No Partiality

Scripture Lessons: Proverbs 22: 1-2, 8-9, 22-23; and James 2: 1-17 Sermon Title: No Partiality Preached on September 9, 2018 Today is a special day at First Presbyterian Church. If you’re here for the first time, I’m so glad you’re here for this worship service and I hope you’ll come back again next week, but I feel like I have to tell you that it isn’t always like this. It’s always good to be here. Every Sunday it’s good to be here at First Presbyterian Church, but it isn’t always like this. This is a special Sunday because today we celebrate the Scottish roots of the Presbyterian church. These roots take us back to several moments in history. One in particular is August 17, 1560, when John Knox and five of his colleagues presented the first reformed confession of faith written in the English Language to the Parliament of Scotland. This was a pivotal moment, and we’ll use a portion of that very confession as our Affirmation of Faith later in the service. I want to point that out, because today is about more than kilts and bagpipes – it’s also about lessons learned from our ancestors. Today is about the faith passed down to us. But sometimes the faith part gets forgotten. That happens. Last weekend was a celebration of the Jewish roots of Temple Kol Emeth, a Synagogue over in East Cobb, but it wasn’t the lessons passed down or the faith passed down from one generation to the next that got the news coverage in the Marietta Daily Journal, no – it was the bagel eating contest. A man named Brandon “Da Garbage Disposal” Clark, originally from St. Louis, won the bagel eating contest by eating seven bagels in five minutes, which is amazing – but how much more amazing is the heritage and faith inherited by these Jewish people? The legacy passed down from their foremothers and forefathers of perseverance through all kinds of oppression – Nazi and otherwise. That there are more Jewish Nobel prize winners than any other ethnicity. Or consider the Scriptures that the Jewish people compiled that today make up most of the most important book ever written. It’s not that eating 7 bagels in five minutes isn’t impressive. It is – but there ought to be more to a celebration of Jewish heritage than that. And likewise, there’s more to this celebration of the Scottish roots of the Presbyterian Church than kilts. I like kilts, but I’m not even Scottish as far as I know. My family came here to Marietta from Virginia Highlands in 1986, and that’s about all the genealogical work I’ve done. But I’m not here because of genetics – I’m here because of their faith that I’ve inherited. While some can trace their roots to these great families represented by the tartans on display, this worship service today is so truly about what we all can learn from the people who passed down their faith to us. The likes of John Knox. I mentioned him before; he was a major figure in the Presbyterian Church. He was such a force that Mary, Queen of Scotts is often quoted as saying, “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.” In standing on his convictions he and many others were persecuted by both England and France and were sent to labor camps. They were punished for what they believed, but they persevered so that our Presbyterian tradition gained a strong foothold in Scotland, and that Presbyterian faith of John Knox crossed the Atlantic Ocean, so that there were more Presbyterian signers of the Declaration of Independence than any other religious group. By the early 1700’s Presbyterians had started Princeton University, and by the start of the Civil War, they had founded over a fourth of all the colleges in the United States. Skip ahead to World War II, and the most well-known preacher in the country was a Scottish born Presbyterian named Peter Marshall. At that time, he served New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, and was the chaplain to Congress, but before that he was a student at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, and often visited this very church to preach and sing. As Peter Marshall was from Scotland, it was he who brought this tradition of Kirkin’ of the Tartan to America, where the tartans or flags of each family were brought into the church that they might be displayed and blessed by God. That’s where this worship service comes from. Peter Marshall brought it over, but this tradition that we follow in the worship service today first emerged in Scotland in the 18th Century, at a time where the signs of Scottish culture had been outlawed, and Scottish families could only celebrate their culture and identity in secret. Imagine that. To live in a land where you have to hide who you are. This worship service is founded on the Scottish tradition of celebrating their heritage in the presence of God after years of only celebrating in secret. So, here – when all tartans are raised, it’s the sign that all families, all peoples, all tribes or all nations and creeds - all were created by the God who spoke back at the dawn of time and called humanity to existence on the 6th day, then said, “it was very good.” This worship service calls us to remember again that God doesn’t make junk – and all of us stand today and receive our blessing, remembering that doing so is a privilege. That it is a privilege to raise a tartan and be blessed by God without any shame or fear of rejection for who we are and who were created to be. But it is a privilege that we now share. We said before: “we raise the tartans before Almighty God in gratitude for heritage and pray God’s blessing on His servant people in all lands.” That’s a powerful phrase: “God’s servant people in all lands,” but that’s what we said earlier in the service – and so we pray for God’s blessing not just on the MacDonalds, MacFarlane’s, MacGregor, and MacMillan, but also on the Smiths, the Hernandez’s, Abbasi’s and the Sing’s. We pray for God’s blessing on all tribes, remembering the Scotts who once were tempted to be ashamed of who they were created to be. And we Presbyterians, Scottish or not – today we stand together saying, “the Lord shows no partiality!” It’s just as Paul said it in his letter to the Galatians: There is no Jew or Greek, Slave or free, Male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And having believed it ourselves, after having received God’s blessings ourselves after generations of hiding who we are, now we have to put belief into action, for as James knows: “faith without works is dead”. Any Episcopal in here will know the way the Prayer Book echoes the same sentiment: That we show forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but also with our lives! Therefore, as we remember today those oppressed Scottish Presbyterians of long ago –how the English outlawed the bagpipes that they played, the kilts that they wore, and the Gaelic that they spoke, and how in this worship service their native tongue was blessed – we also must ask: who would we be to go out into the world criticizing the accents of our neighbors? You know what it’s like to feel ashamed of your accent? I was once in New York City and I told a guy I’m from Georgia. He said, “I know.” So, James asked all those who would look down a person because of how they appear: do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings, or an English accent, with fine clothes or in a mink coat – with money in his pocket or power at her disposal comes into this Great Hall, and we say: “Sit here in the place of honor,” but then say, “All rednecks and immigrants to the back” have we not become hypocrites? It’s a reminder like that one that our world needs more than kilts or a bagel eating contest, for discrimination touches every ethnicity. Racism has reared its ugly head throughout the ages. Just as they outlawed our bagpipes, they destroyed the drums of African slaves. Just as they forbid our kilts, so they cut the Cherokee’s hair. Just as they pressured the Scotts to Anglicize their language, not so long-ago Texas Governor Miriam Ferguson said: “If English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for Texas school children,” and I don’t have to tell you how misguided such a statement is. But it’s just as misguided to allow such prejudice to continue without calling it wrong, knowing how it hurt our ancestors and defies the teachings of the Gospel. As the Scotts were oppressed, so we must fight racism today. That’s why we can’t sit idly by as children in headscarves are treated like terrorists. We can’t watch without asking questions as children who cross the border are treated as criminals. We can’t just keep quiet while men and women are abused because of who they love. And we can’t blindly dismiss the players and cheerleaders who kneel during the Anthem, even if it makes us mad, without first trying to understand what they’re kneeling for. If we enjoy God’s blessing today, celebrating our heritage in safety and freedom now, we must also work that all should have the privilege of being proud of who they are and where they come from, knowing who created, redeemed, and blesses them. Our God shows no partiality, and neither can we, because all are one in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.