"Becoming American" | Pentecost 2a | June 14th, 2020 | The Rev. Dr. Luk De Volder

Good morning. It is so good to connect today. I am glad to pray together with you today. Because connecting with God’s grace in us is such an urgent consolation. By now your American soul must feel exhausted. First we were hit by a storm of political turmoil. Then came Covid-19. And now the evil of supremacy came down on the necks of an already oppressed and beaten population. So yes, we all need to pray for the soul force, as Martin Luther King called for. Allow yourself to be strengthened by the comforting presence of Christ in your heart. God is not leaving you alone. 

Tomorrow I will become an American Citizen, right at a time that American citizenship is not exactly in vogue. And yet, while the country is shaking at its foundations, providence brought me here. Right in these turbulent times I will take the oath of allegiance: 

I hereby declare, on oath, that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; so help me God. 

Certainly, we all are asking ourselves: where is this going, what has America become? Many people have expressed their readiness to leave the country. The hurt is too shameful. The loss in international power too much of disillusion. And the supremacy virus seems too complex to dismantle, let alone find quick solutions. With another Police shooting and killing of a black man in Atlanta, yesterday, it is a time to bolt. 

Well, I for one have decide: I stay. More: tomorrow I have the honor to become an American citizen. And I am very grateful to become American. I right away experience this as a chance for me to exercise citizenship and to “bear true faith”.  Here, “to bear” means “to give testimony” as one does in church. Now let me be a man of the church and let this be exactly the time for citizenship to rise up. Because this is not a time to run. This is a time of opportunity to live our citizenship, as a way reach out, to uphold the constitution not just for myself, but also for others. Because when the rights of my fellow citizen are being violated, the value of rights of all of us diminish. This is a time to join my African American sister and brother and say: I am joining your pain, helping you rise, join you in breaking the yoke on your neck.  

Through tunnel visions of partisanship and lobby groups, the crucial value of what it means to be citizen is endangered more than we realize. It is time to remember that first and foremost we are Americans together. When the well-being of the country is at stake and the social contract needs renewal, when fellow citizens are being oppressed, we have to rise against the dangerous forces and undermining ideas, not only foreign, but also domestic. We need to be ready to rise with the strength that Martin Luther King called “soul force”, the strength to rise, not with arms or with fists, but with the non-violent power of our souls.  Add to this that I am becoming American as a devout Christian and follower of my Lord Jesus Christ, and now I am all on fire. 

In the Gospel today, Jesus is calling for soul force, calling us to proclaim the Good News. As Bob Dylan commented, at the release of his new album, Rough and Rowdy Ways, when asked about the influence of Gospel music: “Gospel albums were overlooked because gospel is the music of “good news” and “good news in today’s world is like a fugitive, treated like a hoodlum and put on the run. Castigated. All we see is good-for-nothing news.” Dylan said. Clearly, good news and black lives are in the same boat.

With today’s Gospel, then, I feel even more compelled to stay here and to go out  and shout: This is a time for gospel! Let’s end this good-for-nothing news. Let’s end the persecution of humanity in our country, end the oppression of our fellow humans.  Let that Good News be heard. We are no longer running. We are staying with the hurt. As the Lord is charging his disciples, we too are called to go out, lift our sorry derrieres, and to seek the hurt and the oppression, and the discrimination, and to join the pain. Because that is what our human dignity is calling for. That is the economy of Good News. 

Of course, I realize, I am preaching to the choir. But we often wonder: what can I do? How can I be a Christian? And here we are at this rare moment of opportunity. We literally have the daily chance to lift black lives. Lift Black Lives. Maybe that should be a slogan for White Affinity groups.  

This is not to say that all African American are oppressed nor that all white people are oppressors. What we all need is to be liberated from this sin of supremacy. It hurts us all. And before we ask how, we should stand up and say, yes I join. We can join Black Lives Matter, we can join Undoing Racism Kyle Pedersen has been promoting, we can join St.Luke’s as we will do this Friday to celebrate Juneteenth. We can do this, side by side, citizen to citizen, Christian going to any need. Reimagining America. 

In conclusion: let’s exercise today’s Gospel for one second so that we can strengthen our citizenship. Christ calls us, by name, to join his team. We are a citizen of heaven. Each of us count. Each of us contributes. Each of us is heard, seen, valued. And whatever comes our way, there is nothing that is stronger than this covenant of being in the safe haven of the Lord. We are safe, we are in our soul force. Whether we are disabled or poor or forgotten, gifted, well off or famous, all are empowered in Christ. No one is alone. No one overlooked. And so we live our power that no one can take away our growing dignity.  

Today is flag day, as it turns out. June 14 1777, commemorating the day Congress adopted the flag of the United States. So let us stand under the same undivided star-spangled banner showing our common identity, ideals and dreams. Let us renew our oath of allegiance. And as I am ready to become an American because there is so much work to do in Christ name, let us together be inspired by the Good News to renew the power or American citizenship.