Bastille Day Celebrations

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

July 13, 2008

Genesis 25:19-34

Romans 8:1-11

Matthew 13:1-23

I’ve always liked that story about Jacob and Esau. I think my affection for it stems from Sunday School, where our enterprising Sunday School teacher made us draw pictures of the bowl of “red stuff” for which Esau sold his birthright. She told us that the stew that Jacob had prepared to tempt his brother was made out of red lentils, which gave it its distinctive color. The first time I tasted red lentils was as a child in Cyprus. I was expecting something with a really heavenly taste; enough to make you sell everything you have for just one mouthful of it. But I have to say that I was a bit disappointed. Maybe it wasn’t a very good stew, or maybe ten-year-olds need more than lentils to excite their taste buds.

So why was Esau ready to sell his rights as the firstborn for a bowl of fairly bland stew? Was Jacob just too clever for him? Was Esau plain stupid? Or did he think that his birthright was not worth bothering about? Of course, he might have just have been very hungry. After all, he did say; “I am about to die! Of what use is a birthright to me?” We know that extreme hunger makes people do extreme things. I don’t think that any one of these reasons provided motive enough by itself. I think Esau sold his birthright for reasons that were far more subtle than these.

Before we discover what those reasons might have been, we should bear in mind that today is the day when we celebrate the storming of the Bastille and the birth of democracy in France. Now, the relations between America and France have sometimes resembled the relations that existed between the twins Jacob and Esau – the twins who gave birth to the nations of Israel and Edom. France and America were born within years of each other at the end of the eighteenth century. Both democracies celebrate their national days at the beginning of July. They have both played tremendously important roles in the spread of Western ideals throughout the world. Sometimes they have appeared to be in conflict about how best such a mission should be accomplished. I think that it is safe to say that both democracies have not always lived up to the very best of those ideals, and have ended up selling them short for very dubious reasons.

Liberty, equality, fraternity are great concepts – the greatest concepts that a political agenda can claim as its own. But they are bought at a very high price. Very often, the price to be paid is death itself. In practice the trinity Liberty, Equality, Fraternity has all too often been replaced with something else. Marshal Petain thought that Vichy France might be better served with the slogan Patriotism, Family, Work. Our trinity might well be something like National Security, Wealth and Individual Enterprise.

Unfortunately, the last few years have given us examples enough of this tendency. Our birthright as citizens of the United States of America, of France or of any other country represented in this church today should not be given away so easily; otherwise we risk being considered just as much of a dupe as Esau. Liberty is not won by sacrificing our liberties. Equality is not won by placing blind faith in the so-called superior patriotism of our leaders or our media pundits. Fraternity is an empty word when our neighbor goes hungry or is unable to receive health care or basic justice.

Why then did Esau act as he did? Esau gave up what was most precious to him for the sake of what he thought was most important at the time. Expediency is the worst of counselors. It dirties both the heart and the soul. It can excuse torture. It can make war look like the best option. It promises much, but delivers little; just like the lentil stew I mentioned at the start of this sermon.

It is all too easy to criticize those in power. But there is one more aspect of this story that we must consider. What is our birthright as Christians? If the seed of the Gospel has fallen on good soil, if it is not snatched away by fear or expediency, it will grow into what Paul calls the fruits of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Our birthright as Christians is worth far more than our birthright as citizens of any country in the world. And yet we sell it at a far cheaper price than a tasty meal when we are hungry. Paul put it best in our reading from his letter to the church in Rome: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”

The Revd. Nigel Massey