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

Our two boys Vitali and Alexei were only four and six years old when they first glimpsed the shores of America.  Circling above the city of New York, we gazed down on the blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the mighty tugboats, the towering sky scrapers, the historic Ellis Island and a fleeting peak of the State of Liberty.  It had been a long non-stop flight from Moscow to New York.  By any other standards it was cruel and unusual punishment.  Fifteen trips to the bathroom- per child, cramped rows, communication troubles, fatigue, sleep deprivation and anxious nerves.  But as we were preparing to touch down, Alexei just waking from his sleep, leaned across the row of passengers at his older brother and said, “Vitali, eta Amerika.”  Vitali, this is America.

Of course, that is not what the Dutch colonists saw when the arrived in New York four centuries ago, though they did see it as a land of opportunity. Competing European nations including England, France, Spain and Portugal were vying for domination of lucrative trade routes around the globe from south to north and east to west. In 1609, English sea captain and explorer Henry Hudson was hired by the newly formed Dutch East India Company to find a Northeast Passage to Asia. Having failed to pass through the ice of the Arctic and the Hudson Bay, Hudson ended up exploring the coastal waters of North America. He eventually entered the Narrows into the Upper New York Bay and  travelled north along the Hudson River. Upon returning to the Netherlands, Hudson reported that he had found fertile land and amicable people along this river willing to engage his crew in small-scale bartering of furs and trinkets. There, the Dutch established the their first  settlement Fort Orange, today’s city of Albany.

When Peter Minuit became director of New Netherland in 1626,  he made a decision that would greatly affect the new colony.  He famously chose to purchase the island of manaháhtaan, “the place where we make bows” from the Lenape Indians for $60 guilders a little over in $1000 today. He ordered the construction of Fort Amsterdam at the island’s southern tip, around which grew the heart of the province. 

Compared to many parts of Europe the Netherlands at the time embraced a relatively progressive philosophy of inclusion, allowing various nationalities, religions, and races to coexist. This was reflected in the New Netherland colony.  The Dutch West India Company established the Charter of Freedom and Exemptions in 1629 which offered vast land grants and the title of patrons to its invested members.  Unfortunately, the colony was often poorly administered.  Which is why Peter Stuyvesant, the governor who had lost his leg in a battle with the Spanish on the island of St. Martin,  was sent there in 1647. He would be the last and longest serving governor.

The populace was bitterly divided politically, and since the previous governor was forced out for being too tolerant and accepting, Stuyvesant was not to be intimidated.  While faulted for being headstrong, arbitrary, and contemptuous of local democracy, he demonstrated executive ability, military prowess, and foresight in leading the colony to stability and prosperity. In religious matters, however, which were at the heart of politics in the colonies, he was not successful. Stuyvesant was committed exclusively to the Dutch Reformed Church and he believed that other religious and political dissenters were subversive.

It began with an ordinance forbidding Lutheran worship services. It was not until the Directors of the West India Company (three of whom were Lutherans) intervened that the order was rescinded and the gathering of Lutherans in private homes for worship was permitted.  In 1654, the Dutch surrendered their colony in Brazil to the Portuguese and many Jews were among those who fled. Stuyvesant refused to allow the refugees to settle in New Amsterdam lest minority Roman Catholics come next.  Again, the board of the West India Company, many of whom were Jews, forced Stuyvesant to allow the Jewish refugees to stay. Iin 1656, Stuyvesant issued a ordinance outlawing the practice of all religions outside of the Dutch Reformed Church in the colony. Those caught practicing other religions or holding now-illegal meetings would be arrested. When the Quakers arrived in New Netherland in 1657, Stuyvesant engaged again in a campaign of religious persecution declaring that harboring a Quaker would be a crime punishable by fine and imprisonment. Finally, in 1663, the Dutch West India Company, fearing that too rigorous a policy of religious repression might reduce immigration, instructed Stuyvesant to end religious persecution in the colony.

By 1664, Stuyvesant’s New Amsterdam had achieved a high degree of prosperity. The population had increased to ten thousand, but English settlers were encroaching on Dutch territory. The English monarch, King Charles II, seizing the opportunity, granted all New Netherland to his brother, James, Duke of York. A fleet was then sent over to take the new proprietary and thereby oust Dutch rule. Colonel Richard Nicolls, with four ships and four hundred soldiers, appeared in the harbor in August, 1664. Stuyvesant could muster only about 150 men; the fort was in disrepair, and there was little ammunition and powder. Having no choice but to surrender, Stuyvesant did not make a stand. Instead, together with his lawyer he helped author the terms of the capitulation. The articles of surrender included many legal rights and freedoms for residents of the province, which would be included in the Declaration of Independence and in the American Constitution, including the right to worship.  Surprisingly, Stuyvesant declared, “The Dutch here shall enjoy their Liberty of their Consciences in Divine Worship and Church Discipline.” The Letter of Capitulation left everything in New Netherland as it was, including the familiar names: the Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn, the Bowery, Yonkers and Yankees, the Broadway where cattle were brought to pasture, the protective Wall and the more famous street that went along it. The only visible changes were the hoisting of the English flag and the renaming of the province after the Duke of York.  Stuyvesant was brought to the Netherlands to be made a scapegoat for the West India Company’s loss, but he returned to live out his days at his estate on the Bowery in the new world.

A century and a half ago, in the 1880’s my own great-grandparents left Norway in pursuit of a better life and they entered America through New York harbor.  They believed that further west beneath the beautiful spacious skies and amid the amber waves of grain, that they could find a new home and life.  There, they cleared the trees and broke the land with horses bound together with a heavy yoke. They worked with their neighbors for a better church and community. They were never formally educated beyond the eighth grade, but knew that the fundamentals, the three R’s reading, writing and arithmetic.  But they also trusted that there were three other R’s which were fundamental to their hope, vision and dream for life in America.

Let me begin with the first R- responsibility.  America has been built upon a vibrant sense of responsibility. I recently read of a family who visited New York City.  They took in many of the sights, the Empire State Building, Radio City Music Hall, and the United Nations Building.  One of the most beautiful sights was vising the Statue of Liberty.  That night as the father was putting his little,  six-year old daughter to bed, he noticed a tear in her eye.  Somewhat startled, he asked, “Why are you crying, dear?”  In the complete innocence of a child, she answered, “Daddy, I was thinking about the lady out there in the dark- with nobody to help her hold up the lamp.  Shouldn’t we help her?” Yes, this is America.

For two hundred fifty years, this nation has remained strong because the majority of its citizens have chosen not to live by the adage, “let someone else do it,” or it’s not my responsibility.”  For if that were to happen, if people simply allowed the community, the government, and the state to do as it pleased, then it would no longer be a nation of the people, for the people and by the people.  Then we would be a nation in trouble.

The second R, which is basic to a democratic society, is respect.  Now I know that respect has to be earned.  You win and lose respect for yourself, because of what you have done and, by what you have accomplished.  But there is also a certain degree of respect that is inherent.  Respect for instance for what has happened in the past and the accomplishments of other people.

But respect also means respect for your neighbors as brothers and sisters created in the image of God.  No matter what the accent of their voice, the slant of their eyes, the flair of their nostrils, the color of their skin, nor the origin of their birth.  Yes, respect for your neighbor as one created in the image of God.  This should seem so elementary to men and women who dare to call themselves Christian, that one shouldn’t have to mention it.  But you and I, we have been indoctrinated with prejudices.  Respect for people, no matter where they were born, no matter what their economic well-being may be, nor how a person looks is essential to the health of a democratic nation.

Finally, the last R, which is necessary for a strong nation, is that which is called reverence.  Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Well, we were expecting this.  After all this is a church service, and as a pastor, he does have a professional obligation.”  And you’re right, but it is my conviction that once the umbilical cord of reverence has been severed, once the presence of God is no longer necessary for daily life, once the word of God no longer informs men and women how to live, then we become less than human.  Life becomes relative and open to all beliefs and norms.  The scribe to the ancient Judges wrote, “And every man did what was right in his own sight.”  When every man, woman and child does what he or she pleases, beware, then life itself becomes relative.

Early in the nineteenth Century the French statesman Alexander de Tocqueville, made a study of democracy in America and he wrote as follows:

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there.

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her fertile fields and boundless forests, and it was not there.

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her democratic congress and her matchless constitution, and it was not there.

“Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.

“America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Flying from Moscow into New York, a little boy exclaimed, “Vitali, eta Amerika.”  My friends, this is the America that I have grown to love and honor, and the America that I have chosen to share with my family. I am proud to share the hopes, dreams and vision of this great nation with them through responsibility, respect and reverence.

But if we are to keep our democracy strong and the legacy vibrant, if we are to be proud 20 years from now, 30 years from now or 250 years from now, if we are to love and honor our nation, then we have to keep the foundations strong.   And that foundation is built upon the solid ground of the three R’s,   Responsibility, respect and reverence.   My friends, the challenge is great, but with Christ beside you to do this work, his yoke is easy and the burden light. Amen.

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