RVCC Pastor's Sermon

Sermon - July 5, 2009

“REFLECTIONS ON THE FOUR FREEDOMS”

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Galatians 5:1-2, 4-6

“In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.”

President Franklin Roosevelt coined the term, “four freedoms,” in his State of the Union address in 1941. At the time, Hitler was attacking in Europe, and Japan was overrunning the Pacific. Though the United States was still insulated from the war, Americans grimly watched the loss of freedom across the globe with growing concern.

It was over a year later, however, that Roosevelt’s four freedoms were visually etched in the public mind by Norman Rockwell’s artwork featured on four consecutive Saturday Evening Post covers in early 1943.

For both Roosevelt and Rockwell, the four freedoms reflected the dreams of the Founding Fathers and lay at the foundation of American democracy. Even today they are a significant reason to celebrate our national heritage each 4th of July.

Question: Does living in a nation that cherishes the four freedoms mean that we Americans are an exceptional people? Answer: No – no more so than any of God’s children. However, the fact that our governmental system still embodies those freedoms – fragile though they are - after some 233 years is exceptional – and that fact places an enormous responsibility on all American citizens.

Question: Are these four freedoms rooted in Christianity? Answer: No – though spokespersons for the religious right would have us believe that they sprang from the deeply held Christian faith of the Founding Fathers and so, I believe, wrongly conclude that this country is a Christian nation. We are who we are, they preach, because of a special relationship we have with Jesus and with God’s freedom.

However, the fact is that a number of our founding fathers (Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Paine, for example) were avowedly non-Christian and in fact had some pretty disparaging remarks to make about organized religion in general. An abiding Christian faith did not play a role in the birth of our government. That being said, however, this morning I want to reflect upon how these four freedoms challenge those of us who are followers of Jesus in a unique way.

You see, when Roosevelt named the four freedoms, he explicitly added that each one should be applicable everywhere in the world, and so they became the foundation of global human rights. And aren’t such human rights at the core of Jesus’ public ministry?

In the end, isn’t that what living the Gospel is all about - being advocates for justice and peace, promoting diversity and honoring inclusiveness, and ministering always to the very least among us - in the end, simply loving one another?

REFLECTION ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH
“The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.”

The people of Arlington, Vermont, did not have the war on their minds when they gathered for a town meeting in the summer of 1942. On the contrary, it was good news that drew the townsfolk: town councilors had announced plans to build a new school.

Only one resident objected to the proposed building, and in the course of the evening’s proceedings, he rose to speak. It was that scenario that informed the artwork for Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech illustration.

What does this gift of freedom of speech mean for us as followers of Jesus? Surely the freedom to speak the Gospel message is far more than a “nice to have.” Its proclamation is both an imperative and an astounding responsibility we bear everyday.

As the Body of Christ, you and I are called to exercise that freedom of expression and speak out against injustice. We are called to let our voices be heard, as Jesus let his voice be heard time and time again. We are called to insist that children everywhere have food and shelter, that all people in our country have access to and the ability to pay for adequate healthcare, that the marginalized will not fall through the safety nets nor the down-trodden slip through the cracks.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to stand up for what we know in our hearts is right, to speak out even when it is unpopular to do so, to be advocates for a world we trust can be resurrected and transformed into God’s realm. As Paul wrote in his second letter to the church in Corinth: “Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

REFLECTION ON FREEDOM OF WORSHIP
“The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world.”

Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Druidism, Shintoism. The world abounds in religious perspectives. The premise of the novel, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, even postulates that Jesus spent those thirty years we know nothing about seeking the three magi to learn about their Eastern spiritual beliefs.

Who knows? But I think we can say that Jesus was broad-minded, and his bias was for inclusion. After all, he welcomed the beggar and the whore. He dined with the tax collector. Many of his parables illustrating the kingdom of God, such as the Prodigal Son and the Great Banquet, were tales of astounding welcome and hospitality.

Surely as followers of Jesus, we are called to be not simply coldly tolerant, but rather warmly accepting. Therein, I believe, lies the foundation for justice. In this day and age, acknowledging that God can be worshipped in many ways, seeking to understand our common roots, and respecting our differences is so important. In the end, I like to think that whatever our religious bias, our spiritual goal is the same: to seek God, to know God, and to live in the universal truth of God’s way.

As Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one.”

REFLECTION ON FREEDOM FROM WANT
“The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in the world.”

A right to nutritious food. A right to drinkable water. Empty bowls. Third world hunger. Rural and urban poverty. Food insecurity. Inequitable and unjust distribution of food.

What is a follower of Jesus to do? Food policy. Vegetable gardens at the White House. Stewards of the earth. www.freerice.com. Good Apple Project. Fair trade coffee and tea. Recycling. Heifer Project. Thanksgiving baskets. Wayside Soup Kitchen.

Blessed are those who hunger (Jesus told us), for they shall be satisfied – but only when we – Christ’s disciples and living in abundance – look into the faces of those who live in scarcity and see the eyes of Jesus staring back. “When did we feed you, Lord? When did we offer you drink? Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these…”

REFLECTION ON FREEDOM FROM FEAR
“The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the world.”

A world free of fear is a world at peace. Is that what Jesus had in mind when he reminded us that the peacemakers would be the ones whom God blesses? Did his own experience of living under Roman oppression lead him to conclude that military might does not make right and will not bring a lasting peace? Was his ministry of turning the other cheek, sharing what he had, loving his neighbor meant to show us another way, God’s way, that begins, well, let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me…
“Fear not….for one day they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.”

Sermon - July 5, 2009

“REFLECTIONS ON THE FOUR FREEDOMS”

By Rev. Nancy Foran Galatians 5:1-2, 4-6

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Galatians 5:1-2, 4-6