SUNDAY SERVICE - JULY 6, 2003

Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lynn

Kimberly Luck – Guest Worship Leader

“The Spiritual Patriot”

Today is the sixth of July. When I was approached about preaching today I was very excited. Not only because of first sermon jitters, but also because today is so close to a very special day. Just two days ago, it was the Fourth of July.

          Now, I am a political science major. And I always get asked, just as many other people pursuing liberal arts degrees get asked, “And what do you want to do with that?” When I answer “Well, I plan to go into ministry,” they look at me as if I said I planned to be a chemical engineer. Many do not see how the two could possibly be connected. However, most of these people are not U.U.’s, for we have a history stretching back to Jefferson of religion and politics.

When I picked my major, I did not plan to be a minister. Then I received my calling. It felt right in my heart; my soul. I was raised in this church. I grew-up singing in the children’s chorus directed by Kitty Loring, listening to time with the children with Bob Slater or Ann Boynton, and running around and around the church until someone, most likely one of you, told me to stop. My family is very involved with the church.  I love this church and I love being a U.U. but it did not seem defining for me until I went to college.

Before then, I did not realize how important our work is. I truly took my religion and my church, among many other things, for granted. It was at college, where I spoke with people from such different backgrounds, that I realized that I love to talk about my faith. Just as I was thinking of this love, as if it were a message, I found my chalice necklace that I received at Affirmation. (Trust me; I always consider it a miracle when I find anything, let alone something from three years ago.) I began wearing it everywhere.  Random people began asking about it. I have so many great conversations about religion everywhere I go: classrooms, mall stores, and, alas, the famous elevator. (I am still working on my elevator speech.)

I began to think of all the great work that ministers do. I would get to be involved with the significant parts of people’s lives: Marriage, new children and death. And also I would be involved with the most important part of people’s experience: everyday life. To find magic in the ordinary. Do you know I got goose-bumps when I wrote that line? The list goes on with how ministry appeals to me: the social action, the theology and the community. This does not look like an easy job for me. I do not look at the ministry and say, “Nice, summers off.” I want a job that encompasses me.  I do not want separate spheres. I want to live my life as one and ministry represents that for me.

Yet my major is politic science and I am not changing it. I love my major. And I felt as if the topics were not that different. When I started to search, I began to see how intertwined they are. They are both about searching for justice and living in line with the realities we must face. I find politics void of spirituality dead, yet I find politics full of fundamentalist rhetoric fatal. Our Founding Fathers knew this.

You have heard these words earlier today: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable right; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”[i] Those are some religious words right there. It has almost a creedal feel to it. Now, I was raised U.U. The word creed is a little difficult for me to say. I am sure for many of you that had to accept a creed that went against your own beliefs; the word might even make you uncomfortable. Yet that is what this is. It is a system of belief that, as Americans, we must agree with. It is an interpretation by the founding fathers of the world that they saw. It has led us through times of doubt, always providing a guide to the truth. It is the American Creed.

Now, I am not speaking of the cult of democracy. The worship of our own form of government is shallow, narcissistic and unself-critical. Also, I am not speaking of political discourse and religious rhetoric becoming one. This escalates very quickly to a dangerous place as seen by the Taliban and, to a much lesser extent, by even our own country at times. The bumper sticker popular in the late 1950’s and early 1960s; “Kill them all, God will know His own” comes to mind.[ii] No, I am talking about taking the American Dream inspired directly from the Declaration of Independence of equality for all and infusing it with spirituality. It is about taking the Golden rule to the next level. It is to make “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and make it “Do unto others as God does unto you.” Give every person the same respect of freewill and liberty that God has given us all.[iii]

Is this what bonds Americans? We do not pray alike. We do not talk alike. We do not look alike. And we certainly cannot agree on sports teams. Yet there is a bond. Yes, I think it is the American Creed. It is faith in freedom and equality. It is respect for the idea of respect.

Last year I read a great book entitled The American Creed  a Spiritual and Patriotic Primer written by Forrest Church, the senior minister of the All Souls Unitarian Church in New York City.  It was incredibly inspiring. It is there that I read about taking the golden rule to the next level. He called it the platinum rule. The book inspired me to write this sermon and much of the research is from there. From A City on A Hill to a hopeful future, Rev. Forrest Church traces the message of justice that America has strived for. The truths that have led the way.

Thomas Jefferson, the primary draftsman, once described the Declaration of Independence as “the genuine effusion of the soul of our country.”[iv] It took ideas that, for the time, were not self-evident. In fact, as a basis for government, they were rather revolutionary. It does not pick out specific groups, as the constitution does. No, it reads: “All men are created equal.” This sets a very high bar. It is a long road, but its words intend to lead the way. It also puts a lot of responsibility in our hands. By instituting a government among ourselves to secure these rights, we are taking the powers into our hands. It is not an arbitrary sovereign with the power and the rights. It is every man. It is we, the people.

Now the Founding Fathers claimed these truths as self-evident, even when their own actions did not follow suit. Their tolerance of slavery led the Supreme Court to rule in favor of slavery in the famous Dred Scott case. Yet it is in the words that they are saved. Jefferson dropped the word property from John Locke’s famous list of rights. “Life, liberty and property” changed to “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Although it actually appears more likely that Jefferson took his list from the Declaration of Rights for Virginians opposed to Locke’s list, the contrast is still clear today just as it was then. By leaving the word property out, the Declaration applies to all, slave and freeman.[v]  For Jefferson wrote, in reference to slavery, “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”[vi]

          Justice did come in reference to slavery in America. As the idea for the eradication of slavery become more popular, the Declaration of Independence grew in importance. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln placed it in the forefront of his policies. He wrote that the Declaration of Independence should be “constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and, even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere.” [vii]

          Lincoln’s leadership led us to take another step towards equality. He truly was such a visionary. Although there may be doubt whether his interest lay with equality or unity, the truth is he led this country through what may have been its roughest time and also left us with some literary gems that explain the American Creed in new ways. At the end of his second inaugural address he ended with this sentiment that I believe is relevant after any war. “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.” [viii] Yet at the end of the civil war and after the passage of the fourteenth amendment, there was one large group that was still legally not considered equal: women.

 Just as with slaves, the society was unable to embrace the idea of their equality at the time the Declaration of Independence was written. It is now clear that women are part of the human race, which was called mankind at that time. The Declaration of Independence is, as Lincoln once said, “spiritually regenerative.”[ix] It is a living document. As society changes, and our interpretation of who is considered part of humanity changes, the Declaration of Independence still inspires. Through our creed, as Forrest Church wrote, “Forgotten voices are encouraged, discordant ones protected and those that rise to prophecy uplifted.”[x]  The women of Seneca Falls in their Declaration of Sentiments clarified that women are included. They wrote: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.”[xi] Feminism, with all its different angles and goals, has at least this foundation to rest itself on.

Civil rights is another issue that drew inspiration from the Declaration of Independence. The Dr. Rev. Martian Luther King Junior was a steadfast believer and prophetic speaker of the word. He is both a politic and religious icon.  Ironically, some on the Christian right, names we recognize today from politic battles, such as Jerry Falwell, condemned preachers trying to be politicians during the civil rights movement. [xii] But with every speech King made and march he led, King was asking us to live up to our national creed.                                                                                                                                    

 And our creed did not say “just Americans are created equal.” Although it is our creed, that does not mean that our actions end at our borders. Our world is becoming smaller and smaller. It is becoming quite clear that problems in one country do not stay just in that country. And with the things we all must share: the water, the air, the earth, it is pointless to stand helplessly at our borders. We are citizens of the world just as we are citizens of American and just as we are citizens of Massachusetts.

Whether it is civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, immigrant rights or others, the American creed gives a platform to all seeking equality. But work still needs to be done in all these areas. It would have been a lot easier if our founding fathers had, just as I spoke of in the time for all ages, shown us how to act and not simply told us. But they did not and the message is taking a while to seep in. They simply gave us the words, the boom if you will. It is up to us to be the light.

Equality was reached one day in this country’s recent history. 9/11 will always be remembered as a day when we lived up to our creed. It is in the worst tragedies that we show our true colors. And our colors are good. We were firefighters and police officers running into save fallen comrades. We were passengers on United flight 93 that took back the plane, but paid with our lives. We were those that prayed for all as we watched it live on TV. We were those who died. But more importantly, we were those who lived. We were all simply Americans that day.

That is why I love America. I believe this type of love and brotherhood can exist even without tragedy. We have done it before; we must build on what we have and what we hope. I truly believe we are a great nation. After all, it is my nation. 

But I have to be truthful with you. I have trouble with the blind nationalism that is common today. In some ways I am afraid it is turning into the false idolism that by its nature goes against the nature of the American Creed. It seems as though some are assuming divine approval rather than the highest standard of behavior. We must, as Abraham Lincoln did, ensure that our actions place us on the side of God and never accept the proposition that God is simply on our side.[xiii]

It is sometimes tough to be proud of a country whose policies here and abroad we may disagree with. But it especially upsets me to see bumper stickers with intolerant messages along side our flag. “My country, right or wrong.”  In fact, this is not the whole quote. In 1899, Senator Carl Schurz of Missouri actually said, “My country, right or wrong: if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”[xiv] Ah, doesn’t that feel better. This is what we must do.

It is not about pointing out all our flaws until we can not raise our heads high. For we are a moral people, not a perfect people. Perfection is much beyond our grasp, but morality is not. We must find the things that we should be proud of and put those issues on the forefront. Yet, at the same time, we must always work on the things that must be improved. We must go back and strip our country of all its extraneous material, all the bad feelings, the fear, weighing it down. Cut through the slicked down messages, the sound bites. Look with love to the message that is, as Jefferson once wrote, “Engraved on our hearts.”[xv]  That is when we will find our soul. I believe the spirit of our soul can be found in the very document we just celebrated. The Declaration of Independence.

I would like to end with a prayer. Eisenhower closed his farewell address with this expression of his faith:  “We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations may have their great human needs satisfied, that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.”[xvi] This is the American Creed. Happy Independence Day!