Something to Brag About

When I was growing up in Texas, we had a little book called Texas Brags.  It had all kinds of BIGGEST and BEST stories any son or daughter of the Lone Star State could brag about.

We Texans always like to boast about the size of the state.  You know the story about a salesman from Chicago who was out in El Paso at the far western tip of Texas.  The home office knew the guy was in Texas.  So, without looking at a map, they sent a text message--telling their man in El Paso to see a client in Texarkana.  Now, Texarkana is on the east side of Texas, adjoining Arkansas and Louisiana, as the name suggests: Texarkana.  The salesman out in El Paso got out his map, determined he was nine hundred miles or so away from Texarkana.  His text message response to Chicago told them, “Call on them yourselves.  Chicago is closer to Texarkana than El Paso is!”

The western border of Texas is closer to to Pacific Ocean than it is to Port Arthur, Texas, on the Gulf Coast.  The eastern border of Texas is nearer the Atlantic Ocean than it is to El Paso in the west  (World Book 7988).

Yes, I grew up in a proud state, a state which could boast of many things, not the least of which was our size.  Then while I was away from Texas, attending seminary in Kentucky and not minding things back home closely enough, Congress let Alaska slip in and eclipse Texas as the largest state.  As much as I hate to admit it, Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas in total mileage.

But when Alaska was admitted to the Union in 1959, we Texans lost a major reason for boasting.  We we can longer boast about being the BIGGEST state.  Still BEST, but no longer BIGGEST.

In this Thanksgiving season, we’re looking at words from the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 9, verses 23-24, which point to things we may mistakenly brag or give thanks for and three things worthy of bragging about.

Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the LORD." 

This passage really outlines itself:

First of all, we see three things which are not true cause for boasting:

Wisdom

Might or human strength

Wealth or riches

There’s nothing wrong with any one of these: wisdom, bodily strength, or wealth.

And there’s nothing wrong with all three in combination.  But Jeremiah warns, if we boast in any or all of these apart from God, they can replace God in our thoughts and affections.

Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom.

T. E. Lawrence, who became known as Lawrence of Arabia, tells of an experience in the Arabian desert during World War One.  He and some Arab chieftains were sitting around a campfire out under the stars.

One of the Arabs looked through Lawrence’s binoculars to the heavens and asked, “And the stars -- what are they?”  This led to a discussion of suns out beyond suns and of how greater telescopes would reveal yet greater expanses of the universe with thousand and thousands of stars as yet unseen.  One of the men said, of such visual exploration of space, “When we see them all, there will be no night in heaven.”  This man felt that astronomers were moving dangerously close to conquering all knowledge, not realizing that, in a few more decades, men would walk on the moon and send cameras to explore the planets of our solar system.

This Arab chieftain was concerned that the probing mind of man would destroy the mystery of the universe when he said, “When we see them all, there will be no night in heaven.” 

Though some people think there is danger in knowing too much, we recall Luke’s listing (10:27) of the Great Commandment:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.

If we would love God with all our minds, we should keep open to learning as much as possible.    

Someone said: "The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder."

In other words, the more we learn, the more we can stand in awe of the greatness of God. 

Many Christians are afraid science will wreck their faith, and there are scientists who are agnostics or atheists.  But many devout Christian men and women with advanced degrees in science look to God as the Creator of the universe.  These men and women track the workof the Almighty through the heavens and into the depth of the seas where life began.

Science and religion take separate paths toward explaining the origins of life.  The Bible is not a book of science, so we should not look to Genesis as a detailed account of how the world was formed.  It should not trouble us if scientists tell us the world is billions of years old.  Genesis tells us WHO created everything.  Science seeks to explain HOW it all began.  These need not conflict.

God takes no pleasure in those who glory in their own wisdom to the exclusion of God.  Neither does God put a premium on ignorance.  It is as much an abuse of our minds to let them rust through disuse as to think we have reached such a high level of intellect that we no longer need God.

          A young man came into my office one day at what is now Anderson University and asked me this question: "Mr. Webb, can you tell me some books it would be safe for me to read?"  He was afraid he might read something that would make him think.

         Another similar incident:  I didn't hear this myself, but it was told by a seminary professor who was visiting a Baptist  meeting.  A preacher prayed this prayer: "Lord, I thank Thee that I am igno-RUNT.  Lord, make me ignoRUNTER."  The professor said, "The prayer was answered on the spot!"

Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might.

One of the most enduring friendship of my life reached all the way back to seminary, across nearly fifty years. As a young man, Bill Bridges had much to be proud of, to glory in.  Tall, energetic, smart, and musically talented.   He could find music in people who didn’t know they had any.  He had a flair for the dramatic.  I saw him charm an audience at a big Baptist meeting.  His college singers standing in the aisles of a church, their song echoing back and forth between those in one aisle and those in the other.  Then they marched to the platform singing a rousing number.  Before the choir was through, we were in a meditative mood with “Near to the Heart of God.”  Another time, he had swarms of grade school children, singing as they paraded around a church sanctuary representing animals on Noah’s ark.

But in late middle age, Bill was wracked with Parkinson’s disease.  From that point, I watched for several years as this cruel disease ate away at his body, mind, and spirit, I was in his room at Hospice House the night before he died.  This once-robust man had nothing left to glory in.

As we think of glorying in might, we need to move beyond individual human strength to national and international reliance on the strength of battle and nuclear warheads.  Our national leaders send young men and women by the tens of thousands to Iraq and Afghanistan, always with the threat of using greater weapons than we currently use.  We threaten Iran and Syria, using our great arsenal of nuclear destruction to discourage these smaller countries from developing weapons such as those we already possess in abundance.  We supply Israel with the weapons they are using against their enemies.

With war all around us, we need to hear again this second reminder from Jeremiah:

Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might.

There is a basic contradiction in this land.  Many people insist we are a Christian nation.  Yet, our leaders build up weapons systems in preparation for blowing our enemies off the face of the earth.  If you must build your strategic systems, don’t build them in the name of the Prince of Peace.

"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches

When you hear the warning, let not the rich man glory in his riches, you may feel that warning doesn’t apply to you.  But you don’t have to be Bill Gates or Warren Buffet for this to apply to you.

In the play Driving Miss Daisy, the chauffeur tells Miss Daisy that she is rich.  Miss Daisy is, in fact, quite well off.  But she doesn’t like to admit this.  Instead, she recalls growing up in downtown Atlanta on Forsyth Street when her parents had to scrimp and save.  But when the play takes place, Miss Daisy is wealthy and definitely does NOT have to squeeze every penny from every dollars in order to survive.

Whether our funds are modest or moderate or megabucks, we can readily fall into the trap of worrying about whether our funds will hold out.  We can come to rely on money as our source of strength.  Hear again the cautions:

"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD

I confess that as I read those last words, I am caught up short.

but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD

To what extent can I truly say I understand God?

To what extent can I truly say I know God?

When I stop to focus on understanding and knowing God, I have to say with the spiritual: Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

What do I as a mere man understand about the God who made the heavens and the earth?

What do I as a mere man know about the God who loves me and forgives me and saves me?

I’ve been a Christian more than sixty-seven years, and I understand and know more about God than I did when, as boy of nearly eleven, I trusted my life to Christ the best I understood and knew.  But all my understanding, my knowledge, is the proverbial  drop in the bucket!

Job in the depth of unearned suffering declares God is the One who does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number (9:10).

Paul in Romans (11:33-35), pondering the ways of God from a different perspective, makes a similar statement:

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord,  or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him  that he might be repaid?"

When I think of bragging about understanding and knowing God, it may be like the only time we’ve been in Paris.  We went to the Louvre museum one Sunday afternoon maybe an hour before they closed.  We wound up virtually running through the halls to see some of the best-known art: da Vinci’s painting of Mona Lisa and the armless statue Venus de Milo.   But I cannot boast of any real understanding of the Louvre and its contents.  I would have to go back time after time after time in order to have any real understanding and knowledge of that museum.

  

We can only see a little of the ocean

As we stand on the wave-beaten shore,

But out beyond the eye’s horizon,

There’s more.  There’s more.

We can only see a little of God’s love

As we stand on this earthly shore.

But out beyond the eye’s horizon,

There’s more.  There’s more.

But the word from God through Jeremiah gives us clues for knowing and understanding God.  Let’s read the two verses again.  Notice three things God says He does which help us to know Him:

practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth

Here are the verses:

Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the LORD." 

If we know the God of steadfast love, justice, and righteousness, then we have cause to boast.

First, consider steadfast love.

Human examples can help us understand divine qualities.  One example of steadfast love is the experience of  Don Francisco.  Today,  Don Francisco is a Christian recording artist, a real-life version of the Prodigal Son.  His story fascinates me because I knew him long before he gained any fame.  Don wouldn’t remember me, but I worked with him in the Baptist boys’ organization, Royal Ambassadors, when I was a seminary student and Don was a little ten-year-old boy with a flattop haircut.  Don’s daddy, Dr. Clyde Francisco, was one of my professors at the seminary I attended in Louisville.  We had Royal Ambassadors on campus for the sons of students and professors.

I lost track of most of those boys.  But about twenty years after I graduated from seminary, I came across a newspaper story about Don Francisco.  It was a bittersweet story.  When Don became a musician, he went the rock music route and was involved in much of the negatives we often associate with rock.  He said of himself, “I did everything but kill somebody.”

He began his music career with a guitar that cost him two dollars and ninety-five cents.  His rebellious streak led him through six different majors during his unsuccessful college attempts before he turned to music as a major and a career.

As a young man trying to make it in music, Don Francisco was often in trouble and financial difficulty.  He said his dad was always ready to help when he turned back home for help.  He said:

"I’ve run into people my father [knew] who prayed with him for me. I could be out raising hell and get myself in a jam, and call him up, and ask for money, and he’d always give it to me" (White).

Don Francisco said his father’s constant support and love helped him learn to appreciate God’s constant love. Here’s a P. S. to the Don Francisco story.  He was associated with Bill and Gloria Gaither for a time.  Then he went out on his own and continues his faithful musical witness.

Again, a classic modern-day Prodigal Son story, illustrating God’s steadfast love, which is worth boasting about.

If we know the God of justice, then we have cause to boast.

Other Hebrew prophets sounded the trumpet call for justice on behalf of the needy.

Amos berated the well-heeled who took advantage of the poor, cheating them in their purchases by giving less than they should get for the purchase price (8:4-6).  Forsake such abuse.  Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (5:24).

Micah, in the same period as Amos, calls out, 

He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you  but to do justice, and to love kindness,  and to walk humbly with your God?

Jesus declares that His kingdom will be made up of those who feed hungry people, who give drink to the thirsty, who give clothes to the naked, who show hospitality to strangers, who visit prisoners (Matthew 25:31ff).

We have responsibility as individuals to see to the needs of the people around us.  We also have responsibility as the richest nation on God’s earth for employers to increase the minimum wage and for our government to use tax money to provide for the needy through health care.

Jim Wallis with the Sojourners movement points out there are more than two thousand references to the poor and needy in the Bible.  We sin when we fail to work for justice among the neediest.    But we can boast in understanding and knowing  some of God’s love and justice as we share in helping the poor and he oppressed through government spending, through our church contributions, and through personal hands of love and justice.

Third, if we know the God of  righteousness, then we have cause to boast.

A truly righteous person is a good person whose life reflects his values.   I had a boss some years ago who liked to tell about a woman who praised her pastor.  She complimented the minister for his preaching, for his personal counseling, and for other work he did.  Then, after listing all these qualities, she added, “And he’s a good man, too!”   My boss told that story often, and it always drew a laugh.  But it reminds us:  Simply being a preacher does not make a man or woman good.  We cannot boast in our own righteousness but, rather, we can boast in the goodness of God.

The song, “The Solid Rock,” says, “Dressed in His righteousness alone . . . On Christ the solid Rock I stand.  All other ground is sinking sand.  All other ground is sinking sand” (Mote).

Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord. 

+++++++++++++++++++

SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT---SOURCES

Edward Mote, “The Solid Rock,” The Baptist Hymnal.  Nashville, Tenn.: Convention Press, 1991, Hymn No. 406.

“Texas,” World Book, Volume 16..  Chicago: Field Enterprise Educational Corporation, 1958 Edition.

Gayle White, “Prodigal Son Takes ‘Ministry’ Of Gospel Song,” The Atlanta Constitution, , September 29, 1979.  Page number not recorded.

Thanksgiving Acrostic

On Thanksgiving Day, I started listing things various people are thankful for. My first thoughts were of people in Anderson Place retirement home where I will speak the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  So not all these apply to everyone.  I did an acrostic, with words for each letter in THANKSGIVING.  See what you can add:

TTTTT

TODAY, TASTE, TOUCH, TELEVISION, TELEPHONES, TOMATOES, TEACHERS, TECHNOLOGY, TRASH PICK-UP

HHHHH

HOME, HEALTH, HISTORY, HOPE, HERITAGE, HEARING, HEALING, HOSPITALS, HUGS, HYMNS, HUMOR, HUMMINGBIRDS, HIP REPLACEMENT, HEAT, HEATING PAD 

AAAAA

ANCESTORS, AMERICA, ABUNDANCE, AUTOMOBILES, APPETITE, APPLE, ANDERSON, AIR CONDITIONING, ABILITIES, ANDERSON PLACE, ATMs, AMBULANCE, ASPIRIN

NNNNN

NEIGHBORS, NATURE, NAPS, NATION, NIGHT, NEEDLE POINT, NOON 

KKKKK

KIDS, KINDNESS, KITCHEN, KINFOLKS, KNOWLEDGE, KISSES, KEEPSAKES, KNITTING, KNEE REPLACEMENT

SSSSS

SUNDAY, SPOUSE, SALVATION, SENSES, SIGHT, SMELL, SLEEP, SUNSHINE, SEX,  SONGS, SUPPER, SETTEE,  SCHOOLS, SOAP, SOUP, SOFAS, SOFT ICE CREAM

GGGGG

GRACE, GENEROSITY, GRANDCHILDREN, GERANIUMS, GRAVY

IIIII

IDEALISM, IMAGINATION, IDENTITY (Who we are), INSURANCE

VVVVV

VALUES, VIRTUES, VITAMINS, VIOLIN, VISION, VISITORS, VOTING RIGHTS

IIIII

INTELLECT, INCOME, INTERNET, INSTANT PUDDING

NNNNN

NOURISHMENT, NOW, NUTS, NOSTALGIA, NURSES, NAMES

GGGGG

GOD, GENTLE PEOPLE, GRITS, GLASSES, GROCERIES, GRAIN

O GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD, FOR HE IS GOOD; FOR HIS STEADFAST LOVE ENDURES FOREVER (PSALM 107:1).

Come to Me and Rest

How much sleep do you get on a typical night?  Not enough? A poll taken by the National Sleep Foundation discovered seventy-five percent of adults have sleep-related problems (wayodd.com).  Some people have trouble sleeping at night in bed, so they wind up sleeping as they sit up in the daytime.  In the sleep survey, “sixty percent of drivers admitted to having driven drowsy in the past year and four percent said they had an accident or near-accident because they were sleepy while driving.”  When I taught at what is now Anderson University, I used to tell my students, I wouldn’t go to sleep in class if they wouldn’t.  They weren’t very good at keeping their end of the bargain.

The Center for Disease Control tells us seventy percent of American adults don’t get enough rest:   Of adults surveyed in four states,  “a lack of sleep is a particular problem for younger adults.” Of those between eighteen and thirty-four, thirteen percent lacked enough sleep every day, compared to only seven percent of adults over fifty-five.

The National Sleep Foundation says most adults need seven to nine hours of sleep each night. But nationwide, adults averaging six hours or less of sleep a night increased in all age in groups in the past twenty years.  The percentage of men and women ages forty-five to sixty-four sleeping an average of only six hours or less jumped from twenty percent in 1985 to thirty percent in 2006 (neatorama.com)

People of all ages are tired too much of the time.  We work too much.  We play too much.  We talk too much.  We eat and drink and smoke too much.  We entertain ourselves too much.  All this makes us tired, and we feel the need for rest.  

TRANSITION

If I’ve described where you live and how you live, our Bible passage from Matthew, chapter 11, has a word of encouragement for you.  

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Jesus is concerned about much more than whether we’re getting a good night’s sleep.  He invites us to rest from the things which oppress us.  This may be physical or emotional.  It is also spiritual.

When He calls out to all who labor and are heavy laden, we think of the workaday world.  Jesus lived among people, many of them doing hard physical labor and getting a pittance at the end of each day to tide them over until the next day.  

Jesus told many stories about those hard-working people.  He saw working people as well as people who had no work -- some who followed Him from place to place, hoping to see blind eyes opened or lepers healed, hoping to be on hand when Jesus miraculously fed thousands of people.  

All these who struggled just to make it to the end of the day--Jesus included them in His call to Come to me .  .  .  and I will give you rest.

OJim Shaddix explained laboring and being heavy-laden this way:

"In the language of the New Testament, the word "labor" carried the idea of working to the point of utter exhaustion. The term "heavy laden" indicated that, at some time in the past, a great load had been dumped on a person and the individual was continuing to bear the load. Together, the terms described a person who was exhausted from trying to carry a burden assumed in the past. Jesus' listeners were exhausted from trying to measure up to the expectations of the law" (Shaddix).

When Jesus says, I will give you rest, in effect, He promises, “I will give you a break from whatever laborious task you are facing so you can recover and collect your strength” (Thayer).

After He bids us to come to Him for rest, the next part of Jesus’s invitation is, Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.  This is the way we find rest: by taking His yoke.

The yoke in this saying carries a double meaning:

First, the physical yoke a team of oxen wore which kept the two of them moving the same direction and enabled them to pull heavy loads they couldn’t manage individually.  The owner used the yoke to guide the oxen in the way he wanted them to go and to keep them on task (Shaddix).

A yoke in New Testament times also related to becoming the follower of a certain teacher.  The student was invited to take the yoke of that teacher. (Broadus 253)  This meant he would subject himself to that teacher’s discipline.  The word disciple means a person who submits to the discipline of a teacher.  When we hear of discipline, we tend to think of punishment.  A child disobeys his parents and is disciplined.  But in academic circles, there’s a positive meaning for the word.  Each subject area offered by a college or university is called an academic discipline.

The Bible calls the men close to Jesus, the disciples.  They were supposed to submit themselves to the discipline of Jesus.  They took Jesus’s yoke.  This yoke was probably a figure of speech rather than a physical sign of some kind.

So, when Jesus says, Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, this is a call to discipleship. If we call ourselves Christians, then Jesus Christ expects us to learn from Him.  

We say we are disciples of Jesus.  But you’ve heard the question, “If you went on trial as a follower of Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”  That’s a good question which deserves a thoughtful answer.  Just how disciplined are we in applying what Jesus taught?

Parents send their teenage boys out on the football field in the heat of August and let coaches yell at them and cuss them and threaten them within an inch of their lives.  Parents are proud of their sons for submitting to that discipline. Parents brag about this rough treatment from the coach.  But what would you do if a math teacher or English teacher were to yell at your kids and threaten them the way the coach does?  I know what you'd do:  You’d call the school and ask for a conference with the principal or the district superintendent and do some yelling and cussing yourself, to have that teacher fired.  We think physical discipline is great, but we don’t put the same value on intellectual or spiritual discipline.  

I’m not suggesting that disciples need browbeating.  I doubt that’s necessary on the ball field either.  But what do I know? You notice, Jesus says I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.      

This is description is in contrast with many of the religious teachers of the day. Judaism in the time of Jesus had become highly legalistic.  You could also describe it as almost mechanical.  They were told they must observe lots of rules if they hoped to be acceptable to God.  

Probably most of our Baraca listeners have grown up in church and Sunday school. If you’re a longtime Christian and church goer, it’s likely you recall Jesus is in a running battle with the Pharisees.  The battle often finds its focus in Sabbath observance. But it wasn’t all just the Sabbath.  The devout Jew had 613 rules he was expected to follow.

In another place, Jesus says these religious leaders are more concerned with outward devotion.  To borrow a contemporary term, these men talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.  Listen to these verses from Matthew 23:

"The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger.   They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,  and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues,  and salutations in the market places, and being called rabbi by men. 

Jesus’s statement about how the Pharisees bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders is in sharp contrast with what He offers.  The yoke offered by these religious leaders is a heavy burden.  By contrast, Jesus declares, my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. 

There is a non-biblical account of Jesus as a carpenter, prior to his public ministry. It says Jesus was one of the master yoke-makers in the Nazareth area and people came from miles around for a yoke, hand-carved and crafted by Jesus son of Joseph.

According to this story, when customers arrived with their team of oxen Jesus would measure the team, their height, the width, the space between them, and the size of their shoulders. When the team was brought back, Jesus would carefully place the newly-made yoke over the shoulders of the oxen.  He would watch for rough spots, smoothing out the edges and fitting them exactly to this particular team.

That's the yoke Jesus invites us to take.  The word for "easy" in Greek suggests tailor-made yokes:"well-fitting" yokes.   The yoke Jesus invites us to take, the yoke that brings rest to weary souls, is made exactly to our lives and hearts. The yoke fits us well, it does not rub us if we do the work Jesus expects of us.  And the yoke is designed for two. Our yoke-partner is Christ Himself  (illustrations@CLERGY.NET).

As we think of the symbolism of the the oxen which wear the yoke, we realize the burden of work is not removed.  Rather, the load is lightened because Christ shares our yoke for two.

The Bible never suggests the road Christians travel will be easy.  In the words of that song from the late 1960s:

I beg your pardon,

I never promised you a rose garden (www.cowboylyrics.com).

While we’re thinking about Christ sharing our burdens, there’s a line in a song the Baraca Chorus often sings: “Each burden He’ll bear, Each sorrow He’ll share” (Green).

But time and again, the Bible promises us the presence of Christ around us, with us, and within us.  Sometimes burdens are removed.  One of my favorite songs in that regard is called “Jesus Took My Burden and Left Me with a Song”:

When I, a poor lost sinner, before the Lord did fall, 

And in the name of Jesus for pardon loud did call, 

He heard my supplication, and soon the weak was strong, 

For Jesus took my burden—and left me with a song.  

Oft-times the way is dreary and rugged seems the road;                                

Oft-times I'm weak and weary when bent beneath some load.

But when I cry in weakness, how long, O Lord, how long,     

              Jesus takes the burden and leaves me with a song.

When I was crushed with sorrow I bowed in deep despair.

My load of grief and heartache seemed more than I could bear.

‘Twas then I heard a whisper: You to the Lord belong.

Then Jesus took my burden and left me with a song.

I'll trust Him for the future He knoweth all the way,                                

For with His eye He'll guide me along life's pilgrim way.   

           And I will tell in heaven while ages roll along                                        

How Jesus took my burden and left me with a song 

Yes, Jesus took my burden I could no longer bear. 

Yes, Jesus took my burden in answer to my prayer. 

My anxious fears subsided; my spirit was made strong; 

for Jesus took my burden— and left me with a song 

(http://www.classic-country-song-lyrics.com/Jesustookmyburdenlyricschords.html)

Pastor Billy Strayhorn tells about a little boy who was helping his dad with the yard work. The dad asked his son to pick up the rocks in a certain area of the yard.  The father saw the boy struggling to pull up a huge rock buried in the dirt. 

The little boy struggled and struggled while his dad watched. Finally, the boy gave up and said, "I can't do it." Dad asked, "Did you use all of your strength?" The little boy looked hurt and said, "Yes, sir. I used every ounce of strength I have." The father smiled and said, "You didn't ask me to help." Then the father walked over and the two of them pulled that big rock out of the dirt (Strayhorn).

For six years when I was growing up, our family spent the fall months in Uncle Jim and Aunt Chessie’s cotton patch.  That was from the time I was in the fifth grade through the tenth grade.  We lived in our uncle and aunt’s garage.  Or some years, we got to live in a rent house about a quarter of a mile down the road.  When the boll pulling season ended and my brothers and sisters and I finally got to go to school, I could never understand why some of my classmates complained about having to go to school.  I would dearly loved to have been in school instead of pulling bolls.  

Daddy wanted us in the field as soon as the dew was off the cotton.  So we got an early start, and Daddy and the five of us kids stayed in the cotton patch till suppertime.  Sometimes Mother pulled bolls along with us.  Other times, she stayed at the house.  Either way, she would come to the field at noontime, carrying a paper sack with our dinner.  Now, I don’t know how you grew up.  But in West Texas, we had dinner in the middle of the day and supper at night. 

So when we saw Mother coming with our dinner, we would finish the round we were on and then come to the wagon.  Lee Roy and I would get up in the wagon.  Daddy would weigh what each of us had pulled and call out the amount so my older sister Leta Joy could write it down in a little notebook to keep track of how much each of us had pulled. Then Daddy would throw the sacks to Lee Roy and me.  We would empty the cotton and tromp it down so we could get as much onto the wagon as possible.  

We would all sit in the shade of the wagon and eat the pinto beans and potatoes Mother had brought for our dinner.  That half hour or so we spent in the shelter of the cotton wagon were sweet moments of rest from the long rows of cotton where we worked in the hot West Texas sun.  But that time passed very quickly.  Then we were back at our daily work of pulling bolls.

At night, after supper, we would sit around the radio listening to Bob Hope or Fibber Magee and Molly and Mister District Attorney.  Then all too soon, Daddy would announce, “It’s bedtime.  We gotta get up early in the morning.”

That was our schedule all week.  If we were lucky, we’d only work till dinnertime on Saturday.  Then we could ride on the trailer full of cotton into Roscoe on Saturday afternoon and go to the double feature at the Joy Theater.  On Sunday, we went to church twice.  Then it was back to the cotton patch early Monday morning.

We worked hard.  Or so I thought.  But Daddy always hollered at us to try to get us to work harder, pull the bolls faster, and get more cotton each day.  He had a sack that was about as long as from here to the courthouse.  And he filled his sack quicker than we filled ours.  He would straddle one row of cotton and pull the cotton from that one and one on either side of him.   

Daddy expected Leta Joy and Lee Roy and me to pull two rows at a time.  Because Lois Marie was the little sister, she got by with one row.  Leonard Morris, the baby of the family, just sort of wandered around the field the first couple of years.  And he got to go to the gin with Uncle Jim when we got the wagon loaded.    We looked forward to times of rest---the few minutes at dinnertime, at night around the radio, and then the longer times of rest on Saturday and Sunday.

In college, I learned this song about resting in God’s love.  I've never been able to track down the words or the author on the Internet, but it goes like this:

God has shown His loving face 

From His throne in heav’n above.

And I’ve found a resting place

In the shelter of His love.

I am resting sweetly resting

In the shelter of His love,

Resting in the shelter of His love.

During our dinner break in the cotton patch, I relished the time in the shelter of the cotton wagon.  Back then, I didn’t connect that wagon with the shelter of God’s love.  He promises us rest if we come to Him.  But that doesn’t eliminate times of work.  They are two parts of the same picture:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

As I think of Uncle Jim and Aunt Chessie’s cotton patch and of Jesus’s call to rest,   I think of Jesus’s call to rest as a call to work for Him as part of the family of God.  Each member of the family has work to do.At the well in Samaria, Jesus told his disciples, “lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest.”  I hope that white harvest Jesus pointed to wasn’t a cotton patch.

KIPLING’S POEM

Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem picturing us as artists who paint for God.  Sometimes we do our work to please ourselves or to compete with others.  But Kipling sees no place for that sort of work:

When Earth's last picture is painted

And the tubes are twisted and dried,

When the oldest colors have faded

And the youngest critic has died,

We shall rest, and faith, we shall need it,

Lie down for an aeon or two,

'Till the Master of all good workmen

Shall put us to work anew. .  .  .

And only the Master shall praise us.

And only the Master shall blame.

And no one will work for the money.

No one will work for the fame.

But each for the joy of the working,

And each, in his separate star,

Will draw the thing as he sees it.

For the God of things as they are! (Kipling)

++++++++++++++++++++++++

SOURCES

John A. Broadus, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, An American Commentary on the New Testament, Volume I.  Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1886.

http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/anderson-lynn/rose-garden-279.html

Source for lyrics of “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.”  Author not found.

F. Pratt Green, “On the Jericho Road.”  Found at “Sound Studio,”

http://www.newmediabible.org/1goodsam/travel/soundstudio/sound1.htm

illustrations@CLERGY.NET.  Sermon Resources for July 6, June 30, 2008)

Sherman E. Johnson and George A. Buttrick, The Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VII.  New York and Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1951.

Rudyard Kipling, “When Earth’s Last Picture Is Painted.” The Literature Network.  http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/918/

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/03/01/tired-70-of-american-adults-not-getting-enough-sleep/

Author Not Found, “Jesus Took My Burden,” http://www.namethathymn.com/hymn-lyrics-detective-forum/index.php?a=vtopic&t=110

Jim Shaddix, “Jesus Christ: The Yoke's On You! Matthew 11:28-30,” 

http://www.preaching.com/resources/sermons/11563996/

Frank Stagg, “Matthew,” Broadman Bible Commentary, Volume 8. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1969.

Billy D. Strayhorn, Freedom through the Yoke, quoted in 

illustrations@CLERGY.NET.  Sermon Resources for July 6, June 30, 2008)

“anapauo:  future tense: anapauso,”  Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, at www.blueletterbible.org/

“Too Tired for Sex,” http://www.wayodd.com/americans-too-tired-for-sex/v/2/ March 29, 2005.

Keith Wagner, “The Sweetest Sound,” True Freedom, illustrations@CLERGY.NET. 

Sermon Resources for July 6, June 30, 2008.

Elie Wiesel, The Oath.  New York: Avon Books, A Division of the Hearst Corporation, 1973.

Full text:

Kipling, “When Earth's Last Picture is Painted”

When Earth's last picture is painted

And the tubes are twisted and dried,

When the oldest colors have faded

And the youngest critic has died,

We shall rest, and faith, we shall need it,

Lie down for an aeon or two,

'Till the Master of all good workmen

Shall put us to work anew.

And those that were good shall be happy

They'll sit in a golden chair.

They'll splash at a ten league canvas

With brushes of comet's hair.

They'll find real saints to draw from:

Magdalene, Peter, and Paul.

They'll work for an age at a sitting

And never be tired at all.

And only the Master shall praise us.

And only the Master shall blame.

And no one will work for the money.

No one will work for the fame.

But each for the joy of the working,

And each, in his separate star,

Will draw the thing as he sees it.

For the God of things as they are! (Kipling)

The Religion of the Ruler is the Religion of the Realm

This is adapted from a speech I gave to the Upstate South Carolina Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, November 17, 2012.

Pansy and I have supported Americans United financially for several years, and I’ll never forget the first chapter meeting I attended.  When I introduced myself as a Baptist minister, you could feel suspicion rising like poisonous fumes over a swamp.  Some of you thought I was a mole.
By the way, we’re not Southern Baptist.  We’re Baptists in the South.  Baptists have always been more traditional than most other Protestants.  But a little over thirty years ago, the Southern Baptist Convention took a sharp turn to the right, politically as well as religiously.  Some now call Southern Baptists the political wing of the Republican Party.  We didn’t leave Southern Baptists.  They left us.
You think Baptists are on the far right.  But you’re going to see Baptists were the original church-state liberals.  We came into being over two closely connected issues: Church-State Separation and
Church membership by personal choice.  
Neither of those was an option through most of religious history.  You could sum up the dominant practice across the years in these words: “The religion of the ruler is the religion of the realm.”

About as far back as government and religion have existed, kings and queens enforced adherence to their particular deities.  “The religion of the ruler is the religion of the realm.”
In the first three centuries of the Common Era, Christians were exiled or executed when they refused to burn incense at the altar of God Caesar.  “The religion of the ruler is the religion of the realm.”
Then, early in the fourth century, Emperor Constantine confessed faith in Christ.  Whether this conversion was sincere, historians still speculate. But it ended persecution of Christians.  Christianity did not become the official religion of the Empire until some sixty years later under Emperor Theodosius (A. D. 380).  Even so, “The religion of the ruler is the religion of the realm.”
If we narrow our focus to Western Civilization, we see the rise of the Roman Catholic Church as the official religion of the various European countries.  
For Martin Luther, one concern which led to the Reformation movement was the union of his Catholic Church with civil government.  But his objection was the minority view.  His followers were labeled as Lutherans, and Lutherans became the state church of Luther’s Germany.  Lutherans were the official church in Sweden until our 21st century.  It was only this year that Norway disestablished.  Lutherans are still the official church in Denmark and Iceland. Once again, “The religion of the ruler is the religion of the realm.”
John Calvin is the father of Presbyterianism the Reformed Church.  He broke with Roman Catholics a decade or so after Luther.  But Calvin worked hand-in-glove with Swiss government officials in Geneva.  “The religion of the ruler is the religion of the realm.” Calvin had his "heretics" executed.
Lutherans and Calvinists persecuted, prosecuted, and executed heretics such as Anabaptists.  Over Church-State Separation and Church membership by personal choice.
The name Anabaptists is derogatory.  The prefix ANA is the Greek word for anew or again.  These folks did not want their infants baptized into the state church.  They believed baptism and church membership is a personal decision.  Baptism is for people old enough to choose.  So they were heretical for baptizing over again: Ana-baptists.
If we move across the Channel to England, we see England was -- and still is -- a land where “The religion of the ruler is the religion of the realm.”  Everyone in England today pays for the privilege of supporting the Queen’s Anglican Church.  In the 15-hundreds, England was Roman Catholic until Henry the Eighth got mad when Pope Clement the Seventh refused to let Henry get a divorce.  When Henry didn’t get his way, he broke with the Pope, divorced Catherine of Aragon, and started his own church, the Church of England.  “The religion of the ruler is the religion of the realm.”
Later, Henry’s daughter Mary became queen.  She happened to be the daughter of Catherine, the queen Henry dumped.  So she reestablished Roman Catholicism and executed Protestants.   “The religion of the ruler is the religion of the realm.”
Queen Mary was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth the First, who happened to be the daughter of Ann Boleyn, Henry’s queen after he got rid of Catherine.  So Elizabeth reestablished Anglicanism and took aim at Roman Catholics.  “The religion of the ruler is the religion of the realm.”  King James the First reverted to Roman Catholicism and made life unbearable for Protestants. “The religion of the ruler is the religion of the realm.”  By the way, this is the same King James whose name is on the Bible many fundamentalist Christians believe came straight from Jesus.
Turn back the calendar four hundred years to the reign of King James.  The only acceptable worship was Anglican liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer.  James came to the throne in 1603.  That same year, a London tailor, James Williams, and his wife birthed a little boy named Roger.  
About the time Roger Williams started to elementary school, in 1609, there was the first stirring of a dissenting group who stand for Church-State Separation and Church membership by personal choice.  Folks called Baptists.  They believed so strongly in Separation and voluntary church membership, they were willing to be jailed or worse to defend those beliefs.   There’s no direct organizational connection between Ana-baptists and just plain Baptists.  But both object to “The religion of the ruler [being] the religion of the realm.”  
While Roger Williams was just a kid, numerous heretics, including Puritans, were being burned at stake in London, very near his neighborhood.  This must have made an impression which influenced his later strong belief in civil and religious liberty.  (“Roger Willams . .  .  A Brief Biography”)
As a teenager Roger came under the patronage of Sir Edward Coke, a powerful lawyer and Chief Justice of England. Working under Coke, Roger observed the struggle for religious freedom firsthand.  Coke and others did verbal battle with King James’s son Charles who continued persecution of dissenting groups.
Roger went to Cambridge under Coke’s sponsorship and was an outstanding student.  He prepared for the ministry and became chaplain to a wealthy family.  He enjoyed the protection of this family and was able to preach his convictions for a time.

But by the time Roger married Mary in 1629, his ideas on freedom of worship became known. He began to feel pressure and decided to follow other Puritans to America.  So, ten years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Roger boarded ship and in February 1631 arrived at Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Bay Colony leaders immediately were impressed with him as a gifted preacher and offered him a position as teacher, not preacher, in the church in Salem. He refused the official position. But he did teach, and his teaching soon ran aground of church polity in Massachusetts.  So he went to  Plymouth, again working informally.  Then he cane back to Salem.  All in about four years.  Williams questioned the king's right to confiscate Native American lands, and he stressed separation of church and state, specifically saying civil magistrates have no power over matters of conscience.

Colonial officials banned Williams and ordered him to return to England. Had he obeyed, he might have been executed.  But Governor Winthrop, helped him escape.  He fled during a harsh winter and was welcomed by Narragansett Indians in the area.  In the spring, he went to the new territory.  So, in 1636, five years after arriving on this continent, he established Rhode Island for all comers. 

Williams said his main purpose was to prove, "It is the will and command of God that, since the coming of his Sonne the Lord Jesus, a permission of the most Paganish, Jewish, Turkish, or Antichristian consciences and worships, bee granted to all men in all Nations and countries.”
(John M. Barry).

The late U. S. Senator Claiborne Pell from Rhode Island said this: 

"Thirteen householders in the population of thirty-two in the first year formed the first genuine democracy--also the first church-divorced and conscience-free community--in modern history."

Historian John Barry declares, “Williams created the first government in the world which broke church and state apart” (Barry 389).

As Williams formed this new kind of colony, the draft of his civil compact stipulated “libertie of conscience” and made a passing reference to God’s providence.  But the final draft of the compact removed all mention of God.  This was extraordinary among the colonial compacts (Barry 224).  Later, he said of the place he called Providence, “I desired it might be for a shelter for persons distressed of conscience.”  Williams was willing to give up any special claim to power as the founder.  But he insisted that Providence remain a place “for such as were destitute (especially for Conscience)” (220f).

Roger Williams was a deeply devout Christian.  In two volumes of his surviving letters, every letter, without exception, is filled with references to God.  Practically every paragraph refers to Bible passages and seeking God’s will in his life.   So he knew where to draw the line between leading the colony and pursuing his personal faith (225).  He applied his faith in all areas of life, but he did not foist his faith on others in civic pursuits.

Williams pioneered church-state separation in the colonies. But  it took nearly two hundred years after he established Rhode Island for every state to do away with tax-supported churches. Massachusetts, the colony which banished Roger Williams, was the very last.  Congregationalists were the state church in Massachusetts until 1833  (Shmoop).

Some of Roger and my fellow Baptists have direct influence on Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in getting the First Amendment passed.  In all honesty, I have to confess Roger doesn’t stay a Baptist but a few months, but the very first Baptist church in North America is in Providence.

Also, the oldest synagogue on the continent is in Rhode Island.

Roger was about half a century ahead of William Penn in Pennsylvania.  But Penn often mistakenly gets credit for establishing religious freedom in the colonies.

Williams’s Baptists and Penn’s Quakers both endured persecution from the Puritans and Congregationalists and Presbyterians and Episcopalians under the rubric of tax-supported religion.

Baptists were forerunners in the struggle for religious freedom.  Baptists in various colonies and states went to jail for preaching without license.  

In the museum in Culpeper, Virginia, I have seen how Baptists were jailed for refusing to submit to the official Anglican church in the Colony.  The modern name of Anglicans is Episcopalian.

James Ireland was one of the Baptist preachers jailed in Culpeper.  He continued to preach through the bars while his hands were blooded as his detractors cut him with knives.  

Another Baptist preacher, Elijah Craig, was jailed for disturbing the peace in Orange County, Virginia.  Later he moved to Kentucky where he adopted a more peaceful work distilling bourbon whiskey (Walker).

One more Baptist example: A man who was whipped and spent one hundred thirteen days in jail.  John Waller went by the nickname “Swearing Jack” Waller. Let’s hope that was a pre-conversion nickname (Walker).

These Baptists knew from experience: “The religion of the ruler is the religion of the realm.”

This made the Baptists in Virginia all the more resolved to work for freedom of religion as independence was declared and as the Constitution was written.  Baptists exerted political influence.  A traveling Baptist evangelist, John Leland, personally lobbied James Madison.  

  Leland agreed not to oppose Madison’s bid to be a delegate to the Constitutional convention if Madison would promise to seek specific guarantees for religious liberty.  Madison made good his promise and two years later wrote the first 16 words of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (Walker).

Now, does it make sense that I said Baptists were liberals on church-state?  If left wing means anything, Baptists were left-wingers.

All of us in Americans United cherish the term, “separation of church and state.”  But where did that term comes from?  I cannot document Williams using that full expression.  But in 1644, he wrote a book called The Bloody Tenent of Persecution. In it, he referred to [a] “hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world."

Let’s trace this term further: While Thomas Jefferson was president, he received a letter from the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut in which they expressed concern about adequate protection for complete freedom of worship.  They said this:

"Our sentiments are uniformly on the side of religious liberty: that Religion is at all times and places a matter between God and individuals, that no man ought to suffer in name, person, or effects on account of his religious opinions, [and] that the legitimate power of civil government extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbor."

Responding to the Danbury Baptists, President Jefferson wrote to reassure that he, too, saw religion as  “a matter between God and individuals,” and not a matter government should get involved in.  He cited the religion clauses of the First Amendment and said that by inserting those words, the legislators were “thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”

Jefferson was not exactly a devout Christian, despite assertions by so-called historian David Barton.  You know Jefferson edited his own version of the Bible, omitting all miracles, cutting out the Christian keystone belief in the resurrection of Jesus.  But Jefferson respected and wanted to protect religious people as well as people who claimed no religion.
By the way, do you know his three accomplishments Jefferson instructed to be on his grave marker at Monticello? He was proudest that he was “Father of the University of Virginia,” “Author of the Declaration of American Independence,” and “of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom.”  So religious freedom ranked up there with Independence and higher education.
That Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom set the pattern for the religion clauses in the First Amendment.  When the Statute passed in the Virginia legislature in 1786, it overturned the Anglican Church as the official tax-supported religion.  He uses pious language in making his point.  I brought copies of the full text of that Statute.  It’s on the table at the back of the room along with other literature.  But listen to a few lines:
“Almighty God hath created the mind free, that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens .  .  .  are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either.  .  .  .  ”
The Statute’s final paragraph condemns forced attendance or financial support of any church: “That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”
Though the precise expression “separation of church and state” is not in the Constitution, this document which inspired the First Amendment makes it crystal clear that the two must remain separate.
The pious language in that document from Jefferson may surprise you.  But keep in mind, he is writing a bill he wants men of varied religious outlooks to approve.   Also Jefferson was no atheist or agnostic.  He was principally a deist in outlook.  A short definition of a deist is a person who believes in God but does not believe God intervenes in the affairs of the human race.
We also need to give a nod to James Madison, a man who merits much more than a nod in our discussion of church-state separation.  We probably should call Madison, along with Jefferson, a deist,
although he was a member of the Episcopal church.
Madison is frequently and justifiably called the Father of the Constitution.  
We’ve already noted how Baptist John Leland persuaded Madison to put religious freedom in the Bill of Rights.  Madison also gives us Article Six, Section Three, which says, in part, “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
Madison also frequently spoke of separation of church and state.  So this is not just some offhand term Jefferson used in attempting to mollify a little side group of Baptists.
Now, that’s probably enough on Where did church-state separation come from?

Where Are We Now?
Now to bring us to the present: Where Are We Now?
Church-state separation has never been a settled issue and probably never will be.  Tension is inevitable between the establishment clause and the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
People of no faith or minority faith feel school boards or county councils, in effect, establish Christianity when prayers at their meetings are consistently prayed “in Jesus’ name.”  But government bodies in majoritarian Christian communities tend to feel such prayers uphold free exercise.
The federal faith-based initiative provides money to religious groups who provide social services.  Conflicts arise when money is awarded to groups which require participants to attend religious instruction before they receive aid.  Begun by George W. Bush, the program has continued under President Obama. 
Families who want their children to be taught alternatives to the theory of evolution could claim free exercise.  And on we could go with tension between establishment and free exercise.
Some parents claim their free exercise of religion is being violated if they are denied tax money to send their children to parochial school.  But those who oppose such support say this is tantamount to establishing religion by giving special privileges to those who want to go to a church school.
Back in 1947, some people -- led by Baptists, by the way -- objected to a school board’s providing free bus rides for Catholic children to their school.  The Protestants went to court and lost.  It went all the way to the Supreme Court, and the Court upheld the transportation as legal.  So, because they objected to what they considered special treatment for Catholics, the protesters formed an organization known as Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State.  After a while, larger issues were put on the table, so they dropped the words “Protestants and Other” and thus became known simply as Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Where Are We Going?

Now, as I take out my crystal ball and look into the future,  I see no basic change with regard to faith-based initiatives after the re-election of President Obama.  Right-wing religious groups will continue trying to evangelize.  They will try to turn social services into outright social ministries. 

Undercover evangelists will continue seeking to infiltrate public schools.  Others will continue trying to get tax money to run their parochial schools.  We need to remain alert to scofflaw right wing pastors who defy the law by telling their congregants which candidates to vote for. Catholics will try to control birth control. 

Roy Moore won re-election as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.  So expect him to try again to make the Ten Commandments the Law of Sovereign State of Alabama.  The religious right, embodied in Roy Moore, would like to make us a theocracy.  I don’t think we are headed there, but we need to stay vigilant because in a theocracy, “The religion of the ruler is the religion of the realm.”

Now, one thing more.

I confess, I fully expected that when we met here today, Barack Obama would be a lame-duck, and President-Elect Romney would be on his way to the White House.  I’m glad this is not the case.  But my relief has little to do with his religion.  I was concerned over what he and Paul Ryan wanted to do with Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and other safety nets.

I don’t think Romney as president would have tried to turn us into the United States of Mormon, any more than Obama has tried to make us the United States of African-Americans, as some were sure he would.  Romney probably didn’t see himself as the Messiah the Mormon founder Joseph Smith is alleged to have predicted--the one who would ride in on his Great White Horse to usher in the End Time.  It’s not clear whether Joseph Smith ever made that prediction, but some Mormons apparently expect that to happen some day soon.  Also, I doubt that Mitt Romney would have started getting himself baptized on your behalf after they buried you.

But I’ll tell you what I do think: You and I -- Americans United of ALL people -- You and I should feel good that one of the major parties nominated a man from a “strange” religion.  I would like to think that means we’ve turned a corner.  That religion is no longer an issue in electing a president. Some of us hoped that was the case in 1960 when Roman Catholic Jack Kennedy was elected.   I have my doubts with this election.  Deep down, are you glad a Mormon was not elected?  I don’t mean glad about the loss by the Republican who happened to be a Mormon.  I mean you’re simply relieved a Mormon didn’t get in.  

Here’s a question: Do you and I in Americans United want equality for all degrees of faith and unfaith?  Or do we feel some religious stances are more equal than others?  How will you feel when YOUR party nominates a follower of Islam?  I remember a year or so back, there was some mumbling and grumbling when I invited a Muslim to speak to one of our meetings.  Just how far are we prepared to go with this religious freedom thing?

Remember Article Six, Section Three: Are you prepared to say “no religious Test shall ever be required of a Muslim or a Mormon or an atheist or a Who-Shot-Johnny as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States”?

When you find the answer to that one, you will find where YOU are going with church-state separation in the future.

AMERICANS UNITED SPEECH---SOURCES

“Church and State,” Shmoop,  http://www.shmoop.com/church-and-state/timeline.html.

John M. Barry, Roger Williams and The Creation of the American Soul.  New York: Viking, Published by the Penguin Group, 2012.

 “Roger Willams . .  .  A Brief Biography,” http://www.rogerwilliams.org/biography.htm.  No author listed.

Smithsonian Magazine, (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/God-Government-and-Roger-Williams-Big-Idea.html#ixzz2BSNeK0nn

Stanley Lemons, “Roger Williams Champion of Religious Liberty,” Official Website of the City of Providence, Rhode Island. 

http://www.providenceri.com/archives/375th-essays-roger-williams-champion-of-religious

Brent Walker, Baptist Joint Committee on Line, 

http://www.bjconline.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4154&Itemid=112