“George and John"    Pentecost VIII--Year A--July 6, 2008

The Reverend David R. Williams

 Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace now and forever more. Amen

Jesus is frustrated.  The people of God just do not get it – yet. When Jesus feels challenged, he is at his best with his illustrations. 

“What will I compare this generation?” he says in exasperation.  And then the images of children, dancing, a flutist begin to come forth from his lips.  Then more images emerge-- of a people wailing, mourning, eating, drinking. 

The people of God are not getting onto the dance floor.  We are those people, and we stand on the sideline waiting for… something or someone. We are divided among ourselves. Some of us feel overconfident about the new dance. Some of us jus feel confused. 

“You do not get it,” Jesus tells us.

George and John did not “get it” at first.  Let me tell you about George and John – before they learned the dance.

They despised each other in the early days.  There was no respect or trust between George and John.  Even though each man spoke the same language and was God-fearing with similar values and strong affections for his respective family, each had little toleration for the other. 

George’s influence is a “history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these states,” John writes of the King of England.  Many others join with the sentiments of John Adams. 

“George has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislatures.” 

“George has imposed taxes on us without our Consent.”

“George has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices.”

In return for the disobedient community of revolutionaries led by people like John Adams, King George is bound and determined to punish the Americans.  King George plans to destroy their trade and bombard their ports, sack and burn towns along the coast and turn loose the Indians to attack civilians in frontier settlements.  “They will beg to return to my authority,” King George says.

George and John are at war with each other. 

Until one day – a few years after the Declaration of Independence has been signed, sealed and delivered with a new treaty in the works with Britain.

John Adams happens to be appointed Ambassador to Great Britain by the fledgling government, the United States of America.   John has not yet met King George.   The day arrives.

In his book John Adams, David McCullough tells this remarkable story.

“Adams is led up a flight of stairs and down a hall to a room crowded with ministers of state, lords, bishops, and courtiers, all eyes on John Adams as he stands waiting outside the King’s bedchamber, which was not where the King slept, but a formal reception room.  When the doors open, John Adams proceeds, as instructed.”  (Now here is when the real dance begins).  McCullough continues, “Adams makes three bows, or ‘reverences,’ one on entering, another halfway, a third before ‘the presence.’

‘The United States of America have appointed me their minister to Your Majesty,’ Adams begins, nearly overcome by emotion.’”

“I felt more than I did or could express,” Adams later wrote.  Before Adams, in the flesh, was the “tyrant” who, in the language of the Declaration of Independence, had plundered American seas and burned American towns. Adams knew that he could be seen by the King as only a despised traitor fit for a hangman’s noose.

“Whether it was in the nature of the interview, or whether it was my visible agitation,” Adams later wrote, “for I felt more than I did or could express, what touched him, I cannot say.  But King George was much affected, and answered me with more tremor than I had spoken with.

“I will be very frank with you,” King George says to John Adams, “I was the last to consent to separation; but the separation having been made, and having become inevitable, I have always said, as I say now, that I would be the first to meet the friendship of the United States as an independent power.”

In tentative reconciliation, the dance of the moment ends. In the royal chambers, a man named George and a man named John risk new moves for the sake of a greater harmony.

This weekend, fireworks burst in the dark skies across this nation. Once more, we remember and celebrate an uneven history of brave ideas and hard-fought freedoms.

As children of God, we know too well the challenges of reconciliation—how perilous it feels to get out on that dance floor, especially when we feel exhausted and still in conflict.

Jesus, aware of dissension and division among the children of God, blurts out his frustration.

“You have the Son of Man offering a celebration and dance requiring nothing but the goodness and grace of God to become participants, and you do not like it.  You have John the Baptist grumpily calling the people of God to repentance, wailing and mourning all the way.  You are not willing to dance to that tune!”

Jesus draws the image of an infant, a newborn open to God’s wisdom and way in the world. Jesus calls all of us whose ears are open to come to Him. 

“No matter how frustrated we might be, no matter how confused, lost, hurt, resentful, lonely--come to me.  Take my yoke.”

Like this clerical stole worn on behalf of all God’s people, “My yoke is offered by God and by Jesus the Christ as a tangible symbol of the goodness and grace of God.  Take this yoke, wear it--learn from me; I am gentle and humble in heart; you will find rest for your souls.”

We all are invited, indeed compelled to the dance floor that spans misunderstanding and distress, reconciling us with our sisters and brothers and with the loving, compassionate Creator whose mercy is perfectly free.

Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace now and forever more.

Amen.