A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, July 5, 2009
Proper 9 -- Ezekiel 2: 1 – 7; Psalm 123; II Corinthians 12: 2 – 10; Mark 6: 1 – 6
In our old hymnal, the venerable Hymnal 1940, there is a wonderful hymn which was omitted from the 1982 edition, entitled, “Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide.”
The editors of the new hymnal, or – more properly – the theological committee of the editing group, felt that this hymn’s text incorrectly portrayed the decision-making process that our walk with God entails….They felt that there was not one, decisive moment in the walk with God, but there could easily be more than one.
Essentially, of course, our faith journey is a series of “deciding moments”, occasions which shape the future course of our life in God.
However, the importance of a decisive moment shouldn’t be lost on us. Sometimes, there are crucial moments when we are forced to make a decision about a critical issue, or to face a crisis, and we must decide, one way or the other.
Today, as we remember the situation that confronted our Anglican forebears, particularly at Christ Church, Philadelphia, following the Declaration of Independence’s adoption, we would do well to reflect on the definitive moment that they faced.
For they were all members of the state church, the Church of England, which was an extension of the civil government of the 13 Colonies. Their clergy were all ordained in England (for there were no bishops on this side of the Atlantic to ordain anyone here), and were required at the time of their ordination to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown. Moreover, the official worship book of the Church of England, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer contained prayers for the king, and for the civil government.
Once the Declaration had been adopted, Anglicans in this new, independent country faced a host of problems. Among them were: 1. What was to be done with the prayers in the Prayer Book that were required to be offered for the King? 2. Since many of the signers of the Declaration were either members of Christ Church, Philadelphia, or attended services there when they were in town for sessions of the Congress, they faced the same critical decisions about their allegiances as were posed by the prayers in the Prayer Book: Some – as the War for Independence progressed, simply left the Colonies altogether and headed either for Canada or for England. Others simply switched their allegiance from England to the new nation, mandating the changes to the prayers for the King that we have seen today.
Once the Revolutionary War was over, the Anglican Church in the new nation was in shambles. Many of its clergy simply fled the country, though others remained. Its membership, too, was also decimated in much the same way its ranks of clergy had been. There were no bishops in the fledgling church, and it took much of the decade of the 1780s to establish a minimum of three bishops so that an American succession in the episcopate could begin (against formidable odds by those in the new nation who weren’t members of the Anglican Church, by the way: they viewed attempts to land bishops on these shores as back door attempts to reassert British control over the new nation ). The background information provided with today’s service leaflet mentions the involvement of William White, who eventually became Rector of Christ Church, and who was also Chaplain to the Congress for a time. It was White who, once he had become Bishop of Pennsylvania, also took a leading role in formulating a new Constitution for the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
Moreover, the church that remained carried with it an indelible stamp of “Englishness”, a stamp that wasn’t especially popular in the years immediately following the Revolution.
For, as we’ve seen, in those days, Church and State were closely intertwined. Many of the dilemmas faced by Anglicans in the late 18th century stemmed directly from that close connection that the Church had to the civil government.
Today, of course, the situation is entirely reversed….For though the Church of England remains the State Church in Great Britain today, in America, the Church is completely separated from the civil government. Our Bill of Rights ensures that this will be so.
But, the dis-establish clause of the Bill of Rights, which guarantees freedom of religion, has now come to mean – in reality – freedom from religion.
Ours is a secular society, through and through. And, in the years that I have been alive, the momentum of secular attitudes has picked up a quickening pace. Gone are the prayers that opened the school day of my childhood. Gone, too, is the daily Bible verse, read at the beginning of the school day. Gone are public postings of the Ten Commandments (for the most part).
In such a secularized society, the Church finds itself struggling to articulate its voice, and to bring the conviction of faith to the serious issues that face society today.
For, you see, ours is a day in which the old hymn’s words ring true for us: “Once to every man (and woman), comes the moment to decide.” The struggle to apply God’s truth to the world in general has not ceased, nor will it cease until the Lord comes again and the age we live in and know comes to an end, as well.
In the struggle to articulate the voice of faith, part of the battle we are engaged in has to do with maintaining an authentic voice of faith, for – as the hymn says:
“Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust.
Ere her cause bring fame and profit and ‘tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses while the coward stands aside
Till the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.”
As I reflect on this verse of the hymn, I have in mind that the General Convention of the Episcopal Church is scheduled to meet this coming week for ten days, beginning on Tuesday.
Alas, the truth must be said that many of the resolutions that will be considered there would have the effect of turning the Church’s collective back on the faith that has been received from the Apostles. We stand in danger of denying the truth as the Church has received it, has believed it, and has understood it down through the ages.
It is no secret that we live in deeply troubled and difficult times. In many ways, the struggles we face and the decisions we are called to make are every bit as difficult as those our 18th century Anglican forebears faced. In many ways, the decisions to be made are at once just as straightforward as theirs were, but in many ways, they are far more complicated, too.
The Church is no different than the secular society it finds itself in when it comes to troubles, problems and difficult decisions.
The essential question is “How does the Church preserve the truth as it has received it, and yet relate that truth in understandable and meaningful ways to an ever-changing world?”
Coming to a decision about that question has always challenged the Church. Many difficult periods in the Church’s history have revolved around this question.
And yet, it is in just such troubled and difficult times that the Holy Spirit is often the most active, preserving for God a faithful remnant of God’s people. We live in times just like that, times like those of the prophet Jeremiah, who foresaw the gathering of a faithful remnant of God’s people.
“Once to every man, woman and nation comes the moment to decide…” July, 1776 was such a time for our ancestors in faith in the new United States of America. Ours is a time of decision, as well, in which we are called to stand for truth as best we can understand it.
May God give us grace, wisdom and strength to make the choices that are ours to make in our day and time.
AMEN.
