July 4, 2010

OUT OF NOTHING

Scripture – I Corinthians 1:20-31

There were 700 of them marching to Concord, Massachusetts – confident, experienced, tough, disciplined. They were British soldiers and they belonged to an army which was considered virtually invincible in that day and age. It was early dawn on April 19 in 1775, and these men were under secret orders from the crown to find and destroy a cache of weapons which were believed to be hidden somewhere in or around the town to which they were heading.

The colonies were in turmoil…and the most virulent and antagonistic troublemakers (certainly from a British perspective) lived in Massachusetts. The leaders there, particularly in Boston, made no bones about the fact that they were fed up with the arrogance of a country and a king which treated them, at best, like second class citizens, and, at worst, like servants or slaves. The colonists paid taxes, but had little or no say in the amount or the usage of those taxes. The colonists were skilled craftsmen, but were primarily allowed to only supply raw materials to the merchants and artisans in Britain and then forced to buy, from them, the finished products. The colonists wanted to increase their prosperity through trade, but were required to trade almost exclusively with the “mother country”. The colonists were English, but certainly did not enjoy all the powers and privileges of their fellow countrymen “back home”. To say that they were angry and agitated would be an understatement…and some of them were beginning to advocate violence as a solution to their problems.

So, to prevent that from happening, the British soldiers were on their way to nip any thoughts of revolution in the bud by making sure the colonists had nothing to fight with. But patriot intelligence had uncovered the English intent…so they moved all their supplies and arms to new storage, and many positioned themselves for a standoff with the unwelcome “Red Coats”. This was the colonists’ way of saying no more to the high-handed and strong-arm tactics of England. They felt the British government had gone too far too often, and it was time to fight back. In a very real sense, this America was the original “mouse that roared”!

This episode on the road from Lexington to Concord became known as: The shot heard ‘round the world. However, no one has the faintest idea who (or even which side) first pulled the trigger. Either way…the whole thing only lasted a few minutes and we got clobbered. This skirmish, which featured a noisy exchange of verbal threats and a noisier exchange of musket fire, ended when the British troops charged, killing or wounding a quarter of the American militiamen and thereby routing the rest, who broke and ran. It should be noted that the British suffered only one minor injury…and any impartial (or even partial) assessment of the event would indicate that on that day, victory was dressed in red. By the English, the battle was considered little more than a quick and painless drill. But for the colonists, the Revolutionary War had begun!

Never did a people face longer odds. Britain was the strongest economic power on the planet, and possessed the most formidable navy and most powerful army. Going up against that was a rag-tag would-be nation without (at the beginning) army or navy or organized defense. Also missing was historical precedent – no colony had ever, up to that time, successfully broken away from a mother country to produce an independent nation. It would have been a bit like Montana declaring its independence from the United States and then militarily waging and winning a war. Impossible – right? But that’s exactly what happened.

We can only ask…how? Perhaps we could reverse an old saying to produce the concept of “right makes might” – that would certainly be the way the situation was viewed by the Americans doing the revolting. And there was an eclectic band of makeshift leaders on the colonial side which had a hand in the ultimate American success. Certainly some of the soon-to-be historical icons entered the war with reputations, although those reputations might have had nothing to do with “nation building”…but most did not have even that – they were simply “average Joes” from next door. Samuel Adams, the Boston firebrand and rabble-rouser, was a tax collector…and a fairly slovenly and undisciplined figure who would not have engendered a whole lot of confidence in most situations. Patrick Henry was a bartender who, for all we know, might have been under the influence of one of his own libations when he declared: Give me liberty, or give me death. George Washington was a planter and surveyor whose most successful “business” move was marrying a rich widow and whose military “claim to fame” was having served with General Braddock when he was ambushed and killed during the French and Indian Wars. Nathan Hale, who did, indeed, give his one and only life for his country, was a poet and teacher. Thomas Paine, whose writings so inflamed and inspired the revolutionary cause, offered a resume which included pastoring a Methodist church, teaching school, and corset making…none of which he was very good at. All these men were pretty nondescript…especially when compared to what they eventually did and became.

One who would have certainly fit that description was Paul Revere – the local coroner and silversmith. Talk about “reaching the heights” when necessary. He made his famous midnight ride while unarmed and by breaking through numerous roadblocks. Once captured, the British beat him, stole his exhausted horse, and interrogated him on the whereabouts of Samuel Adams and John Hancock. They finally released him because, they reasoned, since he was dressed as a gentleman he probably did not pose a serious threat or apparent danger. As soon as he was freed, Revere ran through the woods to warn Hancock and Adams…and led them to safety.

Most of the Sons of Liberty were apparently unremarkable people who accomplished extraordinary things, often by doing ordinary things. They waved bright lanterns while riding from place to place on horseback; they beat drums on their farms or ran through towns blowing horns; they set signal fires and fired shots…all to warn others when and if the enemy was advancing. And most of those who rose to the top in terms of leadership, were not trained in the arts of war or governance and came from the unexpected. It has been observed that sunken treasures, once completely out of sight and stuck to the bottom, bob to the top in stormy weather. That’s what happened here. Those who led the revolutionary forces discovered strengths and talents within themselves which most never imagined they possessed. They had no credentials but they did the job. How? Why? Partly because they believed their cause was just and they were willing to risk all they were and had to attain their goal – in this case, freedom.

Seemingly ordinary people doing sometimes ordinary and sometimes extraordinary things leading to rather incredible results. The Bible is full of stories of such individuals. Joshua was just another member of a group of Israelites who wandered from Egypt to Canaan in search of freedom and identity after escaping from centuries of the oppression of slavery, but he inherited the leadership role from Moses and managed to take his people to a place where they could establish a homeland. Gideon was the son of a farmer and vintner, self-described as being the least member of a family which was part of the smallest clan in Manasseh, who was commissioned to lead the Hebrews in battle against their Midianite enemies…and succeeded with only three hundred men. Amos was a shepherd in the “boonies” of Tekoa who, believing he was called to prophecy in the name of Yahweh, cried out against the injustices he found in his world by attacking the perpetrators of those injustices – the rich and powerful who cared about no one but themselves. Nehemiah, serving as cupbearer to the king of the Persians, got himself appointed as governor of Judea and returned to the homeland of his ancestors to rebuild Jerusalem and restore civil and political order there.

Now, this kind of activity was not restricted to the men of the Bible. Numerous women filled similar roles in accomplishing the remarkable. Deborah was one of the judges of Israel in the days before it acquired nationhood and she led her countrymen to victory over their enemies when such an achievement seemed impossible. Abigail was a farmer’s wife who persuaded David to avoid making the mistake of deservedly killing her husband, an act which would have had serious and negative consequences for him, and later became his queen on his way to assuming the throne of Israel. Esther was a woman with apparently nothing to set her apart besides her beauty, and yet she saved the Hebrews from annihilation through great courage and quick wits.

None of these biblical heroes and heroines, like so many of the leaders of the colonies before and during the Revolutionary War, had credentials to support the roles they were to assume or the goals they were to reach, but what they did have were worthwhile causes to get them started and keep them going. They were pragmatic, they were dedicated, they were fearless, and they discovered within themselves talents and abilities which only came to the fore when they were required. Ron Walters has written that: The size of the cause will always determine the risk…and define the risk taker. So it is that the scriptures, as well as the accounts of the events of the Revolutionary War, are filled with the small who slew giants, the meek who somehow “called down fire from heaven”, the “barren” who produced nations, and the powerless who led. We must never forget that even Jesus, the carpenter, was later symbolized by a lowly lamb, and that his closest associates were fishermen and tax collectors and farmers.

The specialty of the divine has always been, as stated in 1 Corinthians, to use…what is foolish in the world to shame the wise…and…what is weak in the world to shame the strong. Into which of those categories would you place yourself, and do you have any idea what you can accomplish if the cause for which you fight is right?

There are certainly enough causes in our world for which it would be right to fight. And whether we fight for them as Christians or as Americans, they should be the same causes. I am talking about justice. I am talking about freedom. I am talking about compassion. I am talking about equality. I am talking about conservation. I am talking about love. These are qualities espoused by our faith and by our nation, but they are not qualities always demonstrated in either. Despite all the good found in both our religion and our country, we have used our religious beliefs to denigrate others and we have used our national power to control others. Perhaps as we sit here this morning in church, on Independence Day, we can recommit ourselves to the implementation of the principles upon which our faith and our nation are founded. Both, faith and nation, are, and must be, works in progress. Well, who is to see that this work progresses? Who else, at this point, but us?

Both our religion and our country seem, in some ways, to have been born out of nothing. But that is not true. They came about because of the something in the people who got them going and made them what they are. Now the torch has been passed to us. We’ve been chosen to champion the causes which are right and necessary. Are we up to the task? History may or may not record our individual legacies. But what we do and who we are will have an impact nonetheless. Let us not be found wanting!

By: Herb Freitag