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In our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures this morning we heard that King David has died, and that his son Solomon has assumed the throne. We then heard that God came to Solomon in a dream and asked Solomon what might be his one desire … his one wish from God. Solomon responded that he wanted “an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil …” God said that because Solomon did not ask for something for himself, God would grant Solomon “a wise and discerning mind,” and, since it was such a selfless request, God would also grant him “riches and honor all [his] life. “
12 Pentecost
August 16, 2015
In the name of the God of all Creation,
The God alive in each of us as God was alive in Jesus,
And the power of God known in the Spirit.
Amen.
August 16, 2015
In the name of the God of all Creation,
The God alive in each of us as God was alive in Jesus,
And the power of God known in the Spirit.
Amen.
In our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures this morning we heard that King David has died, and that his son Solomon has assumed the throne. We then heard that God came to Solomon in a dream and asked Solomon what might be his one desire … his one wish from God. Solomon responded that he wanted “an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil …” God said that because Solomon did not ask for something for himself, God would grant Solomon “a wise and discerning mind,” and, since it was such a selfless request, God would also grant him “riches and honor all [his] life. “
Just two verses after the end of our reading there is the story of Solomon and the two women who both claim to be the mother of a baby. Solomon asked that a sword be brought to him and then says that he is going to cut the child in half and give each woman half of the child. One women protested … “Give the living boy to the other women. Please do not kill him.” The other woman said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours. Kill him.” Solomon, recognizing the loving compassion only the real mother would have, gave the living child to the first woman. This story becomes an icon of the “Wisdom of Solomon.”
If this is all we knew of Solomon we would think he was a wise, discerning, generous and benevolent king … and everyone lived happily ever after. The problem is that this is selective reading. Solomon was also a scheming scoundrel who killed his half-brother Adinojah to claim the throne. What we didn’t hear is that Solomon taxed his subjects to the point of rebellion. We didn’t hear about the slaves who toiled in the king's copper mines and stone yards. Or about the excesses of Solomon's daily menu … a thousand measures of flour and meal, ten oxen, twenty cattle, one hundred sheep, and ample sides of deer, gazelle, roebuck, and fatted fowl … all while his subjects were starving. And we didn’t hear about the forbidden gods … those of idol worship that Solomon honored with dubious and possibly sinister sacrifices at shrines on the outskirts of the city.
Was Solomon wise and understanding? Yes! Was Solomon a scheming scoundrel? Yes! Solomon was both. Yes! This isn’t about either/or … one or the other. It is both/and. One has to know the whole story to know the complexity of Solomon’s nature.
But is this any different than any of us? Don’t we spin our own personal stories by emphasizing the light … the good, and repressing the dark … the bad, in our lives? And isn’t our history … personal history, family history, communal history, national history … told in such a way that it flatters who we are … our families, our community, our nation? Yes, we sometimes reveal dark places in our lives, but almost always there is twist that turns in our favor. For example, just this week Compassion in Action sponsored a talk by Paul Wright. Paul Wright served time in prison for a crime he committed. That is the “dark” side of his story. But he is now an attorney working for prison reform. That is the “light” side of his story. Paul’s story has a “happy” ending. This is as if the “light” has redeemed the “dark.” Many of you know that kind of redemption in your own lives … just ask anyone who is in recovery from an addiction.
In many ways this is all a preface to talk about our own national history, and St. Augustine’s part in it as the Nation’s Oldest City as we commemorate the 450th anniversary of the founding of this community. St. Augustine has the distinction of being the oldest continually occupied European settlement in what is now the United States. And, in just a few weeks, we will be celebrating the 450th anniversary of Pedro Menendez stepping foot on land a mile or so away from here and claiming it for his mother country, Spain. That is the story we tell … and by “we” I mean the benefactors of those explorers and early settlers. But what about the other side of the story? What about those indigenous native people 450 years ago who were standing on the shore watching large ships … vessels the size of which they had never seen before… just off their coastline?
Pedro Menendez, and all the other Spanish explorers, were acting under contract with, and the authority of the Monarchy of Spain. This was a Catholic monarchy … the Church and the State were inexorably intertwined. In the 14th and 15th century the Spanish, and the Catholic Church, were “reconquering” the Iberian Peninsula from the nearly 700 year rule of the Muslims. The Church provided the theological authority for converting, enslaving, or killing these non-Christians. As exploration of the New World began with Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” on a continent unknown to the Europeans … but had been occupied by indigenous native peoples for tens of thousands of years … this mandate to convert, enslave, or kill, justified by the theological authority of the Church, was passed on to the explorers of the New World.
This was all spelled out in several Papal Bulls, or decrees by the Catholic Pope, beginning in 1452 and culminated in the Spanish Requirement of 1513. The Spanish Requirement of 1513 was a declaration by the Spanish monarchy of its divinely ordained right to take possession of the territories of the New World and to subjugate, exploit and, when necessary, to fight the native inhabitants. The Requirement was read in Spanish to Native Americans to inform them of Spain’s rights to conquest. Those who subsequently resisted conquest were considered to harbor evil intentions. The Spaniards thus considered those who resisted as defying God’s plan, and so used Catholic theology to justify their conquest. These Papal Bulls, and the Spanish Requirement of 1513, are collectively called today the Doctrine of Discovery.
The Spanish Requirement of 1513 says in part “But if you do not do this [that is, convert to Catholicism] … we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their highnesses; we shall take you, and your wives, and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can …”
I, for one, did not learn this history in school. I, like many others I grew up with played “Cowboys and Indians” and we all knew who the bad guys were. Sadly, the consequence of the Doctrine of Discovery lives with us today in this country’s governmental policies regarding Native Americans. Much of international law in this area is based upon a United States Supreme Court decision in 1852 that cited the Doctrine of Discovery as the reason that Native Americans could not sell a section of land … the Native Americans did not own it because the land, instead, belonged to the government established by those settling this country.
The United Nations addressed the Doctrine of Discovery in its 2007 Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and called for change in government policies in all countries effected by it. Many faith communities have made statements of “repudiation” of the Doctrine of Discovery including the World Council of Churches, our own Episcopal Church through a resolution at General Convention in 2012, the Friends General Conference (Quakers), the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, and the Unitarians Universalists. A growing number of Catholic groups have petitioned Pope Francis to “revoke” the Papal Bulls of the 15th century. And in a landmark speech on July 16 of this year, during his visit to Bolivia, Pope Francis apologized for the “grave sins” of colonialism against Indigenous Peoples of America. Pope Francis said, “Some may rightly say, ‘When the pope speaks of colonialism, he overlooks certain actions of the church,’ I say this to you with regret: Many grave sins were committed against the Native people of America in the name of God. I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offense of the church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America.”
During St. Augustine’s 450th celebration in early September there will be demonstrations in our city by Native Americans from across the country. One of their stated goals is to replace the Castillo de San Marcos with an indigenous structure. As many of you know, the Castillo was at one time named Fort Marion. Following the so-called “Red River War” in Oklahoma and Texas in 1875, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, and Caddo Indians were brought to Fort Marion … many dying along the way. The military fort commander forced the Indians to assimilate totally into American culture. This is the reason the demonstrators want the Castillo/Fort Marion to be torn down.
The temptation is to dismiss these Native American protestors as unreasonable and unrealistic. However, I believe they deserve our respect, compassion and empathy. They are the descendants of the first inhabitants of this land that we now occupy. They are asking for recognition of the other side of the story. As we commemorate the story of the “conquerors,” I believe it will be worth our while to hear a version of the story told by the “vanquished.”
We cannot undo the past … the historic past of 450 years ago, or our own personal past. And the “grave sins” committed by those citing the authority of religious beliefs is not limited to New World explorers and the indigenous native peoples of the Western Hemisphere. Just look to the Holocaust, or to the genocide in Rwanda and Darfur. We cannot undo the past … we can only redeem it by our actions in the present. The fact is that there are still wars going on around the world justified by religion … in the Mid-East with ISIS, in Africa in the Sudan, and Southeast Asia. There is still prejudice and hatred being expressed for those of different religions right here in our own country. And the consequences of the Doctrine of Discovery are still being felt by Native Americans today through the policies of our own government. We can do something about prejudice and prejudicial policies … just look at this city’s history with Civil Rights. If we could do it then, we can do it now.
When we read the story of Solomon in the Bible it is worth our while to read the whole story, not just the part that tells us how wise and beneficent he was. History is the same … whether it be our own personal history, our family’s history, our community’s history, or our country’s history. If we don’t include the dark parts of the story we will be prone to repeat them … at least perpetuate the consequences of them. We cannot undo what has been done, and I personally don’t believe that tearing down the Castillo will achieve any real healing of the past. However, there is much we can do to redeem the situation beginning with including the history of the indigenous native peoples of America told from the perspective of the Native American … the original inhabitants of this land before the arrival of New World explorers. And we can work for the changes in governmental policies that are a consequence of the Doctrine of Discovery.
I realize this has been a different kind of sermon than I usually preach. But I preach it with the passion that comes from my firm belief that we are all God’s children regardless of the name by which we might know that divine presence. We are all blessed children of God. We are called to treat each other the way each of us would want to be treated.
I don’t want to rewrite history. This isn’t about one story verses another story. This isn’t about either/or. It is about redeeming the past beginning with including both stories in our history.
Amen.
Just two verses after the end of our reading there is the story of Solomon and the two women who both claim to be the mother of a baby. Solomon asked that a sword be brought to him and then says that he is going to cut the child in half and give each woman half of the child. One women protested … “Give the living boy to the other women. Please do not kill him.” The other woman said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours. Kill him.” Solomon, recognizing the loving compassion only the real mother would have, gave the living child to the first woman. This story becomes an icon of the “Wisdom of Solomon.”
If this is all we knew of Solomon we would think he was a wise, discerning, generous and benevolent king … and everyone lived happily ever after. The problem is that this is selective reading. Solomon was also a scheming scoundrel who killed his half-brother Adinojah to claim the throne. What we didn’t hear is that Solomon taxed his subjects to the point of rebellion. We didn’t hear about the slaves who toiled in the king's copper mines and stone yards. Or about the excesses of Solomon's daily menu … a thousand measures of flour and meal, ten oxen, twenty cattle, one hundred sheep, and ample sides of deer, gazelle, roebuck, and fatted fowl … all while his subjects were starving. And we didn’t hear about the forbidden gods … those of idol worship that Solomon honored with dubious and possibly sinister sacrifices at shrines on the outskirts of the city.
Was Solomon wise and understanding? Yes! Was Solomon a scheming scoundrel? Yes! Solomon was both. Yes! This isn’t about either/or … one or the other. It is both/and. One has to know the whole story to know the complexity of Solomon’s nature.
But is this any different than any of us? Don’t we spin our own personal stories by emphasizing the light … the good, and repressing the dark … the bad, in our lives? And isn’t our history … personal history, family history, communal history, national history … told in such a way that it flatters who we are … our families, our community, our nation? Yes, we sometimes reveal dark places in our lives, but almost always there is twist that turns in our favor. For example, just this week Compassion in Action sponsored a talk by Paul Wright. Paul Wright served time in prison for a crime he committed. That is the “dark” side of his story. But he is now an attorney working for prison reform. That is the “light” side of his story. Paul’s story has a “happy” ending. This is as if the “light” has redeemed the “dark.” Many of you know that kind of redemption in your own lives … just ask anyone who is in recovery from an addiction.
In many ways this is all a preface to talk about our own national history, and St. Augustine’s part in it as the Nation’s Oldest City as we commemorate the 450th anniversary of the founding of this community. St. Augustine has the distinction of being the oldest continually occupied European settlement in what is now the United States. And, in just a few weeks, we will be celebrating the 450th anniversary of Pedro Menendez stepping foot on land a mile or so away from here and claiming it for his mother country, Spain. That is the story we tell … and by “we” I mean the benefactors of those explorers and early settlers. But what about the other side of the story? What about those indigenous native people 450 years ago who were standing on the shore watching large ships … vessels the size of which they had never seen before… just off their coastline?
Pedro Menendez, and all the other Spanish explorers, were acting under contract with, and the authority of the Monarchy of Spain. This was a Catholic monarchy … the Church and the State were inexorably intertwined. In the 14th and 15th century the Spanish, and the Catholic Church, were “reconquering” the Iberian Peninsula from the nearly 700 year rule of the Muslims. The Church provided the theological authority for converting, enslaving, or killing these non-Christians. As exploration of the New World began with Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” on a continent unknown to the Europeans … but had been occupied by indigenous native peoples for tens of thousands of years … this mandate to convert, enslave, or kill, justified by the theological authority of the Church, was passed on to the explorers of the New World.
This was all spelled out in several Papal Bulls, or decrees by the Catholic Pope, beginning in 1452 and culminated in the Spanish Requirement of 1513. The Spanish Requirement of 1513 was a declaration by the Spanish monarchy of its divinely ordained right to take possession of the territories of the New World and to subjugate, exploit and, when necessary, to fight the native inhabitants. The Requirement was read in Spanish to Native Americans to inform them of Spain’s rights to conquest. Those who subsequently resisted conquest were considered to harbor evil intentions. The Spaniards thus considered those who resisted as defying God’s plan, and so used Catholic theology to justify their conquest. These Papal Bulls, and the Spanish Requirement of 1513, are collectively called today the Doctrine of Discovery.
The Spanish Requirement of 1513 says in part “But if you do not do this [that is, convert to Catholicism] … we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their highnesses; we shall take you, and your wives, and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can …”
I, for one, did not learn this history in school. I, like many others I grew up with played “Cowboys and Indians” and we all knew who the bad guys were. Sadly, the consequence of the Doctrine of Discovery lives with us today in this country’s governmental policies regarding Native Americans. Much of international law in this area is based upon a United States Supreme Court decision in 1852 that cited the Doctrine of Discovery as the reason that Native Americans could not sell a section of land … the Native Americans did not own it because the land, instead, belonged to the government established by those settling this country.
The United Nations addressed the Doctrine of Discovery in its 2007 Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and called for change in government policies in all countries effected by it. Many faith communities have made statements of “repudiation” of the Doctrine of Discovery including the World Council of Churches, our own Episcopal Church through a resolution at General Convention in 2012, the Friends General Conference (Quakers), the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, and the Unitarians Universalists. A growing number of Catholic groups have petitioned Pope Francis to “revoke” the Papal Bulls of the 15th century. And in a landmark speech on July 16 of this year, during his visit to Bolivia, Pope Francis apologized for the “grave sins” of colonialism against Indigenous Peoples of America. Pope Francis said, “Some may rightly say, ‘When the pope speaks of colonialism, he overlooks certain actions of the church,’ I say this to you with regret: Many grave sins were committed against the Native people of America in the name of God. I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offense of the church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America.”
During St. Augustine’s 450th celebration in early September there will be demonstrations in our city by Native Americans from across the country. One of their stated goals is to replace the Castillo de San Marcos with an indigenous structure. As many of you know, the Castillo was at one time named Fort Marion. Following the so-called “Red River War” in Oklahoma and Texas in 1875, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, and Caddo Indians were brought to Fort Marion … many dying along the way. The military fort commander forced the Indians to assimilate totally into American culture. This is the reason the demonstrators want the Castillo/Fort Marion to be torn down.
The temptation is to dismiss these Native American protestors as unreasonable and unrealistic. However, I believe they deserve our respect, compassion and empathy. They are the descendants of the first inhabitants of this land that we now occupy. They are asking for recognition of the other side of the story. As we commemorate the story of the “conquerors,” I believe it will be worth our while to hear a version of the story told by the “vanquished.”
We cannot undo the past … the historic past of 450 years ago, or our own personal past. And the “grave sins” committed by those citing the authority of religious beliefs is not limited to New World explorers and the indigenous native peoples of the Western Hemisphere. Just look to the Holocaust, or to the genocide in Rwanda and Darfur. We cannot undo the past … we can only redeem it by our actions in the present. The fact is that there are still wars going on around the world justified by religion … in the Mid-East with ISIS, in Africa in the Sudan, and Southeast Asia. There is still prejudice and hatred being expressed for those of different religions right here in our own country. And the consequences of the Doctrine of Discovery are still being felt by Native Americans today through the policies of our own government. We can do something about prejudice and prejudicial policies … just look at this city’s history with Civil Rights. If we could do it then, we can do it now.
When we read the story of Solomon in the Bible it is worth our while to read the whole story, not just the part that tells us how wise and beneficent he was. History is the same … whether it be our own personal history, our family’s history, our community’s history, or our country’s history. If we don’t include the dark parts of the story we will be prone to repeat them … at least perpetuate the consequences of them. We cannot undo what has been done, and I personally don’t believe that tearing down the Castillo will achieve any real healing of the past. However, there is much we can do to redeem the situation beginning with including the history of the indigenous native peoples of America told from the perspective of the Native American … the original inhabitants of this land before the arrival of New World explorers. And we can work for the changes in governmental policies that are a consequence of the Doctrine of Discovery.
I realize this has been a different kind of sermon than I usually preach. But I preach it with the passion that comes from my firm belief that we are all God’s children regardless of the name by which we might know that divine presence. We are all blessed children of God. We are called to treat each other the way each of us would want to be treated.
I don’t want to rewrite history. This isn’t about one story verses another story. This isn’t about either/or. It is about redeeming the past beginning with including both stories in our history.
Amen.
