July 6, 2008
Independence Day
Pastor Harry Mueller

Grace be to you and Peace on this holiday weekend!

We have had a couple of fun days. Our daughter-in-law and grand daughter flew in for a few days from California.  We decided to go down to the stone arch bridge to watch the fire works on the Fourth.  There is a lot of excitement with a crowd like that. There’s the food, the loud music, always policemen on bikes or in cars doing crowd control, and occasionally an acquaintance or two. There is always heavy traffic getting out after the fireworks.  We parked on the south side of the river so we could have an easy access out afterwards. As I read the parking meter I looked at all the holidays listed for free parking. I was looking for the Fourth of July and my eyes skipped right over the word “Independence Day.”  As I sat by the river and waited for the sun to set, I thought about other Independence days.  Some from my past but also, knowing the texts we heard Mark read earlier, Independence days  from ancient times.   I am thinking namely, about Passover celebrations in Jerusalem.  It was a celebration of Independence from Egypt.  You know the Pharoah, Moses, the Red Sea, etc.   I’m sure the rowdiness, the loud music, the food, all these things are something in common with Independence day celebrations.  Passover was probably quite similar, minus the fireworks.   I’m sure also that it was not policemen on bikes, or in squad cars doing crowd control, but it was Roman soldiers doing crowd control.

Marcus Borg, in one of his books, presented an image for me that helps me imagine the ancient celebration.  He talked about the soldiers riding into Jerusalem from the western sea port city of Caesarea, named after the Caesar,  to do the crowd control.  They had to try to maintain the atmosphere of frustration on an Independence Day celebration when there really was no independence. Not when there were foreign armies in control.  So the celebration was an empty one filled with riots and lots of frustration.  There had been quite a history of that before Jesus. To contrast the soldiers from the west, Jesus had entered the city from the east on a donkey.  This is a setting for the passion play we tell every holy week.  But what a stark contrast with war horses that spell power and might and a donkey that spells humility and lowliness.  One suggests oppression and war the other revealed a real way to peace through compassion, mercy and justice.  Of course the freedom promised by the ancient prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and today, Zechariah’s reading, didn’t exist so the promise needed to be renewed or redeemed.  It’s the same in our day. You may have read the articles in the Star Tribune yesterday of the young African American boys who are looking for the very same thing. Namely; a renewal for the promise that a young black man can rise to prominence in some way other than through athletics or by being a rap singer.

Now picture, if you will, the religious community of Jesus’ day. They were trying to interpret for the community this ancient concept of the God of Israel.  The promise of freedom wasn’t out of date. It hadn’t died. God hadn’t forgotten the people. But people needed to be reminded.  Hope must be restored.  Jesus offered an alternative in his approach. Mercy, compassion, justice were the route to freedom and peace.  When the gospel writers sat down to interpret Jesus’ message they turned to this little piece we heard read from Zechariah. “Your new king will come riding on a donkey.  He will cut off the war horse from Ephraim.”  I’m sure this imagery and the connection didn’t escape the observations of the people who knew no peace. 

I just finished reading a book last month by Chalmers Johnson, entitled, The Sorrows of Empire.   In it he traces the consequences of empires, past and present.  He talks about the nearly 1000 military bases our country has around the world.  All are left over bases that have been maintained after previous wars. Wars lead to more bases, and more bases lead to more wars.  They are the building blocks of an empire that makes us no safer.  We are no freer. There is no peace. And we are bankrupt. These are some of the sorrows of empire. The Romans found out and so are we.  Jesus offered a different approach.

Now picture if you will, also, the Apostle Paul, in that first generation after Jesus.  He’s at the height of his career. He has a lot of life to look back on.  He’s taken some huge risks in confronting the empire.  Knowing what we know from reading the biographies of others who take such huge risks like Martin Luther King, Bonhoeffer, Gandhi, Bhutto and others, their lives are always under threat.  Paul probably thought, I better get things in writing. So the letter to the Romans was the highlight of his theological thought.  Paul used some of his own experience to explain his theology and show where he wanted to lead others.   Now, I remember Paul as the one who early in life had been a great supporter of the empire and its attempts to silence the alternative brought by Jesus.  Paul was present at the killing of Stephen.  Paul called himself the great persecutor of the Followers of the Way(of Jesus).  Probably what we would call today a small cell group,  opposed to the values and approaches of the empire.   But Paul had seen the light on the road to Damascus. He switched sides.  And now in the summary of his theological thought he says, as Mark read for us, “the good that I would I do not do and that which I do not want to do is what I do.  It is not I that sin but sin that dwells within me”   Here is some of the very heart of our Lutheran theology.  On the Sunday’s when we use the confession we sometimes say, “I am in bondage to sin and I cannot free myself.”    It’s an independanc e day but we also admit to feeling trapped. 

I feel that way when I’m honest!  I would like to feel less trapped in a way of life that uses fossil fuels. I’d love to drive less and use a lot less gas, but I’m caught in a system and life style that is really hard to change.  And I live in an empire that must go to war and maintain nearly 1000 military bases  around the globe to maintain it for me.  Furthermore I’d love to pay a lot less taxes, when I know the majority of the taxes go to support the largest empire the world has ever known.  The most powerful military regime the world has ever know that makes us be viewed exactly as the Romans were by those they oppressed. Who in their right mind, in sober moments, can’t admit that this way doesn’t bring peace. It never has, it never will.  It’s not the alternative Zechariah talked about. Or Jesus. Or the one Paul was converted to.

That’s the most honest I can be in this Independence Day weekend with these biblical passages.  “Low you king will come, lowly,” and, “ cut off the war chariot,”  and, “ the good that I would I do not and that which I don’t want is what I do.”  Before we just repeat the rhetoric of an empire this weekend, let us take an honest stock of the implications of empires, on the one hand, and the alternatives proposed by Zechariah, Jesus and eventually Paul.  Our real hope and the abiding promise lies in the latter.  Amen.