Scripture
1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 3 For if any one thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each man will have to bear his own load.
6 Let him who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches.
7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
May the Lord bless the reading of His Holy Word. AMEN.
We came from all places and all peoples to gather here today.
Some of us traveled across the ice, others came later in boats,
still others of us waded rivers or arrived in planes.
We found a land blessed.
Blessed with mountains and valleys, rivers and oceans,
fertile earth, wonderful woods, and promising cities.
Here, A dream was born.
A dream of freedom from all oppression,
A dream of hope for our children,
A dream of people in community under God.
We have turned to nations and peoples who gave us birth:
Send us the voiceless.
Send us the fearful.
Send us the oppressed.
And so the dream continues…
And so the dream of America continues…
God, help us to do your work until your dreams come true…
Gracious God, you provide us with opportunities every day to extol the dedication of this congregation, our faith family. Through our giving, we are able to support the vital ministries of this faith family. Bless these gifts and encourage us be in service in your holy name. Amen. Galatians 6: (1-6), 7-16.
I thought you might like to hear about a group of youngsters that were questioned at random on what they liked about the United States. Here is a sample of the answers:
Jackie, age 9 "We've got more stuff and things in America than anywhere in the world. We have pizza as well and it don't grow any other place on earth except maybe Italy."
Heather, age 5 "America is the best because people in other countries are smaller and they get trodden on easy."
Elliott, age 9 "Everybody wants to live in America because we own the moon. The President bought the moon from God for a million dollars and I saw him send spacemen up on T.V."
Tina, age 6 "America is great because you get the best friends here. The last time I counted, I had a thousand friends and I don't know anyone with as many friends as me."
David, age 9 "America is great because it's bigger and has more supermarkets. I don't know much about other countries except Russia. I know there's a lot of Russians in Russia."
Jonathan, age 8 "Other countries aren't free like America. They won't let you go to church and if you do, they throw you in prison and whip you."
Sean, age 9 "America is great because they have the most plumbers in the world. That's because we've got more tubs. I want to be a plumber like my uncle cause he's real rich."
And Lew, age 6, brings us back down to earth. Asked what he liked about America, the youngster replied, "What's America . . . ?"
I know I speak for everyone in this room on this Independence Day weekend when I say that we as a nation thank God for our freedom. Freedom is a precious gift a gift that our fathers and mothers paid dearly to secure for us. It’s a gift that we can all share in. Have you ever thought about what it took to settle this land?
In 1844, an ox drawn covered wagon made its way on the Oregon Trail as part of a wagon train. The owner, a pioneer named Sager, and his wife became ill and died. They left seven children. The oldest was John, a boy of thirteen; the youngest was just a baby.
At Fort Hall, a British trading post, the leaders of the wagon train decided to head for California instead of Oregon. But John Sager remembered his father's wish to settle the family in Oregon. When the wagon train changed destination, the Sager orphans went on alone. After a while John abandoned the heavy wagon and turned the oxen into a pack train. Driving a cow to furnish milk for the baby, he led the children west across the endless miles. The baby became feverish and could not eat. The younger children cried and wanted to turn back. John led them on.
Three hundred miles from Fort Hall, half starving and in rags, they came to a trader's cabin. He wanted them to stay, but John had heard of a doctor who might save his baby sister. The doctor was two hundred miles farther on, across the rugged Blue Mountains. John and his siblings trudged on.
Summer was ending and it grew cold. The oxen were dying and had to be abandoned. The eight year old girl fell and broke her leg. John packed it in snow and put her on the back of the emaciated cow. He carried the three year old on his back. The baby in his arms weighed almost nothing at all. By now they were skeletons, all of them. But they went on, until one day they staggered into the house where the doctor lived with his wife. These kind people adopted the children and nursed them back to health.
What does it mean to be an American? It means that others have given of their life's blood to forge out this free land. It means we share what we have with others. We dare not take their sacrifices for granted. What does it mean to share the gift of freedom and what it means for our lives?
FIRST OF ALL, FREEDOM CARRIES WITH IT RESPONSIBILITIES. It has become a cliché, but it is true: Freedom is not free.
Economic freedom. Our economic freedom has robbed many of us of our sense of responsibility. We often criticize today's poor for their sense of entitlement their sense that the world owes them a living. We ignore the fact that the wealthy have always felt that way.
Pampered people rarely develop a sense of responsibility. Without a sense of responsibility to our families, to our communities, to God we waste away emotionally, morally, spiritually. Freedom carries with it responsibilities.
FREEDOM ALSO CARRIES WITH IT CONSEQUENCES. The freedom to drive a car carries with it the terrible weight of responsibility for the damage that a car out of control can do. The freedom to eat what you choose carries with it the responsibility to choose healthy foods and not to overindulge.
Paul writes about freedom in our lesson from Galatians: "Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will read corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit." (vs. 7-8)
Freedom means that we reap whatever we sow. It is one of the primary laws of life. If we sow a good life, we reap a good life. If we sow a tawdry, indulgent life, we reap accordingly. It is our choice. That is why Paul counsels us: "So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up." (9)
Freedom carries with it consequences. One of the consistent themes of Paul's writings is the uncertain balance between freedom and license. Paul knew that what often seems to be freedom leads not to wholeness and health but to disintegration and death. And many people lose the things most precious to them because they cannot handle the gift of freedom.
Harriet Tubman knew how precious freedom is. Harriet became the most famous conductor on what has come to be called the "Underground Railroad."
Harriet's flight from slavery was sparked by rumors that there were plans to sell her and two of her brothers to a chain gang. So Harriet decided to escape. She wandered by her parent's cottage that night, plaintively singing a gospel tune about being "bound for the Promised Land." It was a secret code many slaves used to signal that they were planning to leave.
Harriet Tubman's escape that night was successful. The fact that this lone woman successfully traveled to freedom is remarkable enough in itself. The fact that she chose to return to slave country hundreds of times to lead others on the Underground Railroad to freedom is astounding. She risked recapture, beatings, jail time, and even death to help others out of slavery. She and her charges must have suffered from hunger, fear, lack of sleep, extremes of the weather, exhaustion but they still traveled on. At one point, on the last leg of their trip into Canada, they had to cross a flimsy bridge of wooden planks suspended over the swelling Niagara Falls. Surely there were times when they all wanted to turn back. It was at these times that Harriet counseled, "Children, if you are tired, keep going; if you are scared, keep going; if you are hungry, keep going." And Harriet Tubman herself kept going, risking her life to lead thousands of slaves to freedom. She once said, "I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves."
Did you hear that? She could have freed thousands more, "IF THEY HAD KNOWN THEY WERE SLAVES."
Thomas Jefferson in his first inaugural address said these words about Freedom: “I will compress them within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor; a jealous care of the right of election by the people; a well disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war; the supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly burdened; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; freedom of religion, freedom of the press and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected.”
Ronald Reagan in his Farewell Address: “Informed patriotism is what we want. We’ve got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom---freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile; it needs protection. We’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important---why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant.” In other words Ronald Reagan was saying we share knowledge with each other.
There are people who are slaves and don't even know it slaves to dangerous and disgusting habits, slaves to dehumanizing and degrading lifestyles, slaves to self-defeating attitudes and life denying practices, slaves to the economy. We live in a society that thinks it can defy the laws of sowing and reaping, but it is an illusion. Want a healthy body, then sow the right seeds for a healthy body. Want a happy marriage, then sow the seeds of a happy marriage. We are free. We can choose. But freedom has consequences. But there is one thing more to say about freedom.
OUR FREEDOM COST CHRIST HIS LIFE. Here is the testimony of the New Testament: Christ died so that we can be free. No wonder St. Paul wrote later in this same chapter: "But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Our freedom came at a great price the price of Christ's blood.
The cost of freedom is high. For John Sager's family it meant the constant threat of suffering and death on the Oregon Trail. For Harriet Tubman it meant dangers on the Underground Railroad. For Thomas Jefferson it meant the writing of our Constitution under the Supreme God. For Ronald Reagan it meant teaching our children about freedom and what it takes to keep it.
For Christ it meant death on Golgotha's hill. What does freedom mean to you? I hope it means a life of responsible living a life lived in service to God and to others. Share Freedom with each other. It is a precious gift. The abuse of freedom carries consequences. Our Country’s freedom has endured loss and it has found spirit that will never die. Our freedom has been bought by Christ. And all God’s people say, AMEN. Communion
I AM AN AMERICAN
by Elias Lieberman
I am an American.
My father was a son of the Revolution.
My mother was a colonial dame.
One of my ancestors pitched tea overboard in Boston Harbor.
Another stood his ground with Warren;
Another hungered with Washington at Valley Forge.
My forefathers were America in the making.
They spoke in her council halls!
They died on her battlefields.
They commanded her ships!
They cleared the forests.
Dawns reddened and paled.
Staunch hearts of mine beat fast
At each new star in the nation's flag.
Keen eyes of mine forsaw her greater glory:
The sweep of her seas,
The plenty of her plains,
The man-hives in her billion-wired cities.
Every drop of blood in me holds a heritage of patriotism!
I am an American!
I am an American!
My father was an atom of dust,
My mother, a straw in the wind
To his Serene Majesty.
One of my ancestors died in the mines of Siberia;
Another was crippled for life by twenty blows of the knot;
Another was killed, defending his home during the massacre.
The history of my ancestors is a trail of blood
To the palace-gate of the Great White Czar.
But, then the dream came---
The dream of America.
In the light of the Liberty torch,
The atom of dust became a man
And the straw in the wind became a woman
For the first time.
See, said my father, pointing to the flag that fluttered near,
"That flag of stars and stripes is yours;
It is the emblem of the promised land.
It means, my son, the hope of humanity.
Live for it---die for it!"
Under the open sky of my new country,
I swore to do so,
And every drop of blood in me
Will keep that vow.
I am proud of my future.
I am an American.
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