July 4, 2004

Matthew

We gather on this day to remember the impulse that is our sacred trust. We remember the call to freedom. There will be parades and fireworks and family and crowds and mosquitoes and we begin the feast of freedom celebrated on this fourth of July at this table. The table of Jesus, who calls us to be free.

We gather as a people who hold fast to the power of promise and vision. We proclaim it each time we gather to share this meal. We gather knowing that we are communing with those throughout the ages who heard the teachings of Jesus and turned toward the freedom it offers.

As a people of faith, we know that the God of our ancestors is a God concerned about the power of justice and healing as lived in our intentions and our choices as we live together in community. God is in the city, calling us to be a people who live the promise and challenge of shared beatitude.

As a people who live in these United States, we know that the vision of our ancestors was that of justice as lived in our intentions and choices. We are called, as citizens of this land of blessing, to be a people who live the promise and challenge of shared beatitude.

“We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. That among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Those words, written to declare a new way – a way of independence, are a vision we seek to live into as the people of the United States of America. Those words were not written as some sort of carte blanche for us to grasp all that we could and clutch it to ourselves. The pursuit of happiness is found not in the playground of external things, but in the well tended ground of our individual and communal souls.

We live into happiness by being a people who declare our inner and inter dependence – on God, on each other, with all of creation.

Dr. Jacob Needleman, a philosopher who teaches at San Francisco State University has written a book called “The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders”. His book unfolds the belief that American was once the hope of the world because of its vision of what humanity is and can become. He shares his belief that the deepest purpose of the United States government is to provide conditions under which our society can flourish spiritually as well as materially.

In his book he says:

“The pursuit of happiness is found in establishing contact with a principle within yourself that orders your life and opens you up to loving others, and to loving something higher than yourself. So happiness is discovering truth within yourself, and then trying to live according to that truth.

The Founders of our nation understood that this kind of happiness can be pursued only by a society with the kind of government that would allow us the political liberty to search for conscience, while allowing us the material support that this search requires. (The Sun, December 2002)

What the Founders of our country envisioned is a structure of government set up in such a way that we have the luxury to cultivate our soul lives. Freed from the tyranny of injustice and oppression, citizens of these United States could go about the pursuit of happiness – the pursuit of a rich inner life.

Power, in such a life, is found not in grasping, subduing, or proclaiming power over. Power, in such a life, is found in taking the time to cultivate a rich and honest inner life.

There is a story about Abraham Lincoln when he was still a lawyer in Springfield, representing a client who was fighting the railroad interests. A friend approaching Lincoln’s office saw a man come sailing out of the second-story window, hit the ground, get up, brush himself off, and run away. The friend rushed upstairs to ask Lincoln what had happened.

“I threw him out the window,” Lincoln said.

“Why, what did he do?”

“He was a lawyer for the railroad, and he asked me to cheat. He offered me five thousand dollars, but I turned him down.

Then he offered me ten thousand dollars, and I turned him down again. Finally, he offered me fifteen thousand dollars, and I threw him out the window.”

The friend asked Lincoln why he had chosen that point to throw the man out.

“Because,” Lincoln answered, “he was getting near my price.”

How do we cultivate our inner soul life in such a way that we have the wisdom and courage to recognize what it is in our lives that needs to be chucked out the window?

As we celebrate freedom on this day, I pray for us all. Each one and the promise that is our nation. I pray that we take the time to cultivate the life of our souls.

We cannot live into the vision of Jesus nor of our Founding fathers and mothers until we are willing to live beatitude through living our inter dependence.

As you watch the fireworks unfold tonight, may you know the spangle of beatitude.

Go deep. Know that you are called to deep freedom through communion.

And decide how it is you will open the window and start chucking.

Amen