering freely in their homeland. That is their God-given intention. It is not their God given intention to be locked up in zoos.
Similarly, with human beings. It is our God given intention that we be kind, loving, generous, productive, creative people; that we are filled with the love of God and neighbor; that is God’s intention for us. We are not to be enslaved to our appetites and sins and addictions; we are not to be trapped by our selfish desires. We human beings are free when we are living the way God originally intended us to live. Let me explain. Let Thielicke explain.
Thielicke quotes an Indian philosopher by the name of Tagore. It has become the classic illustration of freedom. Tagore takes a violin string. In your mind, imagine a violin string is hanging here in my hand. And Tagore asks the question, is this violin string free? Flopping around like that? It looks free but it is not. Tagore said: it is only free when you take that violin string and you bind it to the fret at the very top of the violin and then bind it a second time at the base of the violin. And when that string is bound at both ends and when it is finally made taut and stretched tight, and then you pluck it... the string then sings a perfect A. (The A string is the sting that is used to tune the other strings.) And now the string is free, when it makes the A note. When it does what it is intended to be. It’s an A string; it should make an A note. Now, it is free; it does what it was intended to be and do. It was not free when it was flopping around in my hand unattached.
And similarly with us human beings; on the one hand, when you life is connected to God through the love of our Lord Jesus Christ and, on the other hand, when your life is connected with the needs of others and the earth, ... and when you slowly tighten the tension and bond between the love of God and the needs of your neighbors, then you become free. Then you become the person God intended you to be. Bound to God. Bound to the needs of other. Stretched and tightened to God and neighbor. And then your life begins to sing as God wants you to sing.
But even then, there can be a sloppiness and slackness, like a violin string when it is limply connected to both ends of the violin. Imagine a violin string limply connected to both ends of the violin but there is no tension to the violin string, so it can’t make a beautiful sound. So I think it is with most Christian lives. Like a loosely connected violin string, most Christians are limply connected to God and limply connected to the needs of our neighbors; there is no tension but a sloppiness and slackness and our slackened lives don’t sing. But when God brings a tension to our lives, a passionate love for God and a passionate desire to serve our neighbors; when God binds us tightly to himself in love and binds ustightly to our neighbor in need, then and only then do our lives begin to sing. Then our lives begin to be what God intended us to be. And that’s what it means to be free: to be the kind of people that God intended us to be: Loving God and serving others.
Jesus said, “If you continue in my Word, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” The truth will make you free. So what is this truth that makes us free. If you continue in my word, you will know the truth.... that God loves you today and forever; that God loves you so much that he was willing to have his Son die for all your sins; the truth, that when you die, God’s love for you will continue throughout all time.
Some years ago, I was with Clinton McFarland in the hospital as he was getting ready to die of cancer, and for a moment one afternoon, his mind was clear of the morphine and I had the privilege of talking with him. I can remember that visit so clearly: the room, the placement of the bed, the brightness in his eyes. The chemical haze had lifted for thirty minutes and we talked with such clarity. Somewhere in the conversation, I asked him, “Clinton, are you afraid to die?” He said: “No, no, no, I am ready to go” and with that twinkle in his eye, he gave me his “thumbs up” sign. It was the triumphant “thumbs up” that got me. He knew the truth about eternal life, therefore Clinton was free to die.
Jesus, the Son of God, said, “you will know the truth and the truth we make you free.” You will know the truth about the meaning of life. A few years ago, a most brilliant scientist was lecturing for Microsoft, Steve Hawkings, the famous physicist and cosmologist. Three thousand people came to hear him at the Seattle Opera House at the invitation of the wealthiest man in the world, Bill Gates. According to the local newspaper column, Hawking was brilliant as he lectured and answered questions. He then came to the last question, and someone asked him, the most brilliant physicist, the most brilliant cosmologist: “What is the meaning of life?” And the most brilliant man of this era said: ... “I don’t know ... but I am pursuing it.”
What is the meaning of life? What is the truth about the meaning of life? Jesus, the very Son of God, a brilliant cosmologist who knew the mind of God, said: “Love God with all your heart mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself. Do these and you shall live.” Be bound to God in love; be bound to your neighbor in service. Be bound tightly and passionately to both and you shall be free. What is the purpose of life? Freedom!!! Oh freedom. To be free. “Free at last. Free at last. O Lord my God, help me to be free at last.” To be the kind of person God intended you to be, on this day and for all eternity.
Yes, two freedoms. Today, Sunday, July 4th, is our festival of freedom. Political freedom. Christian freedom. We hear those inspiring Words, crafted by God, in the mind of Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these words to be self evident, that all people are created equal, and that all people endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights and among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” And we hear Jesus’ words, “If you continue in these words, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.”