This being Independence Day weekend, you might enjoy hearing some of Benjamin Franklin’s quotes. Finish the quote if you know it.
Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
A penny saved is a penny earned.
Fish and visitors smell in three days.
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain and most fools do.
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
There never was a good war nor a bad peace.
This Independence Day we celebrate the 241st anniversary from our Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776. In this declaration, the immortal words were first penned: “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.”
From this beginning, our foundation as a people under God was understood. Creation didn’t just happen; creation had a Creator. Humanity was created as the pinnacle of this creation, and as such has certain unalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Read the founding fathers.
George Washington said, “While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.”
John Adams warned, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.”
James Madison admonished, “A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest while we are building ideal monuments of Renown and Bliss here we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.”
Lest we idealize too much that period of our history, we must never forget that many Americans were not being declared free by the Declaration of Independence. In fact, a third of the signers of the declaration were themselves slave owners. The irony wasn’t lost on them, for some of the slave owners provided for freeing their slaves upon their deaths. And some of the signers were avid abolitionists.
Likewise, some of those things that women take for granted today were not envisioned by the signers of the declaration. Women’s suffrage would not be granted until the 20th century, and women would not be a part of the workforce generally speaking until the Second World War.
Given these glaring exceptions, American society was still far more cohesive than it is today. The problems we face could not have been imagined in the 18th century. While slavery is now illegal, there are now more slaves worldwide than there ever have been, including 14,500 to 17,500 new slaves each year in these United States. Human trafficking is a tremendous problem. Divorce is rampant, tearing apart more than half of the marriages in our country. Drug abuse has plagued us for decades. The list of woes goes on.
My point is that in the 65 years I have spent on this earth, it seems to me that society in the United States is unraveling, disintegrating. It’s not just about individuals who are affected by one or more of the various problems facing us. It’s more about the whole fabric of society becoming progressively weakened.
Thomas Lickona, in a book he wrote over 25 years ago entitled Educating for Character, states that “there is today a widespread, deeply unsettling sense that children are changing—in ways that tell us much about ourselves as a society.” He gives a few very troubling examples that are inappropriate to speak of in the pulpit, but he talks about a school official in the 1980s who said that he used to bring up the Golden Rule when he talked to students about a discipline problem. He finally decided to drop the reference when students started to respond with blank stares.” He stated that educators are speaking of the ethical illiteracy they see among young people.
Lickona said that values education is the hottest topic in education today. While he was writing 25 years ago, I can’t imagine that the problem is any less than it was at that time. He said that “some groups, on both the political right and left, are deeply suspicious about any kind of values teaching in the schools. But beneath the battles is a steadily growing conviction: schools cannot be ethical bystanders at a time when our society is in deep moral trouble. Rather, schools must do what they can to contribute to the character of the young and the moral health of the nation.”
This cultural unraveling of which I’m speaking has been attacking three areas of our common life that in the past have been foundational to the building of character in our country: home, school, and Church. The stability of intact families has been greatly disrupted for decades because of the destruction of marriages. Schools gave up educating for values decades ago because there wasn’t agreement on what values to teach. And church participation and attendance have declined greatly at the same time.
When things are disintegrating around you, how do you respond? The only way we can help to change society is by making our part, by the grace of God, as strong as it can be, realizing that we make mistakes along the way, too. Make your marriages and families as strong as they can be. Do what you can to encourage the teaching of values in your schools. Be faithful in supporting the Church, by your presence, your prayers, and your gifts of time, talent, and treasure. Remember that the Church is called to be a light to the nations, the leaven in society, the salt of the earth. We certainly won’t do it perfectly, but if we allow God to work in us, we will be what he calls us to be.
As Benjamin Franklin said, “work as if you were to live 100 years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.”
Sermon preached by The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
4th Sunday after Pentecost
2 July 2017