So just what does the Fourth of July mean to you? I suspect that, for many Americans, this is just another excuse for a backyard barbeque and a chance to watch some pretty impressive fireworks. Yes, we do celebrate the founding of our country, but what exactly does that signify? Are we just being chauvinists, saying, in effect, “We’re great because we’re us, and everybody else sucks?”
To celebrate this day should imply putting some meaning behind it.
I’ve been praying a lot for our country lately. I’m certainly proud of America’s founding commitment to egalitarian government (however narrowly our Founders defined that!), but the events of last January 6th really have me rattled. I am beginning to fear that blind partisanship has taken the place of patriotism, vulgar selfishness has replaced freedom, opportunism is replacing true service, and plutocracy is taking the place of democracy.
245 years ago, some very smart men decided they would slither out from under the thumb of a monarchy and a parliamentary system controlled by landed blue-bloods and form a common person’s democratic government. They gained their freedom, but they took on one heck of a lot of responsibility. If this is to be a government of the people, then the people must take ownership of it and be committed to its upkeep.
Let’s face it, there’s an awful lot of responsibility on our plate just at present. We have a responsibility to tell the truth—even if that means admitting that many of those very smart fellows who formed our government were slave holders, and that the legacy of human bondage has left a still-festering wound cut deeply into the flesh of this nation. We have a responsibility to promote equality.
We have a responsibility address climate change. We have a responsibility to demand a new, clean energy economy. We have an obligation to promote better education for our children and accessible healthcare for all our citizens. The Declaration of Independence states that whenever a government fails to provide for the safety and well-being of the citizens, those citizens have the responsibility to change the government.
The work of living in a democracy is hard. It only works if people are invested and really believe that what we do matters. As illustrated in the Gospel lesson for Pentecost 6, Year B (Mark 6:1-13), not even Jesus could do an act of power for people who would not believe or listen. I always like Mark’s bare-knuckles approach to storytelling. Matthew’s Gospel cleans this story up by saying Jesus “did not do many deeds of power there because of their unbelief.”[i] Mark, in contrast says Jesus “could do no deeds of power there.” If hope and commitment are absent, nothing can get done.
Emerson Powery a professor of Biblical
studies at Messiah College in Grantham, PA, notes that Mark juxtaposes the tale
of Jesus’ failure to reach the unbelieving home crowd with his sending out of
the disciples to proclaim the Gospel. Jesus has just been disappointed by his
failure to reach the locals, a sign, according to Professor Powery, that every
new movement is going to face some opposition. We will always encounter people
who just don’t want to be bothered with doing what is right or merciful or
inconvenient. Jesus warns the disciples that this is going to happen to them.
If and when it does, they are to shake it off and keep going.
Jesus’ instructions to the twelve seem to me to be pretty good instructions for being responsible citizens. He tells them not to stockpile or horde. They are to use what they have, a reminder that when we look to God to provide, enough is as good as a feast (vv.8-9). The disciples proclaim repentance, a changing of the peoples’ minds, but they also become healers of the sick. Their mission is ultimately to bring well-being. We still have a responsibility for the health of those around us. I can’t help but think that getting COVID-19 vaccinations, wearing masks in crowded places, and taking precautions for the protection of others should take precedence over our own personal likes and dislikes.
The disciples accomplish acts of healing by anointing the sick (v.13). The sick, considered to be outcasts, are honored with oil just as a king would be. The sharing of oil with a stranger was an act of incorporation, a sign that they are included and part of the larger societal family.
As Christians and as Americans we are always a work in progress. Our holidays should not be simply a commemoration of past events, but a re-dedication to what we are intended to be. Like the twelve, we are called to be on a mission and to do deeds of power.
[i]
Matt. 13:58
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