July 3, 2005
7 Pentecost

The Rev. Barbara Schlachter

And they called Rebekah, and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will.”

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do…Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted by Men, drawing their just powers from the consent of the governed.

We have great lessons for today!

The first is the story of how Grandmother Rebekah came to be the wife of Isaac, and then the mother of Esau and Jacob.  Brave Grandmother Rebekah, willing to leave her family and journey with a stranger to become the wife of a man she has never met.  Brave Grandmother Rebekah; certainly as brave and faithful as Abraham and Sarah themselves who set out for a new land that God beckoned them to.

The second lesson is St. Paul ’s struggle with the relationship between will and grace.  It is not just a television program!

The third contains what we call “the Comfortable Words.”  In Rite One, they are used after the Confession and Absolution.  They are among the most comforting of all of the Gospel passages; who hasn’t had occasion to sink into their tender reassurance and rest?  Even if they are a bit paradoxical—yokes are put on oxen and used to pull heavy loads; and who ever heard of a light burden?  A bit of an oxymoron, it seems.  Is Jesus making a ‘Yoke?”  Bad joke!  I apologize.

Hopefully you all recognized the words of the fourth quote as coming from the Declaration of Independence. Not a Judeo-Christian scripture, but holy writ, nonetheless for all Americans.  In Congress, 1776, by Unanimous Declaration, these words were proclaimed.

Hopefully, you read these words every year on July 4.  You don’t?  I am shocked!  Well, hopefully, at least you think about them, and talk with your children and grandchildren about them.  We need to remember that July 4 is Independence Day; it is a day of great import for all of us who like living in a democratic nation.  It’s about more than fireworks and an extra day off. 

When they were written, they were very revolutionary and radical.  All men are created equal.  It has taken us awhile to make this truly so, and one could well argue that we are still working on it.  Remember, they were referring to all men of a certain amount of property, who were freemen, and not African American.  And as inclusive as we might like to believe that the word “men” truly is, it did indeed mean only men.  Elizabeth Cady Stanton rocked the world with her “Declaration of Sentiments” on July 20, 1848 , when she declared “all men and women are created equal.”  It took seventy-two years for that to be affirmed, with the ratification of the 19^th amendment giving the vote to women.  Alas, however, the Equal Rights Amendment, which would give women rights equal to men, has never been ratified in this country.  Explain that one to your daughters.  And people of African-American descent have had an even harder time claiming equality and the rights of being an American.  Racism continues to be a shameful chapter in our history.  Now, our greatest frontier in this country, is understanding what it means to be a bi-lingual nation, with the Hispanic population growing faster than any other. 

This past week we were out exploring this vast and wonderful nation of ours; we had a family wedding in Colorado and then went on to spend three wonderful days in Mesa Verde National Park .  One of the people we met there was a man from San Diego , who had retired there, leaving his and my husband’s homestate of Nebraska .  He told us, “ It sure is different being in the minority.”  Well, we had all better get used to it. 

Woodie Guthrie sang, “This land was made for you and me,” and the history of the United States has always been to understand that the “you” is always yet another wave of immigrants, just like our families were.

Well, I think that not only are we challenged as citizens of this country; but we are challenged as citizens of the world.  I am not going to embarrass any of you by this next series of questions.  I sometimes forget that I am no longer a teacher of social studies and I can’t call upon you as if you were students in my class room.  You don’t have to put your hands up.  You might shake your heads yes or no, though.  And to make you feel better and be more honest, my husband shook his head no to all of these.

Do you know what the G-8 summit is?

Do you know what the Millennium Development Goals are?

Do you know what the Micah Challenge is?

Do you know who Njongonkulu Ndungane is?

Do you know who Meshack Mabuza is?

Actually, to be fair, Mel did know that Meshack Mabuza is the Bishop of Swaziland, who will be here at Christ Church in two weeks.

Ndungane is Bishop Mabuza’s Archbishop, the Bishop of South Africa, a direct inheritor of the mantle of Desmond Tutu.

The Millennium Development Goals were adopted five years ago when 189 heads of state assembled at the United Nations to discuss the crisis of global poverty.  The United States was one of the countries that adopted the goals.  There are eight goals—with sub points to be sure, but still eight basic goals.

Listen carefully; there will be a quiz at the end of class; no that’s right; this is not a class, it is church!  No one has to learn anything here!

l. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.                                                                                                      
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability.
8. Develop a global partnership for development.

Shortly after these were passed, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Denver , passed their, our, support of these goals.

Now on to G-8.  It stand for Group of Eight, the eight wealthiest and most powerful nations in the world, who are meeting next week, July 6-8 to assess how the world has been doing with its homework.  On the eve of the summit the Archbishop of Canterbury will co-convene a meeting at Lambeth Palace to promote a strong transatlantic religious voice in the midst of these negotiations.  Among other things, the religious leaders will be calling on our country to work on debt cancellation for impoverished nations, and an increase in our country’s commitment to effective foreign aid programs.

The meeting is being held in Gleneagles , Scotland and the Church of Scotland at their General Assembly meeting a month ago voted to have all their churches ring their bells at the same time on July 7.  The time chosen is 1345.  That would be l:45 for us.  Why that time?  Because it represents the fact that 13% of the world’s population produces 45% of its greenhouse gas emissions.  Perhaps we could all find ways of remembering our part in this challenge to the viability of the world, perhaps by stopping for a moment of prayer at 1:45 on Thursday.

Finally, the Micah Challenge.  First, you remember the famous words from the prophet Micah:  What does the Lord require, but to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God?”  Archbishop Dnungane is spokesperson for the Micah Challenge, which is a Christian debt relief movement started by the Micah Network, which consists of 260 Christian-based community development agencies in the global South, and the World Evangelical Alliance.  The Episcopal Church’ counterpart of this is Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, which is challenging not only the developed nations to be true to their pledge of 0.7 of their gross national product for developmental assistance, but also calling upon the churches to do the same thing.  This Diocese, this parish, is being asked to give 0.7 of our budget for development.  This is our part of the Micah Challenge.

We do not have very far to go to figure out how we can do this.  In two weeks the Bishop of Swaziland will be here.  We will stand in this church and tell him that we are going to build a school in Mapaka, one of the poorest communities, with many children who are orphans, many children whose lives are directly affected by AIDS.  We can all do our part by participating in the fund raising efforts of The Swaziland Companions to make this commitment a reality.  In fact, we already have started to do our part by supporting the wonderful auction the youth held on May Day.

When we think of world poverty, it can be overwhelming.  Yet when we think that we have a ready way to respond, to act out the Gospel, to live our faith, to be yoked with the Jesus who said his yoke was easy and his burden was light, we can find our hearts filled with light and lightness and joy. 

My friends, please join me this week in prayers for the G-8 summit.  Perhaps you will want to fast or modify your diet in some way to show your solidarity with Christians who are doing this in other countries, where so many lives are at stake.

Finally, I would like to leave you with one image.  The day before I left Iowa City to go to Colorado , I saw a group of very young children, possibly from a summer camp or Bible School , walking down town.    They were connected to each other by holding on to a rope.  I have used that technique with young children to get them to stay together when moving locations and it is very effective.  Sometimes, I have wanted to try it with adults, in fact.  Well, this string of children just kept coming—three times as long as the cinctures we wear that make such good ropes.  And I thought; this is like our world.  We are all connected to each other by one long cord of life.  We just don’t always recognize it, but we are all connected; we all belong to one another. 

We are ONE—and if our country gave 1% of our Gross National Product to the development of Sub-Saharan Africa, where Swaziland is, where more than half the people live on more or less than one dollar a day, we would be affirming our ONENESS and showing Jesus that we do understand who is our neighbor. The ONE campaign to make poverty history has brought together such diverse people as our Presiding Bishop and Bono of U2.  Talk about the lion and the lamb lying down together!

A few years ago What Would Jesus Do bracelets were very popular.  WWJD.  Well, I would like to change that to what would Jesus think?  Here is what the Micah Call says about that:  “This is a moment in history of unique potential, when the stated intentions of world leaders echo something of the mind of the biblical prophets and the teachings of Jesus concerning the poor, and when we have the means to dramatically reduce poverty.”

In other words, Jesus would think this was a great opportunity to be faithful to the Gospel.  And don’t blow it!

Let us echo the words of Grandmother Rebekah and way with her “I will.”  “I will join in prayer, and fasting, and in supporting the Millennium Development Goals.”

And Happy Fourth of July.

Anyone wishing to learn more about G-8, the Millennium Development Goals, the Micah Challenge and Archbishop Ndungane can become a subscriber to Sojourner’s, or google them on the Web.  Twelve monthly issues are available for $39.95—call 1-800-678-9691, or send your check to PO Box 2056 Marion , Ohio , 43306-2156 .  Sojourners is a magazine dedicated to the Christian faith, politics and culture.  The editor is Jim Wallis, the author of the much acclaimed recently published book, God’s Politics.

To learn more about the One Campaign go on the web to www.one.org/Events.aspx.