An Ignatian Invitation to Gratitude and Reflection

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

DFMS Noonday Prayer via Zoom

Feast of St. Ignatius, July 31, 2020

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Connect to God.

Give Thanks. 

Review the Day. 

Face Shortcomings. 

Look to Tomorrow. 

Those are the five elements of the Ignatian Examen. It seems fitting to revisit that practice today on the feast of Ignatius. Perhaps this practice is a familiar one to you? Perhaps it is one of the center parts of your spiritual life? In which case, I hope that today will be an opportunity for you to bask in the gift of that practice. If it is new to you, then I hope it will be fruitful and inspiring to think about how this practice or elements of it might be helpful to you in your own faith life. 

Of course, St. Ignatius is known for his spiritual exercises and for founding the Jesuits. But the particular, personal nature of the Examen seemed worthwhile for us to sit with, together, today. It seems a real gift to us in this time when we are facing so many challenges, as individuals, as communities, as the world. The Examen is grounded in hope. And I would wager we could all use a little more hope these days. 

Now for some of us it might be possible to find the uninterrupted time to do the Examen in one fell swoop at the end of our days (there is even an app to help us). For others of us that might be a bit challenging. So, I want to give us collective permission to honor the spirit of it, even if we are not able to honor the letter of it. Because really, if we can just find a bit more time, a few more ways to honor these practices, our lives will be enriched.

We begin with “Connect to God.” Well, I think we got at least some of that covered. We are here, after all. Connecting to God and each other in Chapel. Perhaps there is an invitation to us to find more of what we love about Chapel in our daily lives. Maybe that just means building more prayer time into our days (it is amazing what a minute or two of deep breaths and reflection can do). Or maybe it means reading more Scripture or more spiritual writings that inspire us. The news headlines will all still be there. They don’t always need to be the first and the last thing we look at on our phones.

“Give Thanks.” Remember that mystic and theologian Meister Eckhart said that if the only prayer we ever say is “Thank you” it will be enough. Giving Thanks to God is always a good idea. At various points in my life, particularly when I have been facing a challenging time, I have done the practice of keeping a gratitude journal. Just a short list, some notes each day about things for which I feel grateful. Even on the really hard days there are things, for which we can give thanks. Keeping our focus on gratitude helps us keep our perspective too. And it feeds our souls to be reminded that blessings abound, even in the midst of struggles.

“Review the Day & Face our Shortcomings”

I put these two together, because likely the act of giving thanks has already helped us to see all the joyful spots in our day. The challenge comes in facing the things that we feel we have not done well today. Oof. As many of you know, I consider myself a recovering perfectionist. I am very skilled at finding my shortcomings. The hard part is not focusing solely on them or letting them define me. I am grateful to the patient companions on the way who work with me to keep reframing the things I label as “mistakes” or “failures” as opportunities for growth and learning. That is an essential piece of this - we need to be sure that when we “face our shortcomings” we do not make it about berating ourselves, but rather about looking back through the day to see how we might learn from it. A wonderful mentor of mine had me keep a journal while I was doing an internship. Each day I was to reflect on two questions: “What did I teach myself today?” and “What would I still like to learn?”. Those are good questions for us to reframe the challenges of the day into opportunities for personal growth.

“Look to Tomorrow.” Indeed. Our Gospel today tells us that we cannot put our hand to the plow and look back. We cannot be a past oriented people. We must be a future oriented, hope filled people. We cannot know with any certainty what tomorrow will look like. We are particularly aware of that truth in these times, and of course, if we are honest, we realize that we have actually never had any guarantees. That is why we need faith, why we need hope, why we need each other. To be a people of faith means that we trust in that which we cannot see. Jesus does not promise us certainty or long lives or easy lives. Jesus promises us an abundant life. Jesus promises to be with us until the end of the age. And so that is where we put our trust, our faith. We put our trust in that which is eternal. We can follow Ignatius’ command to look to tomorrow because we know that no matter what may come our way, we will not be alone. The truth about who God is. The truth that we are beloved children of God. The truth that God is with us always. All of those truths will still be true tomorrow. 

Saint Ignatius invites us to reflect on our days, on our lives that we might be drawn more deeply into relationship with God and brought more fully into the full stature of who God is calling us to be. I hope that you might find the elements of this Examen not a burden or another task to be completed, but rather as an invitation. An invitation to take from it what will serve you well. An invitation to learning, an invitation to growth, and an invitation to be more fully present to the abundant blessings which surround us each and every day. AMEN.

Finding More Mary Moments

View from cliffs of Monhegan Island in Maine

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

DFMS Noonday Prayer

Feast of Mary and Martha

July 29, 2020

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

It is not possible for me to read this Gospel lesson and not think of my college roommate, Michelle. Truly you could just swap out Mary and Martha in this lesson for Michelle and Molly. I had always been the kid who had to do her homework before playing. I often worked ahead, starting a paper weeks before it was due. Michelle, on the other hand, could wake up early the morning a paper was due and crank out a brilliant piece of writing. I marveled at this ability. 

Multiple years of living together and decades of friendship have meant that both of us do a bit more of both. Michelle has become a successful lawyer and does a lot more advance work and planning. I have discovered that as a grown up it is not possible to complete your “to do” list first or do everything in advance. I have even written a sermon on the day I preached it! 

But the lessons that Michelle taught me are far more significant and powerful than just about when we do our work or how we manage our time. The important thing wasn’t about planning vs. procrastinating. It was about priorities. Michelle reminded me of that all important truth (which I have the tendency to forget when I get focused like Martha on all the tasks in front of me) that time and relationships are far more valuable and meaningful than achievements.  

The Holy Spirit has a way of showing up and providing the lessons when I need them, as long as I am paying attention, of course! I feel like I needed this Mary and Martha reminder this week especially. Perhaps it is that I am just back from vacation trying to hold on to that sense of peace and serenity I found sitting on the cliffs of Monhegan Island in Maine staring out at the vast expanse of ocean and sky. It is so easy to just dive right back into all the things, all the tasks. Particularly in the midst of a pandemic when tasks are so wonderfully useful for keeping the stress and anxiety of this time at a relative distance. If I just focus on my “to do” list - on sending more emails and writing more documents, making more phone calls, I can forget for a few minutes about all the headlines of rising infection rates and rising death tolls, I can stop thinking about all the what ifs for our work life, for our families, for our children - what are the next weeks and months going to look like? 

Now of course there is value in accomplishing tasks. There is a certain joy and creativity that comes with losing ourselves in a piece of writing or a project. And it is good to have things to keep our anxiety at bay. Of course, we all have jobs to do. We have important and meaningful work, which requires us to complete tasks. I am not dismissing our tasks or our work at all. 

I am just taking a cautionary tale from our Gospel (mostly because I need it today), and I hope it is a helpful reminder for you as well. There are dangers if we live on the Martha end of the spectrum, if we pour ourselves into work, something that is especially easy to do when we are all working from home. Our work is always right there. It requires a particular kind of self-discipline (and the blessing of compassionate and smart supervisors) to leave something “at the office” when “the office” is only a few feet from where we make dinner, play cards, read for fun, watch tv or do our morning exercise routine. It is all right there. We have to choose to be Mary. 

It takes work on our part. But my friends that “work” is so completely worth it. That is what we need to remember today. Jesus tells Mary that she has chosen “the better part.” Indeed. We need that part. We need those times where we sit, we pause, we reflect, we learn. We need to put aside the tasks and the busyness from time to time. We need time that feeds our souls and fills our hearts. 

It is becoming increasingly clear that we are going to be in this mode of living and working for the long haul, and so we need to sustain ourselves. We cannot rely on grit or willpower or the rewards of achievements. We need the kind of inner strength and fortitude that comes with having reoriented ourselves to God. 

That is the gift of today’s Gospel, that is the gift of having friends like Michelle in our lives. It is the gift of being reminded that being present to each other, that pausing to reflect, to learn, to listen is a balm to our soul in troubled times. 

Sitting at the feet of Jesus likely looks a little different to each of us, depending on our circumstances or our spiritual journeys. And also what time of day or day of the week it is. Whatever that might look like in your context today and this week, I hope you will carry Mary and Martha with you as you go about your life. I hope you will honor your Martha moments for the good and meaningful work you accomplish. I hope that you will also be sure there are plenty of Mary moments (at least one a day) where you find a way to sit at Jesus’ feet and receive the gift of his grace that is so abundantly offered to us. Amen. 

Cookies, Transformation, and the Love of God

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

St. Matthew’s, Wilton, CT

Proper 12A, July 26, 2020

Genesis 29:15-28; Psalm 105:1-11, 45b; Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33,44-52

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Good morning. It is a joy to be with you all, even if virtually. I have had the privilege of being colleagues with Marissa for a number of years here in ECCT. We spent quite a few of those years shepherding people through the ordination process. We bonded over a deep love of our Church and passions for shared leadership and the holy work of forming future leaders. We also bonded over a shared love of delicious food. We both love to cook and to enjoy what others have cooked. 

In the recent months when we have had so much more time at home, I have been grateful for that love of cooking and creating. Making something delicious has been a bright spot in these challenging days. One of my favorite things to cook are chocolate chip cookies. I have been making (and perfecting my recipe) for decades. There is something so very wonderful about chocolate chip cookies. They are comfort food indeed. 

And here is the thing about being a priest who loves to cook. It means you find theological insights and new ways of understanding God while standing in the kitchen. Rather in line with our tradition, if I may be so bold. Jesus' parables are full of examples drawn from everyday life. The Kingdom of God is like a seed, like yeast, like grain, like a pearl, like a net. God is indeed revealed to us in the midst of our daily lives. Even in a few bites of a cookie.

There is something profound about the transformational process of baking. You mix all the ingredients - start with the dry: flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and soda. Add the wet: melted butter, eggs, vanilla. And of course the chips. On their own, those ingredients are good in their own right, but something very particular happens when they are all mixed together in a certain ratio and baked. And once they have come together, they cannot be separated again. You cannot get the eggs back out of the cookie, for instance. Things cannot just go back to the way things were before. Transformation has happened.

What if this is how it is in our relationship with God? This is what Paul seems to be telling us in the letter from Romans today. He is affirming the conviction that nothing can separate us from the love of God. We have been brought into relationship with God. We have been transformed in our baptism. We have been marked as Christ’s own forever. 

The cookies cannot revert to mere staples on our pantry shelves. Their and our transformation cannot be undone. We cannot lose our connection to God. Really. Let that truth sink in for a moment. The truth that nothing can separate us from God is one that can seem like a platitude. We might rush past it out of familiarity. Oh, yeah. We know that. 

Today, I invite you to let it sink into your souls. This is a profound truth for us. It is a truth to carry with us each and every day, no matter what comes our way. The truth in our Epistle ought to strike us to the core. 

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

And I am convinced that not even a pandemic, not even a natural disaster, not even a job loss, not even the death of someone we cannot imagine life without, not even a diagnosis that turns our world upside down, not even the crumbling of all the structures that we have taken for granted. 

There is nothing. Absolutely nothing that can separate us from the love of God we have found in Jesus. 

I don’t know about you all, but that is a reminder I needed today. There are days and there are moments in the midst of all that we are encountering and experiencing, where I begin to think, oh, maybe this is it? Maybe this loss. This crisis. This pain. This is what will do it. This is too much. I cannot bear it. 

But the connection does not break. I might think it has wavered, but that is only because I have let my fear and anxiety cloud my vision. God is right there with me. I might think I cannot bear it, but that is only because I am stuck thinking I have to bear the challenges of these days alone. I do not. We do not. 

We have God, and we have each other. That is what we do as people of faith, as communities of faith. We hold the faith for each other. We hold each other up in the midst of crises, in the midst of loss, in the midst of doubt. Our actions, our love, our commitment to each other holds the truth that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ. We hold that truth for each other until we are ready to claim it again for ourselves. 

Maybe today is a day that you have that truth solidly in your heart. Wonderful. Today is your day to hold that truth for others. Maybe it is a day in which you are struggling. In which case I hope you will know that you are not alone. This marvelous faithful community is holding the truth for you. We are here together to remind us that come what may, we are never alone. The love of God surrounds us and upholds us, today and always. It is a connection that can never be broken. AMEN. 

Lessons from the Farmyard

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

DFMS Noonday Prayer via Zoom

July 16, 2020

Isaiah 26:7-9, 12, 16-19; Psalm 102:12-22; Matthew 11:28-30

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

I loved reading the Little House on the Prairie books when I was a child. And I also loved the book Laura Wilder wrote about her husband’s childhood on a farm in upstate New York. I loved that book especially because so much of that farm reminded me of my grandparents’ farm where I spent lots of time as a child. The house, the barn, the fields that I pictured in my mind were those of my grandparents’. In Farmer Boy, there is a long story about Almanzo learning to drive a pair of calves. His father whittles him a miniature yoke (a much smaller version of what is used to drive full size oxen). Almanzo puts this wooden yoke on the calves and teaches them how to step in unison, to turn left and to turn right. This may sound simple, but it is a long and complicated process. It is no small thing to get two young, excited calves to listen, to learn commands and to respond to them in perfect unison. Because, of course, when they are yoked together if they don’t act in unison there will be quite a mess. 

Almanzo learns two very important lessons in the course of this process. He learns about gentleness, and he learns about patience. At the beginning of the process his father gives him a small bullwhip with the explicit instructions that it is never to be used to whip the animals, merely to make a sound next to them that will help them learn the commands. He will get much farther and get far better work out of the calves if he is gentle with them. The challenge is that being gentle also takes patience. The rewards are great, but it takes more time and effort on the front end. 

It would seem to me that Almanzo’s experience offers us some insight into our Gospel reading for today. Jesus asks us to take his yoke upon us, to learn from him, for he is gentle and humble. Ah, there it is - gentleness again. That is indeed the kind of teacher Jesus is. He is gentle and humble. He seeks to guide us - not to terrify us or force us, but to gently invite us into a way forward that will in fact be rewarding and fruitful. 

So the parallels with Jesus as gentle teacher and guide are easy, what about the calves? That’s us, after all. How are we doing on that part? I think there are two important lessons for us in that. First is in the fact there is a yoke involved. Here is the important thing. A yoke is not a solitary thing. It is for the express purpose of bringing two animals together to be a team. So, first and foremost, Jesus is telling us (as he has modeled in his own ministry, in how he sent out the disciples) that this life of faith is not a solitary activity. We do not get to go it alone. And if we try, we are going to cause a complete mess. If you don’t have experience with yoked farm animals, perhaps you once did a three legged race in gym class or for a field day? If you went off one way without coordinating with the friend whose leg was tied to yours, how did that go? Not well. Generally that ended with everyone on the ground, possibly in pain. So, the best results come through coordinated teamwork that is following the direction of the teacher. 

The second important lesson is about listening. How well do you suppose it would have gone for those calves if they had spent all their time eating grass or trying to play or just generally ignoring Almanzo? They never would have left the barnyard to do the meaningful work of hauling loads of hay or wood. They would not have seen the woods or the blooming meadows. They would not have gotten to drink cool water from the creek. In short, they would have missed out on important work and seeing the wider world. I think the same might be true for us. If we fail to quiet ourselves, fail to pay attention to God and to all the various teammates with whom we have the opportunity to work over the course of our ministry, then we will miss out. If we get too focused, as one of our confessions says, “on the devices and desires of our own hearts,” then we will miss out on opportunities to do good and holy work and we will miss out on seeing the beauty that surrounds us. 

In the days ahead, I hope that we will be attentive to the ways that Jesus is guiding us, open to the opportunities for partnership (because we can always do better work in a team!), and willing to listen and learn, so that we might be able to experience life and the splendor of creation more fully. AMEN. 

Solid Foundations

Pouring the foundation of my parents' home

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

DFMS Noonday Prayer via Zoom

Argula von Grumbach, July 14, 2020

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

My mom is a teacher. Over the years she has taught math, writing and literature to kids. She spent all of my childhood teaching grown-ups how to build their own houses. She and my dad built the house in which I grew up. She loved that work and teaching, and the school liked having someone who was not a professional engineer or contractor on the faculty. It reinforced their point that anyone could learn to build a house. So my mom spent years teaching people how to heat and cool their houses; how to build their house appropriately for the climate in which it was situated; and how to build the proper foundation for their house. Over the years, especially in the summer months, I sat in on some or all of many of her lectures. I couldn’t help but think of all her lectures on foundations when I read today’s Gospel. 

I thought of her teaching her students how to calculate all the factors. What kind of ground is it? Is the house going to be on posts or is it going to have a full basement? Then my favorite part was the slide show. There were loads of photos of all the different kinds of foundations you could build, and lessons in how to pour concrete correctly. How to spread it. How not to get stuck in it. How to be sure it sets properly. Foundations are complicated!

And building a solid, strong foundation matters, just about more than anything. That is the lesson that I have carried with me from those lectures. Here is the thing. It does not actually matter whether you are building a tiny little shingled cottage or a mansion or a skyscraper. If you don’t get the foundation right, the building will not stand. It will not last. It does not matter whether the building will be a smart home where you can control the lights and the heat from your phone or an off the grid house that is made from salvaged materials. It does not matter whether the countertops will be granite or the bathrooms will be made of marble. What matters is the foundation.

The same is true for our own lives, particularly our spiritual lives. What is our foundation? How are we grounded? Our foundations do not all have to look the same. It depends on our context, our climate, and what we want to build.  But it is not about keeping up appearances. What matters is the substance - not the looks. 

So where are we finding substance and strength these days? What might need shoring up and bolstering in our lives? What might be mere window dressing that we can let go of because it does not actually impact what really matters?

For me, I am finding substance and strength in two important things, which I think are intertwined. They are connection and learning. In this world of remote work, it could be very easy (particularly since my personality tends this way) to become supremely task oriented. To make my day all about the “to do list.” But that could so easily lead to isolation. Strength is found in community, not in isolation. I am grateful for the ways in which more time at home allows more meals and activities with my family. I am grateful for the gift of technology that allows me to stay connected with friends and colleagues who are at a distance. And another one of the many reasons I am grateful for this chapel group is that  you all help me stay connected - to community and to God. You also help me keep learning. There is so much uncertainty in our lives right now. So much unknown. It can be easy to pull back and just focus on what we already know. Or easy to think that we have to have all the right answers. My communities, my connections remind me that I don’t need to figure it all out right now. The point is to keep learning, keep gaining wisdom and finding new perspectives. 

Having a strong foundation is not about being immovable or stagnant. It is about being grounded and connected, so that I can weather whatever changes come. We do not and we cannot know what the next weeks and months will hold for us. What we can know is that we can thrive in the midst of whatever if we have grounded ourselves in relationship with God and with those whose presence enriches and enlivens our journey. AMEN.    

Laboring for Love

Wheat field in France

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

DFMS Noonday Prayer

July 7, 2020; Psalm 115:1-10; Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13; Matthew 9:32-38

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

“Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’”

So ends our Gospel reading today. It has gotten me thinking about harvesting and labor. What are we harvesting and why are there so few laborers? If the harvest is plentiful then it must be good. We cannot be harvesting fear and anxiety for those are the fruits of scarcity. Love and compassion. Wisdom and understanding. Those are of God. And they are in abundance, if we look for them. The trouble is that it can be easy to miss them. We can get caught up in the narratives of fear and scarcity. The headlines have been full of messages that there is not enough. Not enough beds in the ICU. Not enough resources to keep the economy going. Not enough personal protective equipment. Not enough of essential items in our grocery stores. And of course, once we get ourselves into a mindset of scarcity and fear it can be self-perpetuating. All of a sudden there are more things to fear. We can see something to fear around every corner. 

But my friends, that is not what God’s desire for us. God does not desire for us to be frantic with fear or paralyzed with anxiety. Of course, that does not mean we get to be foolish or careless, throwing all caution to the wind. It does mean that we get to invest in, and keep our focus on that which is life-giving that which restores our soul and fills us with hope. That sounds wonderful we think. So, I should just have more days off and more vacation right? That’s the solution. 

Yes and no. Taking time off is valuable, but note that our Gospel today does not speak of rest. It speaks of labor, of the hard work of harvesting. Today we might think of harvesting in a merely metaphorical sense or of the seemingly simple act of sitting on a tractor while the machines did the work. All that is required of the farmer is driving in a straight line. But this is not the work of harvesting of which Jesus speaks. He is speaking of the exhausting manual labor of harvesting by hand. Perhaps swinging a sickle to harvest wheat. Climbing up and down a ladder to harvest olives. Or the careful hand work of harvesting grapes. Any of those are work that would leave us achy and tired at the end of the day. Yet, I think it would be a particular kind of ache and a particular type of tired. The kind of ache and tired that testifies to accomplishment, to doing something that is important and meaningful. To hard work that sustains life, brings joy, and brings comfort. 

That is a different sort of work than seemingly endless tasks or of busy-ness to ward off anxiety. It is meaningful work. It is hard work. There is no doubt about that. And it is work that is worth doing. 

The call and invitation in our Gospel is to labor. But it is not just to any and all labor. It is not an invitation to simply work more. It is an invitation to be thoughtful about the kind of work in which we invest our time and our strength. Our energy and our care. Let us invest our effort in that which is life-giving for us and for the world. 

There is an invitation in the midst of this challenging time to pause and reflect, to evaluate where our priorities are. Are we harvesting the fruits of the spirit? Are we harvesting that which endures? Are we trusting in God’s abiding presence or are we letting fear take hold? 

We are called by God to labor for the coming of the Kingdom, for the realization of God’s dream. So, as we have (hopefully) a little more time in these summer weeks to rest and reflect, to prepare for what is ahead (as uncertain as that may be), I hope we will evaluate the labors of our lives. I hope we will prepare ourselves to do the hard and holy work that sustains life and brings joy. And I hope we will also have the courage to stop doing, to let go of those tasks and habits which do not serve us, or perhaps more importantly, do not serve the values and ideals to which we are called as people of faith. There is much work ahead of us. On some days it may exhaust our bodies, and yet if we are following Jesus in our labors, the work will fill our souls. AMEN. 

Rethinking Independence Day

NYC street

Rev. Molly F. James

DFMS Noonday Prayer via Zoom

July 2, 2020 (Propers for Independence Day)

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. And may that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

If any of you are friends with Byron Rushing on Facebook or are members of the big Episcopal groups on Facebook, you know that he makes an annual reminder during this week of the year that we ought to think carefully about how we pray on Independence Day. If you look at the Collect for today, it talks about the founders winning freedom for “us.”

It says, “Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.”

Byron rightly reminds us that the Collect seems to just gloss over and skip the fact that when the founders won liberty, there was a huge portion of the population who were still in bondage. The Collect neglects to mention the fact that at the same time those “founders” won their freedom from England, they also decided that every slave in America only counted as ⅗ of a person. That fraction ought to horrify us. There is no way to spin that to make it okay. No way to say, “Well, what they meant was . . .” Think back to your basic math lessons or when you use a measuring cup in cooking. There is no way that ⅗ is equal to one whole. No way whatsoever. 

But actually keeping our focus on condemning our founders for their inadequate actions by our standards is not helpful. It is not helpful, because we cannot go back and rewrite history. And even more so, it is not helpful because it makes it easy for us to focus on the failings of the past, rather than the problems of the present. If we focus on the past, we might even try to pretend that the realities of freedom and liberty have been won, and there is no work for us to do now.

Well, my friends, if any of us who are white had fooled ourselves into thinking that the realities of liberty and freedom that we know so well were indeed universal among American citizens, I don’t know how we could still think that. The events of recent weeks have shown us that the “progress” of the Civil Rights era or the fact that a black man has held the highest office in the land do not mean that our work is done. Not at all. The truth has been laid bare that we have so far to go. We can see how we have failed, and we can see how much work we have ahead of us. 

So what do we do with this reality as we remember Independence Day this year? It is worth noting that Independence Day is not just a secular, national holiday. It is also a Church holiday. 

This is because the founding of this nation and the founding of the Episcopal Church are inextricably linked. As the American Colonies fought and declared independence from Britain, so too did our Church. In fact, many of the democratic principles that govern our own national government - the principle of checks and balances, the principle of elected leadership, the principle that says the average person gets to have a say in how they are governed - are all principles that our also present in the Constitution and rules that govern the Episcopal Church.  Just the way that no one gets to be a Senator or President without a lot of people thinking its a good idea - neither does someone get to be a bishop in the Episcopal Church without a lot of people thinking it is a good idea!  The democratic ideals held sacred by the founders were also enshrined in the governance of the Episcopal Church. 

I wonder if we might find some hope in those principles and ideals. While we who represent the power and privilege of institutions and structures that have perpetuated the realities of white privilege have to repent of the past and chart a new course for the present and the future, that course does not mean condemning all that has come before us. The principles that guide the governance of our Church (and our nation) are holy and good ones. The problem is not with the principles themselves, it is that we have failed to ensure that they are universally applied.

There is a lesson for us in all of this.  Not only are we to hold on to the love of freedom and liberty that lies at the core of this nation and our Church.  We are to hold on to the call - in our history and in our faith - to never weary of doing what is right.  We do not shy away from speaking the Truth or from speaking up and amplifying the voices of those who have spent far too long on the margins of our Church and our society. If we encounter resistance, we do not give up.  We shake the dust off our feet, and we move on.  We keep on trying.  We keep on speaking up until the message is heard. 

Those immortal words about the God given rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were penned 244 years ago, and we know that there are still many places in our Church, in our communities, in our country, and in our world, where the light of liberty does not shine.  Far too many voices have gone unheard by those in power.  We cannot keep silent, and we cannot grow weary.  We are asked to do what is right.  We are asked to stand up for what we believe in - even in the face of any adversity.  We are asked to speak up when we see injustice. We are asked to notice who is not at the table where important decisions are made and how we might change that reality.  This may mean taking political action to work for a cause that is dear to your heart and our faith.  It may mean big and loud actions.  But it may also mean the simple act of not being afraid to speak up when someone makes a comment that is insulting to another person or group.  Being a voice for freedom, for liberty, for justice doesn’t necessarily have to mean speaking to a national audience.  There is great value in remembering and reminding others that we Christians are called to seek and serve Christ in all persons.  The principle of equality that is a part of this nation is also at the heart of our faith. 

So as we celebrate Independence Day, may we honor the principles we have inherited, and commit ourselves to using the gifts we have been given to work toward ensuring that the ideals of freedom and liberty are not limited to the few, but universally applied to all people. May we use our voice and whatever power we have to build a future that realizes God’s dream, God’s kingdom for all.  AMEN.