Causes and Choices

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 44:6-8, Psalm 86:11-17; Romans 8:12-25 and Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.

I have been listening to Murderland, a disturbing book by a Pulitzer-prize winning author about the fact that the Pacific Northwest of the US has produced a disproportionate number of serial killers. Contrary to the popular idea that they are criminal masterminds, rarely are these men, who are rapists and necrophiliacs, brilliant. Ted Bundy never finished law school, finding the classes completely incomprehensible. What the author proposes as a key factor in these men's violent behavior is the fact that a great many of them grew up in close proximity to smelting plants. In the process of refining metals, they spew out lead, arsenic, cadmium, and other toxic substances which pollute the air, water and ground. We now know the damage that elevated levels of lead and other heavy metals do to humans. It does not make you a genius.

But obviously there are other factors, like poverty, abuse, neglect and brain injury, that contribute to this problem, or otherwise everyone growing up in those areas would be a serial killer, including the author. Still the crime rate in that area, and in the period when the Baby Boomers were reaching early adulthood, was remarkably high. And the number of serial killers and crime rates in general have dropped since the creation of the EPA, OSHA and the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts. The fact is we don't know exactly why certain people do so much more damage to others than the average person. As far back as human history has been recorded, the question of evil has plagued us.

For monotheists the very existence of evil is a thorny theological problem. If there is only one God, who is all powerful and all good, as it says in our readings from Isaiah and Psalm 86, where does evil come from? I agree with forensic psychologist Dr. Gwen Adshead that evil should not be thought of as a noun so much as an adjective. Evil is not a special thing which exists apart from other things in creation, but a term for describing destructive ways of thinking, speaking and acting. After all, God made everything and pronounced it good. (Genesis 1:31) But the harmful ways we use the good things God made can be described as evil. If I give a child a baseball bat and he uses it as intended—to play baseball, softball or T-ball—that use is good. If the child instead uses it to hit another kid on the head, he has misused my good gift for evil. I think the knowledge of good and evil, which God felt our newborn species was not yet ready for, was the knowledge that we could pervert his good gifts through misusing, abusing or in some cases neglecting them. (Genesis 2:16-17) God's gifts are powerful. We can use that power to do great good or great evil. For example, we can use our muscles to help someone up or knock them down. We can use our intelligence to discover new ways to make things better or to make them worse. We can choose to help others or to harm them. We can also choose to be a bystander while others do evil acts.

Jesus lived in a world that was agricultural rather than industrial. In his profession as tekton, a worker in stone and wood, he probably had clients who contracted with him to build grain storehouses and watchtowers, or repair plows or make yokes for oxen. And so he was familiar with the problems of farmers. Perhaps he knew of a petty feud between two men who had competing farms, where one man surreptitiously sowed weeds in the other man's field. If so, Jesus used that incident to create his parable of the wheat and the weeds to explain why God's world has both good and bad things in it.

Weeds are natural but if you are trying to grow grain for food, you don't want weeds competing for the soil and nutrition. And, yes, the answer is usually to continually weed the field set aside for growing wheat. But in his parables Jesus often includes a plot twist. In this parable the landowner decides not to pull up the weeds because some of the wheat would be uprooted as well. Possibly this is because in the early stages it might be hard to tell the two types of plants apart. When the time comes, both will be harvested and separated. The wheat will be saved in barns while the weeds will be burned.

Why is the landowner so protective of mere plants? Because, as Jesus explains, the plants stand for people. And we do live in a world where some people are doing good and some people are doing evil. And our lives are entwined. Ted Bundy had 4 half-siblings who did not become serial killers. He fathered a child while in prison. They should not be tarred with his crimes. He dated many women who only later learned what a monster he was. Which, by the way, confirms that his murders were deliberate choices. It was not as if he couldn't find women who would have sex with him. It was not as if he could not help but kill the women to whom he was attracted. He was very much a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He knew that what he was doing was evil and must be hidden. He kept that side separate from the good guy image he tried to present to the world.

All analogies, similes and metaphors break down at some point. Unlike weeds, people can change who they are. As we said in last week's sermon, in Ezekiel and Jeremiah God promises to change hearts. (Ezekiel 11:19-20; Jeremiah 31:33-34) Also in Ezekiel God says that those who are wicked are not beyond saving. “But if the wicked person turns from all the sins he has committed and observes all my statutes and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he shall not die.” (Ezekiel 18:21) Jesus said he came to save sinners and the lost. (Matthew 9:13; 18:11) And that's another reason why God doesn't simply strike down sinners. God is being patient and giving everyone the chance to turn from their sins and turn to him. (2 Peter 3:9)

Of course, we cannot do this all by ourselves. It requires God's Holy Spirit, as Paul says in our passage from Romans. We receive the Spirit when we turn to God and are accepted and adopted as his children. Paul says in our passage,“we are children of God and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”

And what is it we are heirs to? His kingdom. As it says in Daniel, “Then the kingdom, authority, and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven will be delivered to the people of the holy ones of the Most High. His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; all authorities will serve him and obey him.” (Daniel 7:27) So God's people will rule under him. And who is this “him”? As it says earlier in the same chapter, “And with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man was approaching. He went up to the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him. To him was given ruling authority, honor and sovereignty. All peoples, nations and language groups were serving him. His authority is eternal and will not pass away.” (Daniel 7:13-14) We will rule under the Son of Man, Jesus' favorite way to refer to himself.

God wants to restore the world to what he intended it to be. He created human beings to rule over the earth. (Genesis 1:26-28) We have instead turned the paradise he gave us into hell on earth. But if we are redeemed by Christ, our former position will be restored.

In Revelation, John tells us of his vision of those who stand firmly for Jesus despite persecution. “Then I saw thrones, and those seated on them were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its brand on their foreheads and hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” (Revelation 20:4) As Paul said, “If we died with him, we will also rule with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him.” (2 Timothy 2:11-12)

These persecutions, up to and including martyrdom, are “the sufferings of the present time” that Paul is talking about, and which he says, “are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” He is speaking about the suffering and trials we endure by following Jesus. Jesus himself said, “If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) There are a lot of Christians who think they can claim the crown, and do it in this life, without taking up the cross. They want to reign in a temporal kingdom now rather than an eternal kingdom after this world is no more. And this world will pass away one day.

But in the meantime we are groaning together with the whole of creation. And the pain we are experiencing is “the pains of labor.” The labor is the birth of the new heavens and the new earth. It is a world in which God will be tangibly present with his people. “He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.” (Revelation 21:3-4) This glorious new creation is what we are groaning and waiting and hoping for.

What do we do in the meantime, besides being patient? We follow Jesus' commandments to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to love our enemies. We are to treat the poor, hungry, sick, imprisoned and resident aliens as we would Jesus. And we are to spread the gospel, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey Jesus' commands. And we must not forget that our acts of love speak louder than our words.

After his first arrest, Ted Bundy got baptized as a Mormon. But that didn't mean he stopped killing. And though he talked with the prison chaplain and with James Dobson while on death row, he never took responsibility for his acts. He blamed his abusive grandfather, alcohol, the media, society, violence on TV, and pornography, all things which others have been exposed to without becoming serial killers. He even blamed his victims for radiating vulnerability. He said, “Their facial expressions say, 'I am afraid of you.' These people invite abuse...By expecting to be hurt, do they subtly encourage it?” No! The problem was not anything outside Bundy but his inner decision to please his own desires even when it meant harming another human being.

David Berkowitz, the infamous Son of Sam killer, became a Christian in prison. He has written a book entitled Son of Hope. He counsels troubled inmates. And he skips his parole hearings. He has written, “In all honesty, I believe that I deserve to be in prison for the rest of my life. I have, with God's help, long ago come to terms with my situation and I have accepted my punishment.” We cannot judge the true spiritual state of others but that sounds like repentance.

We do not know why some people choose to do evil things but we do know that people who have made that choice can subsequently choose to ask God to help them change. Becoming a child of God is, as Paul says, a matter of adoption. You do not have to become or stay a child of the evil one. You can, like the criminal on the cross next to Jesus, choose to acknowledge Jesus as your King and Savior. At that point that man could do nothing to undo the harm he had done. But Jesus saw his repentance and his admission of his crimes and told him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) He's the only person to whom Jesus gave that assurance.

Of course, that doesn't mean you can deliberately hold off repentance till the end of your life as a “get out of jail free” card. God cannot be fooled. He judges us by our hearts. (1 Samuel 16:7) But it does mean that every second of your life is a second chance. We cannot pass final judgment on other people. (Matthew 7:1) That is for Jesus to do on the day of resurrection. (John 5:22) But we can know if we ourselves have put our whole trust in Jesus, given our life over to him and are following him daily. We may stumble but we know that, as it says in 1^st John, “if we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) Which is why, in that same letter, the author says, “I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13) And how can we have that reassurance? Because our salvation doesn't depend upon us. It depends upon the God who is love and who in Christ showed how much he was willing to undergo to save us. We can trust him.

At one point, Ted Bundy called a long-time girlfriend in tears saying there was something wrong with him. But when he visited her hours later, he was smiling. Whatever drove him to do what he did, he made the choice not to get help. And so others died and finally, in the electric chair, he died. Jesus came to save us from our slavery to sin. We can choose to keep doing what leads to death. Or we can choose Jesus and live.

Word and Spirit

The scriptures referred to are Romans 8:1-11 and Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23.

One of the things that makes humans unique is our invention of writing. Other animals communicate with each other by cries, growls, howls, purrs, barks, chirps and other vocalizations. Yet not only can humans use more complex language to communicate exactly what is on our mind, and on topics I'm sure animals never contemplate—does any other animal deliver sermons?—but we figured out that if we use symbols for our words, we can write our down thoughts and they can be read by others, including those who never met or heard us, and even those who weren't born at the time we wrote. The passages we just read from the Old Testament, Psalms, New Testament and Gospels were written thousands of years ago in two different languages by at least 4 different people. Yet here we are discussing them and finding truths and wisdom that apply to our lives today. That is amazing when you think of it.

But, as we touched on in last week's sermon, words don't automatically accomplish what they tell us to do. As Jesus says in the parable of the sower and the seeds, it all depends on who receives the word. In fact some have said that we should call this the parable of the soils because that seems to determine if the word of the kingdom bears fruit. As Jesus says, some people hear the gospel but do not understand it. It immediately fails to take hold. Some people hear God's word and receive it with joy but they are shallow and when adversity strikes, they fall away because the word did not really take root in them. Some people hear the word but worldly concerns and the pursuit of wealth and success choke off their spiritual life. Finally there are those who not only hear the word but understand it. It goes deep, takes root in them and they keep the concerns of this age and the lure of earthly pursuits from choking the life out of it. So they bear fruit. In other words, what is essential is not merely the gospel but also our response to it. The majority of people in this country—62 to 68%—say they are Christians. But are we seeing a bumper crop of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? (Galatians 5:22-23) Why not?

Here's another interesting statistic. 85 to 88% of US households own a Bible. Actually, the average American household has 3 or 4 Bibles. Yet less than a quarter of folks with access to a Bible say they read it daily. And more than half read it very little or not at all. A lot of people seem to think that having a Bible is like having a magical item, which just automatically grants them God's favor. But as Jesus' parable points out, God's word doesn't do you any good unless it gets deep within you. As N.T. Wright says, people want the fruit without the root.

In our readings from Romans over the last few weeks, Paul has also been pointing out that God's law by itself cannot make us good people. In fact, it can be used sinfully. And daily we see people who will pick out quotes, taking them out of context and divorcing them from the main purpose of the Bible, in order to justify evil. As we pointed out recently, slave owners used a version of the Bible from which they had removed 90% of the Old Testament and 50% of the New Testament to keep their slaves from learning how much of the Bible talked about freedom and liberation from slavery.

Today we have so-called Christians who are ignoring the more than 800 verses that spell out our duty to the poor, the sick, the disabled, children without fathers, mothers without husbands, resident aliens, and those in prison. (Leviticus 19:9-18, 33-34; Proverbs 19:17; Isaiah 1:17; Matthew 25:31-46; Luke 4:18-19; James 1:27-2:11, etc) They even condemn empathy as a sin, though Jesus acted out of compassion, which any dictionary will tell you is a synonym for empathy. (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34; Mark 1:41; Luke 7:13) Furthermore, they think that God can't wait to cast sinners into hell although we read, “As I live, says the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but prefer that they turn from their ways and live.” (Ezekiel 33:11; cf. Lamentations 3:31-36; 2 Chronicles 30:9; Jeremiah 3:12; 1 Timothy 1:15) Jesus did not come on a “search and destroy” mission but on a rescue mission. (Matthew 18:11; Mark 2:17; Luke 15:4-6)

For example, I was once in a murder mystery at the Marathon Community Theater where I played the detective. The chief suspect was the governess. Yet somehow at the end of the play we were in love. And neither I nor my leading lady could figure out how that happened. During most of the play it seemed that I was fiercely interrogating her to put her away for murder while she was deflecting my questions. Just a week or so from opening night, I was trying to answer the actress's question: “Do you know why we end up together?” And then it hit me. It made no sense if we fell in love at the end of the play but it totally made sense if we fell in love at the beginning. Once we started rehearsing as if our attraction was immediate, the tone of the play changed. Instead of me trying to get a confession out of her, I was trying to get her to give me evidence to exonerate her because I loved her. Instead of trying to hide her guilt, she was hiding the odd circumstances of the death because she was afraid I wouldn't believe her and reject her. So when we finally confessed our love, it was the natural ending for what was actually a love story. We didn't have to change a word of the play, just the spirit in which we spoke and acted.

In today's reading from Romans, Paul is saying that the law of God will not work on those who do not have the right Spirit: the Spirit of Christ. (Romans 8:9) Otherwise God's law is just a death sentence. But received in the right Spirit, it is life and freedom. (Romans 8:2) This doesn't mean that we can totally disregard God's word. As Paul writes, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3-4)

That might be hard to follow so let me read it to you in the translation by J.B. Phillips: “The Law never succeeded in producing righteousness—the failure was always the weakness of human nature. But God has met this by sending his own Son to live in sinful human nature like ours. And, while Christ was dealing with sin, God condemned that sinful nature. Therefore we are able to meet the Law's requirements, for we are living no longer by the dictates of our sinful nature, but in obedience to the promptings of the Spirit.”

Look at it this way. We all know the rules for having a physically healthy life: Don't smoke. Don't drink alcohol. Eat healthy food and not too much. Exercise. Get a good night's sleep. So why are 93% of US adults metabolically unhealthy? Because, despite knowing how we should live, we don't follow those rules. And if, like my father-in-law, you have a severe heart attack, you cannot save yourself. You need a doctor to save you. My father-in-law had to have a surgeon do a quintuple bypass on him. In other words, 5 coronary arteries were blocked and had to be bypassed. Only after that, and his recovery from the surgery, was he able to do the things required to stay healthy.

God knows that we need a deep internal change in order to be spiritually healthy. In Ezekiel he says, “I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them; I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies and I will give them tender hearts, so that they may follow my statutes and observe my regulations and carry them out. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.” (Ezekiel 11:19-20) And in Jeremiah God says, “'I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people. People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,' says the Lord. 'For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.'” (Jeremiah 31:33b-34)

It's a matter of both heart and spirit. For instance, being diagnosed with congestive heart failure means your heart is slowly losing the ability to do its job. You can't just say, “Doc, I'll take it from here. I'll eat healthy and exercise.” That won't save you. It's too late for that. The only solution today is a heart transplant. Someone has to die and donate their heart. Think of Jesus as our heart donor. He died so that we might live. He gave his life that we might have life—his life, eternal life. Think of God as the surgeon who has to cut us open, remove our old failing heart and put in its place the heart of Jesus.

You know the weird thing about people who receive someone else's heart? Many of them report also receiving some traits of their donor. One woman said she started having dreams of being an 18-year-old, like her donor, and began craving the foods he liked. A dying man who was 47 used to hate classical music. After receiving the heart of a 17-year-old he suddenly loved it. He later found out that his donor was a violinist who loved classical music and who was shot on his way to music class, hugging his violin.

Some researchers think this is cellular memory. They took one slug who had been touched and then shocked and they transferred its RNA from to another slug. And then the second slug reacted negatively to the touch although it had never been shocked. With the transfer of the RNA came the transfer of the first slug's memory of its experience.

When we open ourselves to God's word and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we receive his Holy Spirit. We are also receiving the traits of Jesus. And so the Spirit enables us to do what God's law by itself could not do. The Spirit enables us to live by God's law. And what is the essence of that law? As Jesus said, it is to love God with all we are and all we have, and to love our neighbor as we do ourselves. He said all the other laws in the Bible are based on these two. (Matthew 22:36-40) And he said that no other commandment was greater than loving God and other people. (Mark 12:28-31)

It is hard to love God that fully. And it's hard to love our neighbors as we do ourselves, putting their wellbeing on the same level as ours. We cannot do it naturally because of our fallen human nature. But Jesus, who lived and died as one of us, can. And when we receive his Spirit so can we.

However, getting to the point where we can do it perfectly is neither fast nor easy. After my accident, and my 6 surgeries to put me back together and replace some broken parts with pins and screws and metal, I had to go to a nursing home with a good rehab program to learn to walk again. It took 100 days. For most of that time I couldn't even put weight on my repaired legs. So the physical therapists worked on restoring flexibility and strengthening them. And even when the surgeons cleared me to start weight-bearing, at first I just had to learn to stand for a few minutes. After a week, I took my first steps, with a physical therapist holding me by a gait belt, in case I fell, and another pushing the wheelchair behind me, in case I suddenly had to sit down. I had good days and bad days. I had days I made progress and days I seemed to have hit a plateau. I had days where the pain was so bad I cried. And after they discharged me, I still had to do more therapy to increase what I could do.

The Christian life is like that. The Spirit is like our physical therapist, helping us learn how to walk with God. The Spirit encourages us, comforts us, advocates for us, and intercedes for us. Without the help of the Spirit, we cannot live the Christian life and we cannot produce the fruit of the Spirit. And without the Spirit we cannot properly understand God's word, the gospel, Jesus' good news of salvation for sinners and the lost. It is the Spirit who testifies to Jesus and leads us to the truth. (John 15:26)

Jesus said he would not leave us like orphans but would send his Spirit. (John 14:16-18) Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23) And God does this through his Spirit. God is love (1 John 4:8) and the Spirit pours God's love, the essence and fullness of God, into our hearts. (Romans 5:5)

A lot of people read God's word without understanding that it is a love story. They think God is all about wrath and judgment and can't wait to condemn us. But the Bible says, “The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) Jesus said he did not come to condemn the world but to save it. (John 3:17) God has confessed his love for us from the beginning of our story. He is simply giving us plenty of opportunity to return that love and to do it in the right Spirit.

In the Eyes of God

The scriptures referred to are Romans 6:12-23.

In a tense scene of the movie musical 1776, the representatives from the South will not sign the Declaration of Independence unless the clause denouncing slavery is removed. In the chilling song “Molasses to Rum to Slaves,” Edward Rutledge of South Carolina points out the hypocrisy of the northern states which build and sail the ships that bring slaves from Africa to America. Finally, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration, crosses out the antislavery clause so that the states will be united in separating themselves from Great Britain. Sherman Edwards, the former history teacher turned songwriter who conceived the musical, decided against including a line of dialogue where John Adams tells Benjamin Franklin that if they give in on the issue of slavery, there will be trouble in 100 years. He felt that the audience would think the line was made up. But in fact Adams did write that line in a letter to Franklin. He foresaw the Civil War and was just a few years off in predicting when it would happen.

Their problem was that the Declaration of Independence says that the whole reason for its existence was that, as it says, “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.—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men...” In other words, we are separating from the United Kingdom of Great Britain because we don't believe that certain men are inherently superior to other men and therefore should rule over them without the consent of the people they are governing. So the United States was going to be a democracy. It was a radical idea: to found a nation, not on shared blood or ethnicity or culture like all other countries, but on a principle—rule by the people themselves who have equality before the law with respect to certain basic rights. And these rights were given by God.

But at the time when the founders of our nation wrote this, they really didn't mean that all human beings are created equal. Although those in the North might oppose slavery, that didn't mean they thought blacks were equal to whites. Nor did most of them think women were equal to men. They didn't even think all white men should have the vote, but only white men who owned property or paid taxes. Yet once the idea of equality was established as the basis for our democracy, those restrictions increasingly came into question.

Since the Constitution gave the states the power to set voting requirements, a few states gave free black men the right to vote. In New Jersey unmarried and widowed women who owned property could vote. Georgia removed the requirement that men had to own property. In 1790, a year after the Constitution came into effect, free white men born outside the US but who settled here were allowed to become citizens. In 1791, the new state of Vermont gave the vote to all men regardless of color or whether they owned property or not. The next year Kentucky did the same, though in short order that right was taken away from blacks.

Year by year, we see the restrictions on who could vote removed. In the 1828 presidential election, non-property-owning white men could legally vote in the vast majority of states. And in that same year, Maryland became the last state to drop its religious restrictions and let Jews vote.

There was pushback. In 1807 New Jersey took the right to vote away from free black men and women. In 1837 Pennsylvania took voting rights away from free black men. But in 1848 Mexicans living in US territories were declared citizens.

Things changed after the Civil War, of course. In 1868 all male persons born or naturalized in the US were guaranteed citizenship in the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution. And in the 15^th Amendment in 1870 states were prevented from denying the right to vote on the basis of “race, color or previous condition of servitude.”

For women, getting the right to vote took longer. In 1869, Wyoming gave equal rights to women. In 1883, women in the Washington Territory got the right to vote, only to lose it in 1887, as did women in Utah. It wasn't until 1920 that the 19^th Amendment gave women the right to vote. But not all women. Most black women were effectively blocked from exercising their right until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Native Americans were finally granted citizenship in 1924. In 1943 Chinese immigrants were finally allowed to gain citizenship and the right to vote. In 1952, all Asian Americans were given the vote.

Why did I just throw all these dates at you? To show that just because something is on paper and everyone agrees to it, it doesn't mean it automatically becomes a reality. And to show that ideas can grow. From the beginning there were Americans who took the declaration that “all men are created equal” seriously but not literally. They understood the word “men” to mean human beings in general and not just rich white males. In the same way, when Jesus told the disciples he would make them “fishers of men” he didn't mean that the gospel wasn't meant for women and children as well. (Matthew 4:19) When in the gospel of John we read about Christ that “In him was life, and the life was the light of men,” (John 1:4) or when Jesus said “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to me,” (John 12:32) he was not excluding anyone. On the other hand, if equality was restricted only to white male property-owners, the Declaration should have been specific. I think the drafters of the Declaration didn't word it that way because deep-down they realized that did not sound noble nor was it a good reason to start a new country. Inequality was already the ruling principle everywhere else in the world.

But why am I talking about this in a sermon? Because, while people are debating today whether Christian principles underlie the founding of this country or not, this is one idea that I think did come from the Bible. People may object and say, no, this idea came from the Enlightenment, when people put reason above religion as the basis of all things. Yet it is the Enlightenment that gave us so-called “scientific racism,” the rationalization that the differences in humans made it okay to enslave non-white persons because they were so evidently inferior to whites. Taxonomists, naturalists and philosophers in the 1700s and 1800s treated different human races as if they were different species. The Enlightenment was anything but enlightened when it came to this subject.

However, the Bible starts out by saying that God created human beings, both male and female, in his image. (Genesis 1:27) Inequality is the result of the fall of human beings into sin. (Genesis 3:16-17) But in Christ all things are to be restored. (Acts 3:19-21) Which is why Paul says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female—for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

I cannot think of any other basis you can use to assert that all human beings should be treated as equals. Not only did the Enlightenment thinkers not come to that conclusion, you cannot justify it with science. Lots of non-human species have dominance hierarchies that establish who has priority when it comes to food, mates and resting spots. Chickens have a literal pecking order, as do wolves. In mandrills, there is one single undisputed individual monkey who rules the group as a despot. In elephants and hyenas, females have leadership and dominance. You may remember the chilling episode of the documentary series Meerkat Manor, in which the matriarch, the only one allowed to breed, discovered a daughter of hers had mated with a male from another group and so she killed all the babies, her grandchildren. Our closest biological relatives, the chimpanzees, have a highly-structured dominance hierarchy. So on what scientific basis could you argue that all human beings have a right to be treated as equals?

Ah, you may say, but doesn't the Bible justify slavery? As we saw in last week's sermon, the Bible may acknowledge slavery exists but it does not endorse it. There are a number of verses that do things like tell slaves to take advantage of opportunities to gain their freedom (1 Corinthians 7:21) and that warn masters to treat their slaves fairly because we all have a master in heaven who does not show favoritism. (Ephesians 6:9) Plus there is a whole book in which Paul is trying to get a church leader to free a runaway slave. (Philemon) And you can hardly ignore the central story of the Hebrew Bible, namely, God freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Indeed, so pervasive is the theme of freedom in the Bible that slave-owners would only allow their slaves to hear a specially edited version of it. They removed more than 90% of the Old Testament and more than 50% of the New Testament. That's a strange thing to do if the book were truly pro-slavery, but it makes total sense if you don't want people to think of God as a liberator.

Speaking of special versions of the Bible, one of the reasons for the creation of the King James Bible was to counter the Geneva Bible which had footnotes that often referred to monarchs as tyrants. Ben Franklin was inspired by the frontispiece of the Geneva Bible to create a proposed design for the Great Seal of the United States. His seal said, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”

And when the people of Israel ask Samuel for a king, which was a rejection of God as their king, God permits this but tells Samuel to spell out what giving one human being such power will lead to. (1 Samuel 8:10-18) He says a king will take your best fields and vineyards; he will enrich his friends; he will demand a portion of what you produce. In Deuteronomy, God anticipates Israel having a king and says that the king may not accumulate horses for himself, which represent military power, nor marry many wives, nor accumulate a lot of silver and gold. He must make himself a copy of God's law and read it continuously and obey it. “Then he will not exalt himself above his fellow citizens or turn from the commandments to the right or left...” (Deuteronomy 17:14-20) So even the king is not above the law nor is he superior to his fellow citizens.

I agree with historians that the founders of our nation did not explicitly make this nation Christian. They saw the corruption that happened when the church was an arm of the government and simply blessed whatever those in power did and said. James Madison put the separation of church and state in the very first Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...” In other words, the government is not to force religion on anyone or prevent people from practicing their religions. Freedom of conscience is vital to a democracy.

But I do think the founders just assumed that basic Christian morality would help keep the Constitution operating. As we have seen, a lot of the Constitution is based on certain unenforceable norms being observed. Like the Bible, the Constitution lays out how people should act but it can't make people actually obey it. In our passage from Romans Paul is showing how the mere existence of God's law can't stop sin. “For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” And we see Christians who say they honor the Bible while violating its principles, the way we see Americans who say they honor the Constitution while ignoring what it says.

What did the founders mean when they said all men are created equal? They couldn't have meant we are all equal in our talents and abilities. We aren't. What they meant is that we should all be equal in the eyes of the law, based on certain inherent rights. And they said those rights are given by our Creator. Which assumes that we are all of equal value in God's eyes, despite any differences. However, they didn't follow those “self-evident” truths to their logical conclusion. But subsequent generations did. They expanded on the narrow definition of equality the founding fathers had. They saw that, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The minute someone says, “The rules don't apply to you,” that exception can be used to exclude anyone. And tyrants will always expand that exception.

The truths that our faith is built on are that God created everyone in his image and that Jesus died for everyone, whether they know it or not. So everyone you meet is either a brother or sister in Christ, or a potential brother or sister in Christ. Which is why we are to love everyone, without exception, and to treat everyone fairly. Because as Peter said, God does not show favoritism with people. (Acts 10:34) And neither should we.