A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, July 4, 2010
Proper 9: Isaiah 66: 10 – 16; Psalm 66: 1 – 8; Galatians 6: 1 – 10, 14 – 18; Luke 10: 1 – 12, 16 – 20
“Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.”
Remember this old hymn? You’ll have to think back a few years, for it is not to be found in the “new” 1982 Hymnal at all….it’s in the Hymnal, 1940 (#519)
The urgency behind this hymn’s text fits well into our overall theme for this Sunday, as we recall the urgency of the decisions that fell to the Rector of Christ Church, Philadelphia, the Rev. Jacob Duché,1 and Christ Church’s Vestry and congregation, in the wake of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
For until the new nation became independent of Great Britain, Christ Church’s clergy and people had considered themselves to be faithful Englishmen and women who lived in the Colonies. They were members of the Church of England in those Colonies. They prayed for the King each Sunday, and their clergy – all of whom were ordained in England (for there were no bishops on this side of the Atlantic), took an oath of allegiance to the Crown.
The adoption of the Declaration forced these people to declare their own allegiances. In time, as the Revolution got underway, some Anglicans abandoned their previous allegiance to the Crown, and embraced the new Republic. Others – clergy and people alike – fled to Canada or to England.
But that’s another story, another chapter in the history of The Episcopal Church, which can be told at another time.
Let’s return to the choices made by Duché and others, and look at their actions in the days which immediately followed the signing of the Declaration, and at the impact on Duché’s life specifically.
Duché had been Chaplain to the Continental Congress, and so had had a visible role in the decisions that had led up to the declaration. Once independence had been declared, he met with Christ Church’s Vestry, and the decision was made to strike out the King’s name in every prayer where it occurred, and to insert prayers for the Congress of the United States instead. We’ve attempted to recreate this experience in our service this morning.
Of course, this action was regarded by the British as treason. Once the British occupied Philadelphia in September, 1777, Duché was arrested, but was released sometime later.
In due course, he wrote a letter to General George Washington while Washington and his troops were encamped outside Philadelphia at Valley Forge, urging the Continental Army to lay down their arms and to seek peace with the British.
For this action, Duché was eventually charged with, and convicted of, high treason by the State of Pennsylvania. His estate was confiscated. Forced to leave America, he went to Britain, where he became Chaplain of the Lambeth Orphans Asylum. He had gone from being a hero of the Revolution to being a traitor.
Eventually, he was able to return to America, in 1792.
We can see from this brief look at Duché’s life that he was forced to make difficult decisions in the face of the eventualities that came his way. First, he chose one side, then the other, each decision carrying with it some costs to him and to his family. The costs were personal, they hit home.
Since July, 1776, our nation has had to make many difficult and costly decisions, as eventualities at home and abroad have forced us to face the realities of the challenges that were placed before us.
Indeed, I think it’s fair to say that our national life can be traced through the succession of difficult decisions, which were followed up by decisive actions, that have unfolded down through the years.
Our national character can be seen in the decisions made and the actions taken.
In our own day, the difficulties we face and the decisions we make to face those challenges squarely, are often informed by decisions made by courageous Americans in times past.
This is merely to state the obvious.
But what is true in our national life and our national character is also true in our spiritual life and our spiritual character.
For as we walk the road with Christ, we made conscious decisions to go one way or the other, to choose one side or the other.
Our journey begins with our decision to follow the Lord in baptism. Even if we were baptized as an infant, we still make a conscious decision to affirm that choice that was made for us by parents or Godparents as we come to confirm our faith when we reach an age where we can speak for ourselves.
From then on, we make a series of conscious decisions to be on the Lord’s side, and not on another side.
Granted, most of the decisions we will make are not of the highly visible or momentous variety. Most of those decisions will be hardly noticeable at all to anyone other than ourselves.
Decisions such as: Deciding to be more Christ-like, more loving, to others, decisions to put our faith into action in some tangible way by helping others who are in need in some way (I think of the Youth Workcampers who came to Mt. Vernon this past week to work on homes whose owners were in some need or another), and so forth.
So, perhaps we could amend the text of the hymn we began with, and phrase it this way: “Again and again to every one of us, comes the moment to decide….”
May God assist us to make wise decisions, decisions that reflect the reality of the living faith that resides within us, each and every day.
AMEN.
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1 Duché was born in Philadelphia in 1737, and died there in 1798. He attended Cambridge in England, and was ordained as priest by the Bishop of London before returning to the Colonies.
