|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Zechariah 9:9–12 |
Psalm 145:8–15 |
Romans 7:15–25a |
Matthew 11:16–19, 25–30 |
This weekend is the National Holiday when people gather for picnics, and large groups gather to watch fireworks together. There is joy in being united as a people and as a nation that transcends blood ties, economic status and specific religious beliefs. Admittedly the moment is very fleeting, and in some instances seems like a brief truce before renewed strive and dissension. Nonetheless the Biblical tradition doesn’t ignore these nationalistic occasions of celebration. Instead it expects people of faith to transform them into a universal context. The Bible points to all those other barriers and bars that continue to separate us from each other, and asks, what about them?
What God asks of all nations is not how large are your granaries or how wide your sphere of influence, but how do you treat the powerless, the orphans, and the strangers in your land. How are they and the many refugees of innumerable internal battles and disagreements, included? Do they ever experience joy too? An unmistakable and consistent theme in the Bible is God holding people and nations responsible for the welfare and their fair treatment of others.
The founders of the new government of the U.S. while very wary of an established or official church, nevertheless were Biblically literate. They drew great strength from the Biblical concepts of universal justice, compassion, decency and a corrective and healthy sense of humility and self-limitation. They recognized that the man and women in the Garden of Eden represented universal humanity, and the animals in Noah’s ark were from all continents of the globe. The sign of the rainbow, a war bow hung upside down out of use, was God’s sign of goodwill and blessing for all to remember.
The passage read today from the prophet Zechariah appears to be part of a floating collection of prophetic wisdom that was attached to the Book of Zechariah, but was not from Zechariah himself. Therefore the exact date and setting of the passage is unknown. It likely was composed about three hundred years before the birth of Christ, during a reemergence of nationalism in protest against the legacy of the Greek empire under Alexander. A century later the dynasty known as the Maccabees would lead Israel into open revolt, and for a brief time would restore Israel as an independent nation.
The passage announces the future hope of victory of the reinstitution of Israel as a political and religious entity, but note that the leader is not described as a military despot or imperial royalty. The new king is a king of peace, coming not on a cavalry horse but on a donkey, a symbol of everyday prosperity and trade. Moreover the passage recognizes that this victory is not merely the vanquishing of evil, but the transformation of the forces of evil into the forces of good. The new king is to bring in an era of laying down the instruments of war and taking up the instruments of peace.
This image of a new king is precisely the metaphor that the Gospel writers will use when describing Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus is this new king of justice, peace, and prosperity for all people, not just those celebrated as victors over the defeated.
Like the people of ancient Biblical history and the people who were the midwives of the birth of our nation, we have a long way to go before we live up to the universal and inclusive Biblical vision. There are still oppressed people out there, some close at hand and some far away. Our vision is still myopic and our horizons do not do justice to where God calls us. Each new age and generation is made aware of new conditions of servitude that need to be named and challenged. That’s an important part of the legacy the Fourth of July hands off to us.
We are sent from here this morning to bear witness to the Biblical undergirding of universal justice and judgment that has inspired oppressed people to rise up and seek freedom, refusing to be defined as the oppressors’ victims. That is why the Fourth of July as well as a secular holiday, is also rightfully one of our church holidays too.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
