(If you go to Trinity, Milton, don't read this tonight!)
I wanted to be
here, on your level, instead of up in the pulpit because I want you to know I’m
not ‘preaching AT you’, I’m ‘sharing my thoughts and opinions WITH you’.
On this 245th
Anniversary of the founding of our nation, I want to share my thoughts and
opinions WITH you about where we are as a country.
Some of what I
say may be disturbing to you—it’s disturbing to me!
But it needs
to be said.
This is the
greatest country in the world. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. I love
this country.
But as great
as it is and as much as I love it—the United States has flaws. And we need to
look at them and address them as a nation.
As remarkable
a document as our Constitution is, it established a ‘democracy’ on the back of
slavery of Africans brought here to do our farm work. In the Constitution we
all love, slaves were counted as 3/5th a person in the census to
allocate seats in the House of Representatives!
3/5th
a person!!!
We are a
deeply divided nation. Since the last election we have seen how deep the divide
was with a violent assault on the Congress.
We are also
divided in other ways.
Those who take
the vaccine against Covid and the anti-vaccine folks.
We are deeply
divided over issues of climate change.
We are divided
over voting rights.
We are divided
by race in a remarkable way. Black and Brown people are much poorer than White
and Asian-Americans. They have worse health-care and housing and are having it
much more difficult to vote by states passing voting bills.
And rich and
poor are not just Brown and Black, poor white Americans are in the same boat.
The county I
grew up—the southern most county in West Virginia—McDowell if you’re not from
there and Mac-Dowell if you are from there—had a population of 100,000 when I
was a senior in high school. The latest census put that population at 27,000.
Coal mining is dead—which is a good thing—but no one worked to find new jobs
for those 73,000 people who had to leave to find work.
During the
pandemic the rich got richer and the poor got poorer.
We are so deeply
divided as a people. And disagreement doesn’t mean ‘looking for compromise’ any
more—it means taking sides and refusing to compromise.
I was saying
some of this to a casual friend who is much more conservative than I am a few
months ago.
He stopped me
and said, “Love it or leave it!”
I said, “No.
We have to Love It and Fix it!!!”
That’s why I
chose to read the Gospel of the Good Samaritan for today’s gospel. Jesus tells
us there—“Love God….and Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Sunday before
last, on my way back home, my car broke down on Rt. 8 in Watertown. Triple A
took an hour to get there. Hundreds of cars passed me but only one stopped—Brian
who made sure I was alright and gave me a bottle of water. Brian was my ‘good
Samaritan’.
And, as the
Samaritan teaches us, our ‘neighbor’ is anyone in need, anyone struggling,
anyone we can lift up and help.
On this
glorious holiday—even a ‘holy day’, I would say—we must commit ourselves, as
followers of Jesus, to do everything we can to Love our Country and ‘fix it’,
by loving our neighbor—who is anyone in need.
It’s really
that simple.
Really that
simple.
Really that
simple.
Amen and Amen.
