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Worship
Yes, we’re still in the liturgical season of Pentecost and the liturgical color is green. But, right now, as I write this on the eve of our country’s 250 th birthday, the colors I’m thinking about are red, white and blue. Isn’t it sad that even those colors divide us right now. (I’m writing these thoughts knowing that before anyone sees the newsletter it will be well past July 4, but hopefully they will still be relevant.) I’m thinking back to the Bicentennial (USA’s 200 the birthday waaay back in 1976). I was with the Choir of Joy, the touring group of high school kids that Katie Luhring and I took to Europe every other year in the 1970’s. On July 4, 1976 we were singing at the American Embassy in Prague, (then) Czechoslovakia. 1976 was deep in the Cold War times, only 8 years after Russian tanks arrived in Prague to squelch the Prague Spring, a time when Czechoslovakia’s leadership was gently dipping their toes into a slightly more open way of governing. The tanks rolled into Prague in the middle of the night
(many ingenious locals, with only a few hours of warning, managed to change many of the street signs to “Dubchek” (the name of the president of Czechoslovakia), creating quite a scene of confusion when the tanks rolled in and all the streets had the same name. Alas it only bought the Czechs a little time. On our trips, we always included stops in Prague and
Berlin so our students as well as the adult chaperones could have a first hand experience of what the lack of freedom looked like (and felt like). It truly was something you could see and feel. Going from a vibrant, lively West Berlin to a gray, drab East Berlin was an immediate shock with the differences hard to miss. Freedom was, indeed, something to be grateful for. And the alternative, that was readily apparent in our experiences behind the “Iron Curtain” seemed stifling and bereft of vitality, evident both in the streets and thru conversations with friends that we made. Our kids would spontaneously burst into a heartfelt rendition of “The Spar-Spangled Banner” as our bus would leave East Germany, expressing their newly bolstered appreciation for freedom. These experiences expanded our appreciation of freedom and were indeed life-changing, though we probably didn’t consider enough who in our own country was having difficulty experiencing real freedom.
Even though the US had lived thru three assassinations, actually four, and were just coming out of the Vietnam war, those of us living in the 1970’s tended to take our freedoms for granted, grateful to live in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” . But today, looking back at those times, I realize how black and white things seemed (wow! As I reread this sentence, I realize even this phrase has non-intended racial overtones). Since then, we’ve learned (or been reminded again and again) that things are not that simple. In Animal Farm, George Orwell’s brilliant allegory, the pigs lead all the animals on a farm to rebel against the farm owners, demanding freedom for all. They posted a list of their freedoms on the side of the barn with the first one being “All animals are created equal.” But soon, as the pigs began to enjoy their power, one morning the pigs woke up to discover that the list had a slight (but important) change. Now it read: “all animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.” Despite the lofty statement in our Declaration of Independence, freedom hasn’t always been available for everyone in our country, at least in equal portions. The struggles to make freedom be for all has come on the backs of abolitionists, civil rights activists, suffragists, union organizers, and activists for LGBTQ+ rights, sexual equality, indigenous and immigrant rights. Many of our churches have been at the forefront of these struggles, but sadly some have remained silent and even worse, some churches have been actively working to suppress freedoms for some of our citizens and residents. In these current times, we are watching freedoms in this country being eroded at an alarming pace.
In Animal Farm, the pigs move farther and farther from the original vision. They start wearing human clothes, living in the farmer’s house and even drinking his alcohol (all things that were taboo after their rebellion. In these times we are also watching corruption swell to unimaginable and utterly blatant proportions. Our UCC Southern CA Nevada Conference minister,
Rev. Rachel Pryor, challenges us to not remain silent when facing the erosion of freedom, the inhumanity and the corruption we are seeing. We must find ways to make our voices heard and be a beacon of light in a very troubling time. Seeing freedom thru technicolor lens is certainly more complicated and challenging but that’s what being beloved community is asking us to do.
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