|
|
Real Freedom - A Sermon for Religious Liberty Sunday |
Matthew 11: 28-30
|
© John Ewing Roberts |
 |
|
|
|
INTRODUCTION When I looked at today's bulletin cover, I did a double take. There was the Statue of Liberty with the flag of the United States billowing behind her. In the foreground I recognized the final portion of today's lectionary gospel reading, "Come unto me, all you who are weary...and I will give you rest."[1] Those magnificent words of gracious invitation from our Lord usually create a feeling of great comfort and encouragement, but this time there was some disorientation and dissonance for me, because Jesus, not Miss Liberty, said those words. Nevertheless, the inscription for the Statue of Liberty has a somewhat similar thought: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.[2] The sentiments in Matthew 11 and on the base of the Statue of Liberty are not too far apart, but it is important to keep them straight, Church and State, Civil Religion versus biblical faith, and all that sort of thing. If she could speak, I wonder what Miss Liberty would say to the INS agents who waded into the Florida surf this week and discharged their duty by turning back refugees from Cuba. For that matter, I wonder what Jesus would say. No, I don't wonder; I know exactly what he would say, "Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me."[3] I take some comfort in this church's partnership with the Fraternity of Cuban Baptists and the welcome we give internationals in our English for Speakers of Other Languages program. PICTURE NO. 1, First Baptist Church in America, Providence, Rhode Island Last month on Communion Sunday you saw this picture and heard me say, "A great tradition in Baptist religious architecture begins here." Now on Independence Day, on this Lord's Day, on this Communion Sunday, I have something far more important to declare: A great tradition in religious liberty begins here, the First Baptist Church, Providence, Rhode Island. The official name of this congregation, "The First Baptist Church in America," indicates its proud heritage. Founded by Roger Williams in 1638, the church worships in a MeetingHouse built in 1774. The builders were ships' carpenters, men who were out of work because the English parliament had closed the port of Boston as a punitive measure after the Boston Tea Party.[4] PICTURE NO. 2, Heroic Statue of Roger Williams overlooking Prospect Park, the First Baptist Church in America, and Providence, Rhode Island Williams was a Baptist for a time, but ended his days as a self-described "seeker." His heroic statue looks serenely over the city and church he established. This peaceful scene should not lull us into thinking that we can take for granted the religious liberty championed by Williams and our Baptist forbears. Williams was a graduate of Cambridge University where in order to receive his degree he was forced to sign articles declaring that the king was by right the head of the English Church, that worship according to the Book of Common Prayer and church government through bishops were lawful, and that the official creed of the church expressed true doctrine.[5] Later his open and bold Separatist convictions got him into trouble; he had to leave England, writing, "It was bitter as death to me when Bishop Laud pursued me out of this land, and my conscience was persuaded against the national church and ceremonies and bishops."[6] PICTURE NO. 3, Roger Williams Leaves Salem, Massachusetts [7] To his dismay Williams discovered that the religious climate was not much better on this side of the Atlantic. His ideas of freedom and worship were contrary to those in the established church of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He curtly turned down the invitation to be the teacher of the largest church in the colony because the people were "unseparated," that is, not distinctly Christian and clearly distinguishable from their non-Christian neighbors. (I wonder if today he would find us "separated" enough to accept an invitation from Woodbrook.) Williams infuriated the smug, strait-laced fathers of the colony by going out among the Narragansett Indians. The Calvinistic Puritans did not count the native Americans whom they called "aborigines" as among God's elect. To the great irritation of the Puritans Williams told the Indians that the Great Spirit was the creator of us all, and that like a parent the Great Spirit cared for his children. The Great Spirit wanted men and women to treat one another as brothers and sisters.[8] Rather than be deported to England for such convictions, he left Salem for the Narragansett Indian county. The artist shows us the dawn of a new day as Williams looks back to the community where he is leaving his wife and two daughters, Mary and Freeborn, to trudge through the bitter cold and snow of the New England winter in 1636. He bought land from the Indians; there adjacent to Narragansett Bay he established what became Rhode Island Colony. He called it the Providence Plantation because he believed the providence of God led him there. In Providence he organized the first Baptist church in what was to Europeans the "New World." Look at him! He walks briskly forward with assured stride, looking back, not in anger at the officials, nor in self-pity, but as a husband and a human. We could see man against nature; we could see man against a repressive religion; but I believe Williams would have us see a man who is not so much against the forces of nature and repression as a man who is for religious liberty for all people. PICTURE NO. 4, Isaac Backus Before the Continental Congress, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Not all the colonies were as enlightened as Rhode Island. In 1774 a Baptist from Massachusetts named Isaac Backus came to Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia to present a petition against the power of the state to tax Baptists to support the established church. Drawing on the watchword of all the friends of liberty, Backus declared the statute to be "taxation without representation." Backus had powerful opponents. John Adams said Baptists could as easily expect a change in the solar system as to hope Massachusetts would give up its established church.[9] Samuel Adams with rising blood pressure accused Backus and the Baptists of simply being stingy, of refusing to "pay the pence" on economic grounds. Backus cried out, "It is not the pence, but the power to impose the pence" to which Baptists objected. He pleaded for separation of church and state and for complete religious liberty. He worked for more than forty years for those goals and lived to the see the adoption of the First Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing religious liberty. PICTURE NO. 5, James Ireland Preaching Through Prison Bars, near Orange, Virginia Another colony which fell short of Rhode Island's high standard of religious liberty was Virginia. Here we see James Ireland preaching through prison bars near Orange, Virginia; he was one of thirty Baptist ministers imprisoned between 1768 and 1770 in Virginia.[10] Ireland was standing on a table and preaching in an open-air meeting in Culpeper County, Virginia. When he bowed his head in prayer, two men grabbed him by the collar and jerked him off the table. They hustled him off to jail for preaching without proper authority. Leland gave as his authority, not the Church of England, but the Author of the gospel, but that was not good enough for Virginia Anglicans. He ended up in a small cell with a rowdy, drunken tough. During his five months in jail in an attempt to kill him someone set off a homemade bomb. Later someone else took pods of Indian pepper, stuffed with brimstone, and set them on fire at his door and window in an attempt to suffocate him. Not long after that the jailer allowed the delivery of poisoned food. In spite of cold, hunger, persecution, plots, threats, rough cell mates, and a jail infested with mice and spiders, Ireland never lost faith and courage. He preached through the grated windows of his cell. Authorities rode horses through the crowd to try and disperse them. But the people came back. Eventually William and Mary's Toleration Act of 1770 forced his release. Another Virginia Baptist, John Weatherford also preached from prison through a barred window. When he stuck his hands through in some gesture of emphasis, a coward slashed his hands with a knife. He kept on preaching; authorities build a brick wall ten feet high outside his window to keep people from seeing and hearing Weatherford. When the people gathered, they raised a pole with a handkerchief above the wall to signal that they were ready for a sermon, and the fearless, leather lunged Weatherford would oblige them. Eventually Patrick Henry secured his release from jail. In Leon McBeth's The Baptist Heritage (op. cit., pp. 281-282) he writes "Much has been written about a supposed meeting between Madison and Leland in March 1788 and a `deal' between them to gain Baptists' support for the Constitution. The most recent and thorough discussion of the incident is found in Reuben E. Alley, A History of Baptists in Virginia. Older sources state that Madison visited Leland's home where the two men discussed the Constitution for several hours. At the close of that discussion Leland withdrew from the race for the ratification convention and threw Baptist support to Madison. In return, Madison agreed to introduce amendments to the constitution, spelling out the freedoms which Baptists desired. While Alley showed that much of that information comes from secondary sources and the memory of participants years after the facts, it still bears the stamp of authenticity." PICTURE NO. 6, James Madison Meets with John Leland Virginia was the setting for a crucial event in the struggle for religious liberty. The man on the left is future fourth president of the United States, James Madison, known as "the father of the Constitution." He was not a Baptist, but here we see him dealing with John Leland, another one of those tough Virginia pastors. Madison needed Baptist support for the new Constitution; without it Virginia would not ratify the Constitution; if Virginia failed to ratify the Constitution, other states would follow suit. Madison needed the Baptist votes; Baptists needed a champion for religious liberty in the Bill of Rights in the new Constitution. Leland could work with those possibilities. Leland stood like an oak for religious freedom as he negotiated with Madison near Orange, Virginia. "The importance of this conference to the future development of our country can hardly be stressed too much. When Leland was convinced that Madison would later support an amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing full religious liberty, he withdrew his opposition and threw his support to Madison. The Baptist vote was largely responsible for Madison's election and for the approval of the Constitution by Virginia. Virginia's ratification greatly influenced other states to take the same step." We can thank him and our Virginia Baptist forbears for those precious words in the First Amendment to the Constitution, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."[11] A fine Baptist historian and teacher, Hugh Wamble, wrote, "It is generally thought that only one item of the First Amendment applies to religion, but all items are related to religion. There can be no freedom of religion without freedom to speak, to write, to assemble, and to petition for a correction of abuses. Anyone familiar with American history between 1770 and 1790 can see `Baptist' written indelibly on this Amendment."[12] Before we leave Leland I must "chase a rabbit" and tell you that he was a life long admirer of Thomas Jefferson and was also considered an eccentric. In 1801 when Thomas Jefferson was president, Leland sent the Chief Executive a gift, a cheese weighing 1,450 pounds. The grateful President invited his old friend into the Senate chamber for a long chat. There is no record of what became of the cheese. (I wonder what John Leland would give our current president!) All of this seems long ago, but the issues are pressing today. In Leon McBeth's recent book, The Baptist Heritage, he writes that in our time there is some evidence that suggests "that Baptist commitment to religious liberty might be weakening. Baptists who bore the scars of religious persecution struggled to achieve religious liberty; it remains to be seen whether Baptists who live in comfort can preserve it."[13] I think I know what he means. We want children to learn to pray and to be free to pray, but some Baptists want the public schools to take over the rightful job of the church and family, and get into the business of forcing children to pray, as if true prayer could be forced! Voluntary prayer in school is one thing; state crafted prayers and required prayer should be anathema to Baptists. Roger Williams wrote in The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience: It is the will and command of God, that (since the coming of his Son the Lord Jesus) a permission of the most Paganish, Jewish, Turkish, or Anti-christian consciences and worships, bee granted to all men in all Nations and Countries: and they are onely to bee fought against with that Sword which is only (in Soule matters) able to conquer, to wit, the Sword of Gods Spirit, the Word of God...True it is, the Sword may make...a whole Nation to Hypocrites..."[14] We want children to be able to attend safe schools with a wholesome environment where religion is treated fairly, but some Baptists want government money in the form of vouchers to pay for religious schools for their children. Some well intended Baptists ignore history; other Baptists want the state to "pay the pence" for religious education. These folk may mean well, but they are weakening our heritage. Roger Williams, Isaac Backus, James Ireland, and John Leland are spinning in their graves. PICTURE NO. 7, George Truett Preaches on the Capitol Steps Our last picture comes from a great moment in 20th century Baptist history. Here we see Dr. George Truett, arguably the greatest American Baptist of the first half of this century; later he served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention and President of the Baptist World Alliance. At the time of this painting he was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. The Southern Baptist Convention met in Washington, D. C., in 1920 and held its final session on the east steps of the Capitol. Here Truett preached his great sermon on "Baptists and Religious Liberty." You read some of the words he spoke that day in the litany for religious liberty at the beginning of the service. "It is the consistent and insistent contention of our Baptist people, always and everywhere, that religion must be forever voluntary and uncoerced...God wants free worshipers and no other kind."[15] Remember those words the next time the subject of prayer in schools comes up. Remember those words the next time the subject of vouchers for religious schools comes up. CONCLUSION And remember that when all is said and done, Baptists have fought, bled and died for religious liberty not just for the sake of our own free exercise of religion. We live and die for religious liberty because we want to give all people an opportunity to respond in matters of the spirit to the sword of the Spirit, not to the secular sword of the state; we do not want the state to force worship and create a nation of hypocrites; we want boys and girls, men and women to choose freely to become followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. True evangelism stands firmly for freedom of choice, not coercion. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, real liberty, true freedom, - the freedom to choose to believe or disbelieve, - the freedom to follow our Lord or our own devices, - the freedom to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness or to take the consequences of our freely made decisions. On this Independence Day - fly your flag; - read the Declaration of Independence; - let your heart skip a beat at the sight of Old Glory and Miss Liberty; - work for justice for the tired and the poor as well as the weary and heavy laden; - remember...But most of all on this day, remember...Roger Williams walking through the snow, - the One who died and rose to free us from sin and death, - the One who said, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free;" - the One who said, "Do this in remembrance of me." Woodbrook Baptist Church (Formerly Eutaw Place Baptist Church) Baltimore, Maryland [This sermon is for circulation within the Woodbrook congregation and may not be reproduced without permission.] Notes: [1] Matthew 11: 28 [2] Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), The New Colossus: Inscription for the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor [3] Matthew 25: 45 [4] Marguerite Appleton, Portrait of the First Baptist Church in America [Providence: The First Baptist Church in America] 1975,p. 7 [5] H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage [Nashville: Broadman Press] 1987, p. 125 [6] Ibid. , p. 126 [7] The pictures of Williams, Backus, Ireland, Madison and Leland, and Truett were commissioned by the Training Union Department of the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention for the 1976 Bicentennial as "Great Moments in Baptist History." [8] O. K. and Marjorie Armstrong, Baptists Who Shaped a Nation [Nashville: Broadman Press] 1975, p. 38 [9] Bynum Shaw, Divided We Stand - The Baptists In American Life [Durham, North Carolina: Moore Publishing Co.] 1974, p. 65 [10] Shaw, op. cit., p. 74 [11] Margaret Williams, Fighters for Freedom [Nashville: Convention Press] 1958, pp. 89-90. [12] Hugh Wamble, Through Trial to Triumph [Nashville: Convention Press] 1958, p. 35Ö [13] McBeth, op. cit., p. 282 [14] Baptist Treasury, compiled and edited by Sydnor L. Stealey [New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co.] 1985, pp. 17, 18 [15] "Litany for Religious Liberty," adapted from "Baptists and Religious Liberty" by George W.Truett, delivered on the steps of the United States Capitol building, May 16, 1920, from For the Living of These Days , edited by C. Michael Hawn [Macon, Georgia: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Inc.] 1995, No. 348 [16] John 8: 32; I Corinthians 11: 25; John 8: 36 |