Broadway Christian Church · Columbia, Missouri
Morning Worship · January 25, 2009
Third Sunday After Epiphany
Prayer of the Day
God of my heart and of all people; we recognize your invitation in the brilliant, defining moments of our lives – to love more, to forgive more, to learn more, to live more abundantly. May we hear the prophet Micah’s pleading to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with you and one another. May we respond with enthusiasm to Christ’s urgency to love you, love our neighbor, and love ourselves. Amen.
Scripture
Galatians 3:26-28
For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
Message
A Moment in Time
Kim Gage Ryan
It was a defining moment in the year 1924. It was a defining moment that would become a family’s sacred story – a story about a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather. In 1924, he was 40 years old, and he had seen a lot of life in his 40 years.
Before his birth in1884, his family had been American gentry, owned a plantation. But it was lost in the Civil War. So he grew up as a young boy in poverty, really. By 40, he was what some would call a self-made man. There wasn’t money for him to afford to go to college, but he read every book he could get his hands on. He educated himself. Under the mentoring kindness of a Disciple pastor, Peter Ainslee, this one, also, became a Christian minister, ordained in Baltimore, Maryland. He married and had two little boys.
But in 1924, the baby – six months old – drank milk from a cow with tuberculosis. Pasteurization had not yet come into being. Baby Roger died. It was a year of heartache.
In 1924, he was a minister serving First Christian Church in Tarentum, Pennsylvania. And that was a presidential election year. Incumbent Calvin Coolidge was expected to win, and he did. Given there was a booming economy at home and a miserable crisis on the horizon abroad, it was interesting to note that it was the first presidential election in which all Native American Indians were considered citizens and were allowed to vote.
Sometime in the early part of September of that year, a member of his congregation, a member of his church board, came to him with a request. This board member had been delegated by a patriotic organization to ascertain whether or not he would preach a patriotic sermon on November 2, the Sunday before Election Day. He said, “Yes.” He would, but he wanted to know the name of the patriotic organization. Would anybody like to take a guess?
Yes. It was the Ku Klux Klan. They desired to visit that service in their robes, and their hoods, and their masks.
He agreed to deliver the sermon, but there was one condition: absolutely no regalia at that worship service. On November 2, at an evening service, William A. Ryan delivered a sermon entitled “What Is 100% Americanism?”
Later, a cross would be burned on his front yard. Later, his landlord would refuse to rent to him and his family any longer. He would be forced to leave that church, forced to leave that town.
A few years later, another son would be born in this family, and his name would be William S. Ryan, and he would become the founding minister of Broadway Christian Church.
Although I never met Granddaddy Ryan, I heard of him early on in my Ryan-family connection. I, too, treasure the sacred story of his courage and the sermon that was left behind. Miraculously, the family has a copy of that sermon preached 85 years ago. It was preserved and published by a Roman Catholic layman in that town. It should be noted that in 1924, the targets of the Ku Klux Klan’s hostilities included African-Americans, Jews, and Roman Catholics. This layman kept that sermon, printed it as a pamphlet, and distributed it. He would later become the mayor of that town – the first Roman Catholic mayor of that town. It was preserved and distributed, because of its bold courage, and because William A. Ryan was not killed for what he said, which was a miracle in and of itself.
I’ve asked Keller [Editor’s note: Kim’s son] to read a few excerpts from his great-grandfather’s sermon. It seems most appropriate that Keller should do this, because in the way that genes find their way through generations, Keller resembles his great-grandfather. All you have to do is to put some spectacles on him and take off about a foot of height.
[Keller reads:]
I was always ready to welcome any group to the services of First Christian Church, since this was an open church, seeking to tell the story of Jesus to all who might care to listen, and that the same welcome would be extended to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, the Roman Catholic Knights of Columbus, or the Association for the Improvement of the American Negro – or for that matter, any group that wished to attend our services of worship.
When I saw that the Ku Klux Klan, in spite of my efforts to keep it out of my church, was likely to attend the service, and that it was up to me to preach a “Patriotic” sermon, the question quite naturally arose, “What kind of a patriotic sermon shall I preach?” “Patriotic” is quite a flexible adjective, used to describe all sorts of things, actions and emotions… from the empty bellowing of the political ward-heeler before election day to the willing sacrifice of life by the soldier on the field of battle, or the prophet in the field of service. We may mean much or little by use of the word “patriotism.” To each of us it will mean the sum total of what our country means to us – neither more nor less. If my country means to me a place of freedom and opportunity to better my own condition, and means little more than that, then in that conception of my country may be found my definition of patriotism, which will be a self-centered individualism.
If on the other hand, my country means to me a place where, in addition to myself, those who think as I do may have freedom to pursue the even tenor of their ways, unmolested and unhampered, then I have a definition that is like the former… except that it embraces all those of my own group – those who think as I think, want the same things that I want – and in the same way that I want them. This is still a definition that spells selfishness and littleness and pettiness.
Or it may be that my kind of patriotism may exhibit all of the INCLUSIVENESS of the first two – myself and my group – and in addition have in it a dominant note of EXCLUSIVENESS that arbitrarily excludes all who do not agree with me; a conception of love of country that not only insists upon aims and efforts and opinions coinciding with mine but would exclude all whose race or color or creed or habits… are not just what I have adopted for myself and for my group. If this be my conception of patriotism then it means, to me, bigotry, intolerance, hate, and hell.
Then, again, it may be that my conception may be one that adheres more closely to the meaning of the word – love of country, rather than love of self. It may mean a love for my country and for the things for which my country stands… and may bother itself little about my own personal opinions, wants, and so forth. My country may be to me a place to which men and women and children have come from all parts of the world, each bringing something of his old home, which, when merged and lost in all that has been brought by the other millions, has formed what is America – MY country. If this be my conception of my country, then patriotism will mean to me a love of that country that will bring with it a determination to perpetuate its policies and a willingness to serve ITS best interests, unselfishly and unafraid.
One hundred per cent Americanism then would be the kind of Americanism that perpetuates and upholds and defends all that is truly American. It will be Americanism of such purity that no shadow nor blemish nor spot mars its perfection. Where might we look to find such a basis for such Americanism? Is it possible to put one’s finger on a few definite, specific words that tell us what are the policies of America which are to be perpetuated? Is there anywhere a statement of what America stands for and what she has declared by which Americanism shall be measured? I think so!
At this point in his sermon, Granddaddy Ryan would point to the very foundation of America’s sacred story, the Declaration of Independence. He would quote from July 4, 1776, the Declaration’s words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
And 40 years later, in another defining moment, Martin Luther King Jr. would stand before the Lincoln Memorial and stand upon this same American sacred story that would become the heart of the Civil Rights Movement.
And 45 years after that, in yet another defining moment, President Obama would stand on the same sacred story of America, and echo in his words last Tuesday, “All are equal. All are free. All deserve a chance to preserve their full measure of happiness.”
I need to tell you that Granddaddy Ryan did not stop with the Declaration of Independence as the foundation for his sermon. He grounded America’s sacred story in an even older sacred story, that of his own Christian faith.
Keller, please continue.
[Keller reads:]
Is there in the Word of God a place, as in the Declaration and in the Constitution, where one may place his finger and say, “This is the test by which we may determine whether or not a man is a 100% American?” Matthew, writing his story of Jesus, said that in delivering the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Therefore, by their fruits ye shall know them.” In other words, Jesus would have us test all things by the test of the finished product.
I can see the Klan’s fruit of bitterness and hate and ugliness in Pennsylvania, in Allegheny County, in Tarentum – in my own church. I know what the Klansmen say – they have said it to me, both the ordinary members and their leaders – “If we come out in the open we shall be persecuted and boycotted. We dare not yet come out from behind the mask. After a while, we shall be able to do so, but right now our greatest strength lies in our being unknown.” And this in the name of Jesus Christ, who scorned to hide his identity, even though he was persecuted by his enemies, boycotted by his friends and neighbors, forsaken by his followers, and murdered by the mob? His was an open, unmasked fight against the forces of evil, and I thank God for it. I could have had no faith in a masked Christ, and I have less in a masked follower.
I am told that the Klan is spending itself into a system to protect Protestantism; to preserve it that it may live to fulfill its Divine mission in the world. Listen! If Protestantism has not within itself the seed of its own life, then it will die, as it ought to die. If Protestantism cannot be saved by the principles and practices of Jesus, it can never by saved by the Ku Klux Klan.
As I look out over the world tonight, I am satisfied to set up no standard of fellowship and brotherhood other than that which Jesus set up – not a standard of creed, or race, or color, but a standard based on life – “Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother” – and I am satisfied to let Him be the judge, feeling that He will call unto Himself many from all the countries and churches and homes, asking only that they did the will of His Father as best they knew how. AND DO YOU KNOW, SOMEHOW I WOULD HATE TO SET UP A HIGHER STANDARD AS A TEST OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP THAN JESUS SET UP FOR HIS KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
It’s a wonder he wasn’t shot right there. Oh, my gosh!
William A. Ryan lived long enough to see his son be a voice for the Civil Rights Movement right here in Columbia. He and Grandmother Ryan retired and moved to Columbia, lived out their days at Lenoir and as members of this congregation. They lived long enough to be a part of a Christian Church congregation that made a public witness, by board action in 1963, to welcome and include African- Americans in this community of faith. [Turning to Glenn Geiger, who was sitting on the rostrum] And you only lost a few people then; didn’t you, Glenn? Glenn was here. He remembers. Some of you were here.
I have to wonder. Could Granddaddy Ryan have ever imagined this week? Could he have ever imagined this Sunday after the inauguration of a president who is white and black – African and American, with roots in Kenya and Kansas? Now, Missourians, we need not hold that against him.
Could Granddaddy Ryan have ever imagined his great-grandsons attending a rally in October, not of masks and hoods and robes, but a rally of diversity and unity when Barak Obama stood on the M.U. campus? If you were there, you may have been impressed by Obama’s presence, by his words. I was most moved – moved to tears – by the crowd. It was an unbelievably, truly diverse gathering of people – 40,000 Columbians. It was the most diverse in age, and race, and orientation, and status that I have ever seen in my 20 years of living here.
I wonder if Great-Granddaddy Ryan could have ever imagined the kind of global celebration and hopefulness witnessed this week as the result of the peaceful elections of our American democracy? However we voted in the election, we all can celebrate peaceful elections in a democracy that is respected around the globe.
I do know that in light of William A. Ryan’s courage, 85 years ago, I would be amiss to stand before you this morning and not give voice and recognition to how far we have come in this country, from a pastor being run out of town for speaking a word on Americanism and a word of the gospel, to this day, January 25, 2009.
I am immensely grateful. And I invite you to join me in a moment of time for gratitude – gratitude of defining moments like all of these moments, pearls strung along the string of history that remind us of the sacred stories upon which we stand and upon which we are united. I am grateful, and I invite you to not just join me but to join thousands upon thousands who celebrate a defining moment in time in the midst of lives that may be mundane, difficult, worrisome, routine. They are defining moments that should not go unheralded.
They are defining moments that echo the great hope and the promise voiced in our Scripture today, that old barriers, and old divisions, and old impossibilities can collapse by the grace of God, by the hope of God. And the hope of Galatians continues to be our hope today, thousands of years after the time it was written and shared among communities of faith. The hope of Galatians continues to be our hope, especially today. “There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. We are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Thanks be to God.
Say it with me: “Thanks be to God. Amen.”
Benediction
God, thank you for the privilege of standing in this moment. We are witness to a dawning of equality like never before seen. May we rise with this dawn! Let us celebrate this new day with hopes for unity and prayers for justice and peace. Amen.
