WE WHO BELIEVE
by Cheryl M. Walker
August 29, 2004
There is a song that's been reverberating in my head for the last couple of week. . . We who believe in freedom cannot not rest, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. Over and over I find myself humming it or sometimes even singing it out loud wherever I happen to be. I feel sorry for people next to me when I sing out loud, since I don't sing very well. But I like to sing anyway. It doesn't take much to figure out why this song has been in my head.
They're heeere. Yes ladies and gentlemen this city is about to be overrun by Republicans for the next few days. Perhaps they will spend their tax cuts here and Mayor Bloomberg can finance his stadium on the West Side of Manhattan. I know why they chose New York City, but honestly, its not like this city is going to actually vote for a Republican president. The last time this city voted for a Republican president it was Abe Lincoln, and I'm not sure the city voted for him.
But more than being overrun by Republicans I think we are actually being overrun by people protesting the Republican party. There are demonstrations against the Bush administration's policies on just about everything. There have been remarkably clever signs against Bush, scatological signs against Bush, creative signs against Bush, and just some mediocre signs against Bush. I've seen bumper stickers, tee shirt, posters and yesterday there was a giant puppet in Washington Square Park all against George W. Bush. But all these signs and tee-shirts leave me wondering. . . I can see that what you are against is Bush, but the question remains, what are you for?
It seems we have come to a place in our history where it seems that we articulate only what we are against. And both sides of the political spectrum do it. We are against terrorism, we are against the war. We are against the Church, we are against the Infidels. We are against the Bush agenda, we are against the Liberal agenda. We are against everything and everybody it seems, but rarely do we say what we are for. Oh we may say it in general terms, well we are for peace, but what does that mean exactly. Peace can be achieved in many ways, which way are we proposing that we achieve it? We are for jobs, but what kind of jobs are we for and how do we think they will materialize. We are for health care, but does that mean for everyone? Or just those who are too poor to afford anything and those lucky enough to afford everything? It seems because the problems are so great and the answers are so difficult it is just easier to say what we are against.
These are critical times and there are no easy answers and it is not good enough just to stand in Central Park with a sign on a Sunday afternoon shouting about what we are against. It is time that we, all of us, put both the Republicans and the Democrats on notice that what we need and what we want are not sixty second sound bytes or eloquent debate answers but real solutions to the very real problems that this country and this world faces. The stakes are too high, perhaps they have never been higher. And the old ways and old agendas will not work. It is time for a new agenda and it is especially time for the Liberal Churches of America to stand up and set that agenda. And we can start by taking back God!
Yes, taking back God. And not just the word, but the whole idea of God. No longer can we stand back while the religious right talks about the warrior God of vengeance. Instead we must stand up and say no to that God and speak as prophets for the loving God of justice. God who stands with and for the oppressed of the world. God who command's God's people to love one's neighbor as one's self. God who comes in many names to many peoples, with many expressions all to say the same thing. . . "For I have shown you what is good and what is required of you, only to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly, humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8). It is not the time to be wishy-washy about it either, none of this, well that's not what my God is about, or I don't think that's the right way to think of God. No, when you hear someone talking about a God who will smite those who do not accept their way and their way alone as the way to salvation, just say no that is not God! That is only your intolerance.
Now I know that on the face of it this seems to run counter to our principle to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. But the operative word in that phrase isn't just free but responsible. And I contend that it is irresponsible in this world, in this time to say that God seeks and looks for vengeance rather than justice, war rather than peace and hate rather than love. And so while I will not pretend to tell you that I fully comprehend and apprehend all that God is and is not, I will stand here and say that from everything I have read and everything I have studied that God has not created this universe so that we in our folly might destroy it in God's name. Not in God's name, not in our name. Take God back!
For those of you keeping count, I have now mentioned the word God 22 times so far in this sermon. And I offer no apologies. But some of you might not believe in a God. And that's alright. That's more than alright. I have found that some of the most righteous people I have ever met, call themselves atheists. People who you know by their deeds not just their words. People who do not use, need to use, or believe that in an entity called God. But people who stand for justice and peace. People who speak out against oppression and speak for a world of equity. People who feed the hungry, who house the homeless, who heal the sick and free the prisoners all in the name of right living, and not in the name of God. People I wish I could be more like in my daily living. So I say to them, if you don't want to take back God, then take back the prophets.
Those women and men whose prophetic voices have inspired people through the ages to work for a world where the lives of all peoples are valued, none above another. Prophets from all parts of the world whose words have been so misused and abused that were they to be right here, right now would be shocked and appalled at how their prophecies have been changed from voices of hope to those of despair. Take back their words from those who would use them to destroy instead of uplift. Take them back. And start with Jesus.
No, this is not going to be another sermon on the Bond of Union. Most of you know where I stand on that issue and if you don't, you can ask me later during coffee hour. I'm not talking about that this morning. I'm talking about the fact that there are a mess of people who will down in Madison Square Garden wearing t-shirts, hats, bracelets, rings, earrings, nose rings, well maybe not nose rings, that all say WWJD, which stands for What Would Jesus Do.
People who would implement policies that put over a million people below the poverty line last year. Well I can tell you this, that is what Jesus wouldn't do. Jesus would have been trying to figure out how to feed that million people with just a few loaves a bread, not devising strategies with consequences that add to the ranks of the hungry. And Jesus would have been trying to get his disciples to understand that it was just as much their responsibility to heal the sick instead of being content with 44 million people in this country alone who do not have access to health care because they have no health insurance. A man who said that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the realm of heaven would not be giving enormous tax cuts to the wealthiest segment of this society and then ask the middle class and their children to pay for his budget deficit. And I am quite sure that this man called Jesus who said that when your enemy strikes you to turn the other cheek surely wouldn't have started a war against a country because another man from a different country, who distorted the words of another prophet, convinced someone to crash a plane into a building and kill thousands of innocent people. WWJD? It seems to me it stands more for What Wouldn't Jesus Do. Take back Jesus. Take back the prophets!
Yes, it is time to take some things out of the hands of those who would use them to destroy and instead use them to create again. And if you don't want to take back God and you don't want to take back the prophets then take back religion. Let us stop being afraid to call ourselves religious people because we don't want people to think that we are some kind of fanatics. I hear people all the time say that they're spiritual but not religious, as if religion were a dirty word. And when I look at the media and see any reference to religion its almost always about the religious right, as if they have some copyright on the word religion. Well, they don't and its time that we stood up and reclaimed what is rightfully ours. We are just as committed to our religious community as they are, maybe even more so and it time for us to let the world know that not everybody who attends worship service on a weekly basis supports the war in Iraq. We need to let the world know that religion in America is not just about t.v. evangelists in mega churches spreading the gospel of Jesus as the Christ. Religion is not just about people standing on the steps of a courthouse in Georgia protesting the removal of a granite stone with the ten commandments etched in it. Religion is not anti-choice, religion is not against same-sex marriage, religion is not anti-freedom.
Religion, our religion, is about affirming the inherent worth and dignity of every person, religion is about promoting justice equity and compassion in human relations, religion is about respecting the interdependent web of all existence. Religion is about community and community is about the uplifting of all members of our society, not just the pre-ordained, chosen few. We have a long and illustrious history in this country of being a liberal religion that has stood at the forefront of every movement for civil rights and it is time to stand up and proclaim that religion, can and should, be about celebrating our diverse selves. Religion can be and should, be the underpinning of our action for justice in this world. Take back religion!
Yes, it time to take things back. We have been silent for too long as a religious community. We have ceded too much to the conservative religious agenda and that must change. But the change cannot just be superficial if we are to change the hearts and minds of America. And I believe that we who believe in freedom can indeed change America. It will not be good enough to parade a few ministers at a convention and think that kind of lip service will do anything more than appear as just that, lip service. Empty, hollow gestures meant to appeal to the church going members of American society, which happens to be us. No, our politicians and especially the Democrats party must take religion seriously. When I hear a Democrat say, well I don't like to mix my faith and my politics I am quite baffled. Because that means that either their faith is merely rituals and rites and does not shape their moral being thus their politics, or they're deceiving themselves and consequently me. If it is the former, then I ask of what good is your faith if it does not shape your moral actions? If it is the latter then I must ask what faith allows such a deception?
The separation of church and state does not mean that religion does not shape one's politics, it means that the church shall not dictate to the state nor the state dictate to the church. But I know that my faith does indeed shapes my politics. It is one of the reasons I come to church in the first place, to help me find a moral center. I don't come to church to hear a feel good sermon that does not challenge me in my daily living, but I come to hear the inspiration that I need to continue the struggle to repair the world. And when I go into the voting booth, I have been shaped and guided by the ethics and morality of this, my faith community and I ask which candidate will best exemplify the principles of my religion. My religion and my politics do not fit neatly in separate baskets, but instead I like to think my religion informs all that I do in my life. I would like to think my candidate's religion does the same for him or her. Because as Hosea Ballou, the 19th Century Universalist minister, wrote "There is one inevitable criterion touching matters of religious faith: can you reduce it to practice? If not, have none of it".
These are critical times we live in, times when the voices of reason and peace must stand and be counted. Times when Liberal religions of all shapes must stop reacting and begin to act. Times when our faith will be tested and only history will judge how well our faith fared. But we must begin to reshape the religious landscape of this nation. We must begin to take back the Word. Because we who believe in freedom cannot rest, we would believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.