Dear friends in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Fifty years ago, when I was a junior in high school, our nation celebrated its bicentennial anniversary, and the Spirit of 1776 was everywhere to be seen.  In my hometown of Austin, red, white and blue bunting decorated everything from lamp posts to grocery store aisles. To highlight the year, our high school choir was invited to sing at the Ellipse in front of the White House.  The Choir spent months fundraising for the trip, selling grapefruits and oranges and magazines. And along the way, the choir boosters decided that the choir needed new uniforms appropriate for the 200^th anniversary. The women in the choir would wear floor length red dresses with turtleneck sweaters and the men would wear blue trousers with white turtlenecks. . To tie us all together, we would wear gold medallions resembling gold coins on gold chains. It was the 1970’s after all.

In addition to the Ellipse, the choir was invited to sing at the National Cathedral and in the Capitol Rotunda. I am not exactly sure who we thought would intend our midday concert in the Capitol. Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives?  I don’t think so. Still, we sang our hearts out just the same for the 10- 20 secretaries and janitors who accidentally happened to walk through that majestic space. I do remember studying the dome of the rotunda and paintings that surrounded us. I was struck by one painting in particular- The Baptism of Pocahontas. It was unusual motif for that setting where I believed there was a distinct separation of church and state.

In 1776, the Continental Congress, suggested the Latin phrase, “E pluribus Unum,” Out of Many, as our founding nation’s motto. Out of 13 colonies, one nation. This would be true of religion in America as well. Out of 13 different religious traditions would arise one unifying belief in the separation of faith and power commonly referred to as the separation of church and state. This morning as we begin the summer sermon series, “E pluribus Unum,” Out of Many, One, I would like to begin with the religious tradition of the first English speaking colony- Virginia.

In 1606, King James I, the same king who commissioned the translation of the Bible into English to unite the diverse religious groups within the Church of England, established a joint stock company with wealthy Londoners with the objective of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, and it stretched from present-day Maine to the Carolinas.  A year later, the Virginia Company of London under the leadership of Captain John Smith founded Jamestown, the first English speaking settlement on the continent.  The London investors originally hoped to extract quick wealth from gold and silver mines, find a northwest passage to Asia, and cultivate a self-sustaining economy for England. The early years, however, were devastating due to disease, starvation, and conflicts with indigenous Powhatan tribes. But one agricultural crop saved the Virginia Colony from complete financial disaster and that was tobacco.  John Rolfe, an explorer, tobacco farmer and merchant who would one day marry Pocahontas played a crucial role in the Colony’s early economic growth by introducing a sweeter strain of tobacco from Trinidad, but it also required a larger work force which was why slaves from Africa were brought into the colony in 1619.

Religious life in the Virginia Colony reflected the economic, geographic, and politics of tobacco.  The colonists were loyal Church of England members, which meant all people from all segments of society were required to attend Church of England services (although slaves often worshipped in segregated galleries or attended a separate service). Religious practices had to be adapted to the New World. Planting tobacco required the colonists to abandon England’s traditional villages and towns for plantations scattered throughout the countryside. This, in turn, led to the formation of parishes much larger in territory than those typical in England, which, in turn, meant that it was often difficult for settlers to meet weekly for public church services.  So, most parishes maintained multiple “chapels of ease” to accommodate far-flung parishioners.

To fund this religious life, there was a mandatory tax known as the parish rate or tithable required of all citizens. This tax funded clergy salaries, church construction, and local social welfare programs like orphan care. Since hard currency was scarce in the Virginia colony, the tax was typically paid in pounds of tobacco.  This system of religious taxation remained in place until the Revolutionary War.

Now, let us return to that unusual painting in our nation’s capitol rotunda, The Baptism of Pocahontas. Light shines on the kneeling figure of Pocahontas and on the minister officiating at her baptism. She is believed to be the first Native American to convert to Christianity in the English colonies.

When Captain John Smith and the 104 Jamestown colonists arrived in the New World in 1607, there were between 14,000 and 21,000 Native American living in eastern Virginia. These tribes composed the  Virginia Algonquian confederation. The leader of the confederation, Chief Powhatan had many children, among whom was a favored daughter named Pocahontas which means the playful one. While hunting for food, Captain Smith was captured by Indians and taken to Chief Powhatan. As Smith tells it, he was brought in front of Chief Powhatan, two large stones were placed on the ground, Smith’s head was forced upon them, and a warrior raised a club to smash his head.. Before this could happen, the chief’s daughter Pocahontas, who was perhaps only 10 years old, bravely rushed in and placed her head upon his, which stopped the execution. Immediately Powhatan declared Captain Smith to be part of the tribe, and when he returned to Jamestown, Chief Powhatan sent gifts of food to the starving English. This pattern continued and the envoys were usually accompanied by Pocahontas, as she was a sign of peace to the English.

Regretfully, relations between the two peoples deteriorated, Chief Powhatan, wearied of the constant English demand for food, moved his capital further inland. Pocahontas was not allowed to visit Jamestown anymore. In the fall of 1609 Smith left Virginia because of a severe gunpowder wound. Pocahontas and Powhatan were told that Smith died on the way back to England.

Pocahontas was not mentioned again in the English accounts until 1613, when Captain Samuel Argall, the new leader Jamestown discovered she was living near by. In order to secure the release of English prisoners and ammunition, Argall arranged for Pocahontas to be kidnapped. Two Indians from opposing tribes accompanied her to Argall’s ship. After eating, Pocahontas was taken to the gunner’s room to spend the night. In the morning, when the three visitors were ready to disembark, the Captain refused to allow Pocahontas to leave the ship demanding a ransom from her father. The two Indians who betrayed her left the ship with a small copper kettle and some other trinkets as a reward for their part in making Pocahontas an English prisoner.

After her capture, Pocahontas was brought to Jamestown, and then to Henrico, a small English settlement near present-day Richmond.  Her father Powhatan was informed of his daughter’s capture, and he agreed to many of the English demands immediately to open negotiations. In the meantime, Pocahontas was put under the charge of the Church of England rector Reverend Alexander Whitaker, who taught her the English language, religion and customs. Not exactly the form of evangelism and missiology we were taught at Luther Seminary. During her instruction, she met the widower John Rolfe, who would become famous for introducing the new strain of tobacco. By all English accounts, the two fell in love and once Powhatan was sent word that Pocahontas and Rolfe wished to marry, he consented and sent an uncle of Pocahontas’ to represent him and her people at the wedding.

In 1614, Pocahontas both converted to Christianity, was baptized “Rebecca” and was married to John Rolfe. The marriage led to the “Peace of Pocahontas;” a lull in the inevitable conflicts between the English and Powhatan Indians. The Rolfes soon welcomed a  son named Thomas. In 1616, they travelled to London, where Pocahontas was presented at the royal court of King James  and Queen Anne  as “Lady Rebecca Rolfe.” Once in England, the party toured the country when Pocahontas discovered Captain John Smith, whom she regarded as a father, still alive.

I wish the painter John Gadsby Chapman would have chosen the story of Pocahontas saving Captain John Smith as his image instead of her baptism.  The story of her baptism was not widely told or celebrated until the 1800s, when it was used to champion the notion of cultural superiority. Pocahontas was seen as civilized savage who stepped away from her own heritage marrying an Englishman, converting to the Christian faith and as a final act of rejecting her culture being baptized. That may be how some people view history and her baptism. But I believe a more authentic way to understand her discipleship and the gift of baptism is that of wonder and grace and mystery. It is important for Christian believers today to reject the notion that there are inferior, lesser people in God’s creation. Instead, we should remember and honor all people as God’s children and inheritors of his promise, and we should honor Pocahontas as a real person created in the image of God and filled with human dignity.

The apostle Matthew, who left his tax-collection station to follow Jesus, did not forget or abandon his people. Together with Jesus, he returned to his own people and dined with the sinners and tax-collectors. Matthew taught them to live moral and ethical lives and to live in the promise of eternal life.

Pocahontas left her Native people for a while to go to England, but she did not forget or abandon them. Instead, she lived her life with courage and conviction and made choices to protect and save her people. More than her English captors, she understood Christ’s invitation to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. And she was also more prepared to forgive.

Pocahontas and John Rolfe were set to return from England to America in March 1617 with a grant from the Virginia Company of London to conduct Christian missions among the Native Americans, but Pocahontas died from unknown causes before their ship exited the River Thames and reached the Atlantic. She was approximately 21 years old.

My friends, Pocahontas was truly “a founding mother of America” who allowed others in the following generation to embrace a new faith and culture while still being faithful to their past.  May we all be inspired by her story.  Amen.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.