Sermon Sunday June 22nd, 2025
Rev. Norman A. Michaud
On Thursday, we celebrated Juneteenth. Juneteenth became a National Holiday on June 17th, 2021. The date celebrates the day when those who remained enslaved in Galveston, Texas, learned that they had been freed two months earlier at the end of our Civil War. Apparently, despite the everyday use of the telegraph since the 1840s, Galveston did not get the message. Enslavers withheld the Emancipation Proclamation from their slaves for two and a half years. Enslavers did not want to free their slaves anymore than we would not want to give up our cars or guns today. In the South, enslavers believed it was their divine right to own people. Apparently, in their practice of Christianity, Southerners did not follow the Gospel or Paul’s Epistles. Churches in the North did. Recall that the Baptist Church split over this issue into two denominations, Southern Baptists and American Baptists, in 1845. Protestants in America reluctantly read and studied Paul. Paul was too Papist for them.
Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians seeks to clarify how Jewish law does not translate into the new Covenant of Love promised by the life and execution of Jesus. Paul’s letter to the Galatian church also shows us that he argued over circumcision with Peter and James. We also know that this letter predates the Roman destruction of The Temple and Jerusalem in 70 CE. Paul’s letter regarding the Galatians and Gentiles predates the coming Diaspora. In Galatians, Paul proclaims that Baptism, not The Law, is the action that signifies Faith in the New Covenant of Christ.
When I entered Confirmation as a teenager, I recall little to no discussion regarding Paul. It seemed that Paul belonged more to Catholicism than Protestantism. It’s possible that I didn’t listen to those lessons; perhaps I skipped that class. I doubt it was the latter; I would not have dared at that time to consider ditching Rev. Dr. Feaster. He would have called my parents, and I would have been in big trouble. I recollect that I knew who Paul was, but I did not read or discuss his letters. His writing seemed less critical than that of contemporary theologians like Tillich, Niebuhr, or Borg. I was more familiar with Emerson and Schweitzer than Paul.
As an adult, some twenty years ago, my Minister, Rev. Shippee, suggested that I read Paul and Reinhold Niebuhr as well as Borg, Crossman, and others. I fell in love with Niebuhr’s writings. If you don’t recall these names, I understand. If you are interested, I will lend you readings from these theologians.
A bit more on Niebuhr. He became ordained to serve the German Reform denomination. He served as a Chaplain in World War One, an experience that formed his writings and actions in the first half of the 20th Century. He was pro-veteran, pro-union, and anti-war. I recall with surprise reading Niebuhr’s memoirs, which confront Henry Ford. Ford believed it was good to chain his assembly line workers to machines. He claimed it was for their safety. The chains would abruptly pull workers’ hands out of the metal presses between the presses’ folding steel. The workers had no breaks; they just managed the pull and push of the metal presses. After listening to Niebuhr, Ford changed his” “Safety method,” and accidents nearly disappeared in his auto plants.
In the run-up to World War II, while teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York, Niebuhr began to write extensively about how the United States must prepare for war against Nazism and Stalin’s interpretations of Communism. He theologically justified the coming conflict as God’s will. We were justified in supporting love and freedom. During this period, Niebuhr became the foremost theological voice representing the United States. He appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, and his thoughts often appeared in the press and politics.
I read Niebuhr before I began reading Paul. It was Niebuhr’s writing that led me to read and become astonished by Paul. In 2007, while serving as a deacon, I read Galatians with fresh eyes and an open heart. I was stunned. The theological justification for the UCC and Methodist denominations to become Open and Affirming churches is grounded in Paul. “Clothed in Christ, all are one, and all are equal.” “There is no longer Jew or Greek, … slave or free, … male or female, for all are one in Christ Jesus”.” How radical. What unity is bound by compassion and love?
That same year, Obama was running for President. I had no expectation he would become President. It may seem strange to nearly all citizens in this country. In New Hampshire, we have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with every candidate who runs for the presidency for about 18 months. I liked John McCain as a person. I had never voted for a Clinton or a Bush in a primary. I met both the Bushes and liked them both as people. I met Clinton and did not like him. I met Obama and thought, no chance, but he was an intelligent and thoughtful person.
Then, in 2007, I learned something about Obama through a New York Times interview with writer David Brooks. Brooks asked if Obama had ever read Reinhold Niebuhr. Obama said,
“I love him. He’s’s one of my favorite philosophers.”
Brooks followed with this question, “What do you take away from him?”
“I take away,” Obama answered in a rush of words,” “the compelling idea that there’s grave evil in the world and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief that we can eliminate those things. But shouldn’t we use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction? I take away the sense that we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard and not swing from naïve idealism to bitter reality.”
It was then that I paid attention to this man from Illinois. Most people are unaware that Obama was the first President to be a member of the United Church of Christ. It made sense that one of our founding theologians had a profound influence on Obama.
The Apostle Paul wrote powerful words to the church in Galatia, “You were called to freedom, brothers and sister.” Indeed, freedom is a concept that originates in the very heart of God, who calls us out of the darkness and into the light, out of captivity and into liberation. But Paul’s powerful words do not end there” “Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.” Without humility and responsibility, freedom can quickly give way to pride, arrogance, and even domination. We need Niebuhr, who wrote” “Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; but pure love without power is destroyed.”
“When we talk about love, we have to become mature, or we will become sentimental. Love means… being responsible, responsible to our family, toward our civilization, and now by the pressures of history, toward the universe of humankind.”
People of the Christian faith are called to the responsibility of love. As Niebuhr wrote in his 1952 book, The Irony of American History, “We take, and must continue to take, morally hazardous actions to preserve our civilization. We must exercise our power. At least one of Niebuhr’s students took this call very seriously. His name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and he gave his life because he was determined to practice his faith. Bonhoeffer was executed in 1945 for his opposition to Hitler’s rule in Germany. It was Bonhoeffer who wrote after studying under Reinhold Niebuhr, “Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing’s will.”
With faith in Christ, one no longer needs the law to keep those” “clothed in Christ,” each person becomes free from the requirements of the law. We become children of God through faith (3:26) and not through the