Me? Serve God and/or Country?

My fellow citizens of the USA, have you voted selflessly? Will you even vote?  Have you influenced the world around you for its good… or for your own?

156 years ago, appalled by slavery, Harriet Beecher Stowe, took one of the few options open to 19th century women who wanted to affect public opinion. She wrote.

"The martyr, when faced even by a death of bodily anguish and horror, finds in the very terror of his doom a strong stimulant and tonic. There is a vivid excitement, a thrill and fervor, which may carry through any crisis of suffering that is the birth-hour of eternal glory and rest. But to live, — to wear on, day after day, of mean, bitter, low, harassing servitude, every nerve dampened and depressed, every power of feeling gradually smothered, — this long and wasting heart-martyrdom, this slow, daily bleeding away of the inward life, drop by drop, hour after hour, — this is the true searching test of what there may be in man or woman." From her book, Uncle Tom's Cabin

Today she is remembered as a pioneer abolitionist, speaking for the voiceless, fighting against slavery--the institution that insists human beings are property. Having fought the good fight, Harriet left this world at the ripe age of 85 years young.

It is unknown how old St. Steven the Martyr was when he was stoned to death, around 34 AD, in Jerusalem. But like Harriet, we know much about Stephen by his words. "Brothers and Father's hear me…" He started there, with respectful kindness. Dragging him into court they did not deserve his pearls of wisdom. He recalled for them Father Abraham, who childless thought being a father to be impossible, much less the father to a nation as innumerable as the stars. He recalled for them how the youngest brother Joseph was betrayed by the elder brothers, but in the end Joseph rescued not just his betraying brothers, but all of Egypt. Stephen testified in public what good God has done for them, and what evil they have done: the Gospel on the right-hand, the Law on the left-hand. He lead them all the way upwards, to see God in history, through history, towards Jesus Christ, the appointed one who came down from heaven, and dwelt in the flesh.

He went on. Solomon built a house for God. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the  prophet says, as Stephen witnessed, in his last words. God isn't limited by the penned rules of walls and establishments. God isn't limited by the flesh. He takes the flesh, makes a good use of that which He created and called good. So the Lord desires that the flesh along with the Spirit are called good.

Yet, we rarely deserve what we are called. "An ungrateful Christian nation"? I hope I'll never be like some preachers, who use the pulpit for politics. The pulpit is about eternal life that has already begun… here the Lord speaks to you about the Right-hand reign of God that God has raised up for us a mighty savior.

We Lutherans have learned from childhood to distinguish properly between the spiritual and the secular realms, between Law and Gospel, between the "two kingdoms," as we Lutherans call the two realities constituting every Christian's paradoxical existence -- kingdoms in which every Christian holds dual citizenship.

There is the "right-hand" kingdom that will ultimately be glorified in the kingdom of God. It is infinite, and the church is part of this realm. Here God has revealed himself in Christ. Here Christ rules by grace. Here all are equals, all forgiven sinners, all members of Christ's body. And then there is the temporal "left-hand kingdom," where God conducts a strange mummery and never reveals himself. Luther said, "Through good and bad princes God governs the terrestrial world." In a democracy, these "princes" include all of us, the voters. We make mistakes, of course, but God will ultimately correct those. This is the realm of the law and of practical reason, both under sin, yet gifts from God to operate in this world." Borrowed from Netto

In this left-hand reign, the love of Christ moved Harriet's heart to plead to America in a novel, a huge, enthralling narrative that claimed the heart, soul, and politics of pre-Civil War Americans. It made the political issues of the 1850s regarding slavery tangible to millions, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North. It angered and embittered the South. The impact is summed up in a  commonly quoted statement apocryphally attributed to Abraham Lincoln. When he met Harriet, he said, "So you're the little woman that started this great war!"

Well, she wrote her novel not to start a war, but as a response… to the fugitive slave law of 1850. Tired of the Northerners ignoring the 1793 federal law written to return run-away slaves, Pro-slavery lobbied and won, passing this 1850 federal act stating that a runaway slave who fled to your back door, even here in Wisconsin, must be returned to his "owner:" it's now written to be enforced.

Officers were given a bonus. If anyone did not arrest an  alleged runaway slave, you get a $1000 fine. (That's a lot of money now, especially back then!) If provided food or shelter, add 6 months of imprisonment. All a pro-slavery "owner" had to do was say you were their stuff… even if you weren't. No citizen could ignore this problem. It was brought to your door step.

It arrived on Harriet's door step, since she lived in a pro- slavery state. So like anyone with reason would, she did what she could. In a time when many whites claimed slavery had "good effects" on blacks, Uncle Tom's Cabin paints pictures of three plantations, each worse than the other, where even the best plantation leaves a slave at the mercy of fate or debt. Drawing from her personal experience, (the antislavery movement and the underground railroad,) Harriet gave us unashamed propaganda, which was overtly moralistic, an attempt to make whites - North and South - see slaves as mothers, fathers, and people with (Christian) souls. This dangerous new information was not welcomed in the South.

If you were doing something that you didn't want to change, would you want to listen to new information that may make you stop? Despite money, your business, your heritage, tradition, the way things go around here, if what you think and do are wrong, no legal lobbying can make it good. You can call it good. You can ratify legalities over and over again.

But the conscience testifies to what is good and right. The conscience will not tell you anything about salvation… but plain reason tells us that calling another person, with a unique set of DNA or a different culture than yours …to call another your property to take advantage of is evil. God's Word and the ancient world tells us of a slavery where a slave is not taken advantage of, but in exchange for service, is protected and cared for. Especially in recent centuries, and even today, we live the way we want to at the loss of another. If you don't care much about voting, consider how it feels to be as treated less than human. Like poor Stephen, considered trash, because he spoke to them truth, Law and Gospel, how we in the flesh loved Him not, but God in flesh died for us.

Are you going to be a martyr for the faith? I hope so. But Vicar, isn't that horrible to ask for death? Yes, in a way. [Baptism fount] But see, I hope you've died once, so you won't have to die again. Yes, death is an enemy to be destroyed. "But fear not." "Let not your hearts be troubled." Death can not be considered more powerful than God's promise. Wrestle with these truths. Don't ignore the difficulty of such paradoxes, that while there is a heaven beyond, God saw it good to be in the flesh.

You probably already know that what the world calls a martyr is not what Christianity calls a martyr. Nowadays calling someone a martyr means someone who dies, even foolishly, not unlike a victim. But Stephen is called a martyr, for the Greek root-word Martur, which means witness. He did not withhold, but he gave a witness to the Truth, Law and Gospel: Christ, who died & rose: that we may fear nothing, not men nor laws. He witnessed in word and deed. Like Harriet did, when those who could not defend themselves were treated as just another property to be managed, she let her words act.

I hope this year of voting, or any year of choices, you chose not to run away from the responsibility of taking care of neighbor, but instead, protect life. If necessary, make the harder choice, that others are more important than you, because ultimately God is more powerful than all un-courtly proceedings.

Christianity is not about running away to heaven. It's about coming down from heaven to earth. Die of yourself, so that in Christ you may see all those around you, and how they need your blessings and comfort that you eat here today. You eat today, because you are alive in Christ. You are alive in Christ, because you have been born from the death you died once, buried in Holy Water. May that water where you rose from remind you of the new life you now have, and the life of others you do protect. Amen.

[Blessing] May the peace of God that SHINES despite the darkness give you peace in all places, in all times, now and forever. Amen.

(Acts 6-8:4
5^th Sunday of Easter)