Revelations 21: 1-4

American Stories of Faith and Integrity:  John Adams

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Rev. Susan Cartmell

The Congregational Church of Needham

                During July, we will look at the lives people in American history who shape our lives today. The series is still a work in progress, so if you have ideas about Americans you would like to hear about please do let me know. On this Independence Day in 2010 our story is about one of our founding fathers - John Adams.  As we begin, I want to reflect on the passage we read in Revelations. Two Bible passages informed John Adams life and faith. One was the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, and the other was this part of Revelations about building a city on a hill. The notion of a city on a hill was the vision of the Pilgrim minister John Winthrop.

     As the Pilgrim shop, the Arbella, approached the shores of what we know as Cape Cod in 1630, Rev. John Winthrop gave a sermon that influenced the pilgrims and the founding fathers. So it has shaped our history in powerful ways, and yet in ways we hardly recognize. Winthrop charged his fellow Pilgrims to become the city on a hill that Jesus talks about in the Sermon on the Mount when Christ declared, "You are the light of the world." Combining Christ's teachings with those in Revelations, John Winthrop told the people to love one another and to live that love out in all ways.  Towards the end of the sermon he said, " Follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together, in this work, as one. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of other's necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other; make other's conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body...We shall find that the God of Israel is among us,...He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding [colonies], "the Lord make it like that of New England." For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.

Winthrop's words were important to many of the founders of our nation...but they probably influenced John Adams and his wife Abigail the most.   John Adams was Vice President during President George Washington's two terms, and then Adams served as the second President of the United States.  But prior to all of that, he was one of our most influential of our founding fathers. 

     Born in 1735 he grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts.  His father was a farmer, a deacon in the Congregational church, a lieutenant in the militia and a town selectman.  The family sent John to Harvard and expected him to become a minister, but he decided to study law, and married Abigail Smith, daughter of the Congregational minister from Weymouth.  Boston was already a hot bed of political unrest and Adams joined in the fray as an opponent of the Stamp Act of 1765. Writing articles in the Boston Gazette, Adams created many of the concepts of our government in the articles that we take for granted today. It was John Adams who conceived of the concept of colonial rights and explained the importance of personal liberty by harking back to Winthrop's vision of a city on a hill.

     Elected to represent the Massachusetts Colony at both the first and second Continental Congresses, Adams worked to unite the separate colonies to stand against the British.  Following the battles of Lexington and Concord he nominated George Washington as the first commander in chief of the fledgling continental army, uniting a leader from Virginia with the interests of Massachusetts. He was the intellectual framer of the Massachusetts constitution; he worded the document so as to outlaw slavery from the beginning.  Our Massachusetts state constitution provided a template for the other state constitutions and served as an example for the constitution of the United States. Adams came up with the notion of balance of power which is the genius at the heart of our American constitution.  In 1776, he was a part of the sub- committee assigned to draft the Declaration of independence; the words belong to Jefferson, but many of the ideas come from John Adams. From its first proposal to the Continental Congress until it was finally adopted in 1779, John Adams was the Declaration's fiercest advocate and defender.

     Most of us have a simple or idealized view of history. So we assume that the early colonists were of one mind in backing the American Revolution and creating the government of this new nation.  But in the 1770's people were angry, scared and argumentative. Factions arose at every turn. The confusion bred political intrigue even among friends. I recommend David McCullough's book on John Adams and/or the HBO series based on the book.  I recently watched the HBO series and gained a new appreciation for this period of history.   The show was very good at depicting the relationship between John Adams and his wife Abigail. The drama showed Abigail Adams as someone who pushed John when he wanted to give up and who tempered his natural tendency to lecture people who disagreed with him. Abigail shared a rare intellectual intimacy with her husband, and they liked nothing better than to sit together reading. She was as devoted to him as she was independent in her own right. A savvy political advisor, she was his equal. Their love sustained both of them through times of separation, political defeats, and family loss.   When we think about John Adams it is hard to consider his impact on the world without acknowledging her impact on him and their impact on one another.

     I would like to share one last story about John Adams.  He and Thomas Jefferson were close friends when they served in the Continental Congress. They were the intellectual leaders of the evolutionary movement. But their friendship was tested by the politics of the first government.  Jefferson opposed Adams when he ran for President. Adams won by a slim margin and Thomas Jefferson as the runner up, served as vice president.  During Adam's Presidency Jefferson felt no sense of loyalty, and undermined President Adams again and again.  When Adams ran for re-election Jefferson again ran against him and this time Jefferson won...in large measure by spreading unfounded rumors about Adams.  That was the final straw; their friendship had frayed to the breaking point.

     After a decade or estrangement, Benjamin Rush, reminded Adams and Jefferson each individually how much they shared in common and that it was a shame that they had allowed politics to divide them.  Rush urged both to write to the other.  John Adams was the first to pick up his pen.  Jefferson responded quickly and for the rest of their lives these two men, two the greatest political philosophers of their time, and all time, wrote to one another regularly. They both died hours apart on the same day - July 4, 1826 - 50 years after the birth of our nation,

     Now, what can we learn from this man for lives at this moment in our nation's history?

Our History as a people is embedded in our faith. John Adams was such a visionary thinker because he was also a student of the Bible. He appreciated Christ's message and understood the powerful notion of letting your light so shine among men and women that we set it out like a lamp upon a hill.  John Adams could face the challenges of his time because he was himself inspired by the scriptures and the vision of John Winthrop's sermon 150 years before. That sermon had a "holy urgency" for him.  

     This Bible stories and the history of their impact on our nation are part of our nation's past but they are also part of our future.  For they have the power to guide us, just as they did Adams. They guide how we live our lives. They affect how we participate, or not, in the work for the common good today.  John Winthrop was calling people to make sacrifices to create something new and lasting. Adams was willing to forego time with his family, and years on the farm he loved in order to share his gifts with the world and shape our country in the crucible of its formative years.

If we would reach our own potential as citizens and leaders in our time, we would be wise to know more about our nation's history, and how it has always been influenced by our faith traditions. We need to consider how we will serve the common good as citizens of this great land.  Last week I took a trip to visit my children. The journey took me to Virginia and Arizona. In those 9 days I talked to my children, to their friends and to random people in airports. All throughout this wonderful land of ours people were talking to each other about many of the same things. They talked about immigration, about the oil spill in the Gulf, about conserving energy and dealing with this economy. There are many different ideas out there. Like the factionalism and rancor that characterized the 1700's, there is also confusion and contention today. But mostly what I saw across our country was good people who lacked vision. Last weekend I worshipped at the First Congregational Church of Tucson. That day, I heard a great sermon. The minister's theme was - we are all a bit lost.

But the vision on which this nation was founded is still a good one. It is as old as Jesus and as fresh as the debates about immigration and global warming. It was not easier to be faithful or visionary in 1776 than it is today. It is always hard. But as people of faith we will never go far until we know our own scripture and until we claim its power to change the world. Jesus says, You are the light of the world...Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven.( Matthew 5:14) Then I saw a new Jerusalem here on earth. For the home of God is here among mortals. We hold these truths to be self-evident - that all people are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable right - among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Let us build this city that shines to inspire the world. Let us build a new Jerusalem where God will be pleased to dwell.