Sermon: Much Ado About Thank You

In 1559, Elizabeth I of England passed the Act of Uniformity, which obligated that every man go to church once a week or be fined 12 pence, which was at that time a huge amount for a poor person.

She was trying to unify the fledgling Anglican Church as well as her country, which had seen many years of turmoil as the crown had passed from Henry the eighth to Edward the sixth to Mary the first – and therefore from Catholicism to Protestantism to Catholicism and back again.

People had been burned at the stake for dissenting from whatever religion was the official state religion at the time. In fact, Mary the first got herself the nickname Bloody Mary because of the brutal way she put Catholicism back in power, to the tune of 300 dissenters burned at the stake. Religious intolerance can be awful.

A group of separatists who came to be known as the Pilgrims fled first to the Netherlands and then to the new continent of America in order to escape the religious persecution that had become the norm in their home country. After they got there and realized that they didn’t know anything about farming or surviving in the harsh environment of the frontier, they were saved by a Native American by the name of Squanto, who taught them to catch eel and plant corn. When they realized that their deliverance was secured, they had a feast and all the Indians were invited. This feast later became the holiday of Thanksgiving, which we just celebrated together so deliciously. So the legend states, at least.

I’m going to bring in the story of the leper now. This was probably a familiar story to most of you, the Samaritan leper who is the only one of the group healed by Jesus that comes back to thank his healer. The part I’m interested in the most reads: “He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.”

It adds that last part almost as an afterthought. Oh yeah, he was a Samaritan. We almost forgot that not only was he a disgusting, unclean leper, but he was a disgusting unclean Samaritan, the lowest of the low.

The Samaritan ex-leper comes back to tell Jesus thank you. Thank you for saving me, even though I was a leper, even though I am a Samaritan. “Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Jesus says.

In Luke 9:51, a group of Samaritans refused to give food and shelter to Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem and they didn’t want to facilitate a pilgrimage to a city they saw as falsely holy. But Jesus still healed the Samaritan leper, not holding the inhospitality of a few people against the whole group.

The disciples wanted to know why Jesus hadn’t rained fire upon them, like Elijah had done. He rebuked them. Religious persecution wasn’t Jesus’ way. We could all take a lesson from him.

This election cycle, I heard a lot of people say that America is a Christian nation. They would be 78.4% right, according to the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life. But a closer look reveals that even Christianity is divided into so many sects and denominations that one Christian could look at another Christian and be able to say “what in the world are you worshipping over there?”

We saw some of that back in the primaries when the Christian right spoke out against Mitt Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. An article by the Associated Press summed it up this way: “GOP rival Mike Huckabee, a populist Baptist, wondered whether Mormons believe Jesus and the devil were brothers. Romney was asked about polygamy and sacred Mormon undergarments."

In John 8:48, the Jews ask Jesus, “ Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Reading this reminded me of a woman who stood up at a McCain rally and stated that she had heard Obama was a Muslim.

An article in the AFP a week before the election read:

"Not since the election of John Kennedy (a Catholic) in 1960 has the religious faith of a US presidential candidate generated so much distortion as the false claims generated by extremist critics that Senator Barack Obama, the candidate of the Democratic Party, is a stealth Muslim," said a joint petition by some 100 Islamic scholars.

"This is part of an islamo-phobic hate campaign that fuels prejudice against Americans who practice their Islamic faith and Muslims worldwide," the group who called themselves "concerned scholars" stressed. In September, a controversial DVD on Islam was circulated in Florida, adding fuel to the fire of the US election campaign. The video, titled "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" and released more than a year ago by a group called Clarion Fund, showed images of young children reciting appeals for jihad mixed with archival footage of Hitler Youths. Already stigmatized in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, the Muslim community of the United States feels it has been ostracized during the current election campaign.”

Only at the end of the campaign did I see someone in the news media have the sense to ask, “who cares if he’s Muslim?” Should it be such an abhorrent idea that a Muslim might become President someday? Would it be like a Catholic becoming king, or a Samaritan being a savior?

Eventually, Romney delivered a major speech in which he declared that as president he would "serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause," and said calls for him to explain and justify his religious beliefs go against the wishes of the nation's founders.”

A Muslim president would serve in the same way. The good of the country does not rely on the leader’s religion but on his or her capacity to lead in a way that is good for all people. This is why the Founding Fathers wrote the first amendment into the Constitution.

The Thanksgiving holiday, today celebrated with turkey and pie in a ceremony so gluttonous that my stomach hurts just thinking about it, has its roots in gratitude over some eel and corn. But it is also very much a holiday celebrating freedom from religious persecution and conformity. We can believe whatever we hold true in our hearts.

The first amendment of the Constitution states: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This was written into the Constitution to keep America from being like England, from there being an established Church of America with a twelve-cent fine for not attending church once a week. But it also protected the Jewish people, the Muslims, the Hindus, and the atheists, and their right to worship in the way they saw fit. It didn’t establish freedom of Christianity, but freedom to believe the truth you believe.

And so I challenge you this week, as we celebrate the federally-established holiday of Thanksgiving, to be thankful that there is not a federally-established Church of America. Be thankful that you are allowed to be here, in a spiritually hungry, institutionally suspicious worship service.

Be thankful that if you decided, you could change your affiliation, baptize with full immersion, believe in the supremacy of the Pope, chant the Torah, worship in Mecca…

Be thankful for the freedom that your country gives, and remember always that religious freedom is a privilege and a responsibility.

Remember that those who spread fear about the possibility of a Muslim becoming president are undermining the very country they claim to love.

Be thankful.

Amen.

- Amanda Koss, Elder