Two Independence Day Homilies

Transcript unavailable for Rev. Paul Sawyer’s homily

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Proverbs 24:13-20

My child, eat honey, for it is good,
    and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.
Know that wisdom is such to your soul;
    if you find it, you will find a future,
    and your hope will not be cut off.

Do not lie in wait like an outlaw against the home of the righteous;
    do no violence to the place where the righteous live;
for though they fall seven times, they will rise again,
    but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.

Do not rejoice when your enemies fall,
    and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble,
lest the Lord see it and be displeased
    and turn away his anger from them.

Do not fret because of evildoers.
    Do not envy the wicked,
for the evil have no future;
    the lamp of the wicked will go out.

In her long form essay Immemorial, Lauren Markham writes,

Though often cited as such, it’s clear that language is not what separates humans from nonhuman animals. In fact, “what best distinguishes our species” [she quotes from psychologists Martin E.P. Seligman and John Tierny] “is the ability to contemplate the future.”[i]

Markham goes onto note that contemplating the future led humans to predict weather and plant crops, to build buildings, to create… but that in “times of strife” looking towards the future can lead to anxiety and despair, rather than optimism and progress.

Our passage for today, from the book of Proverbs is about the future, about the very possibility of a future. The book of Proverbs as a whole, is written as a guide to acquiring wisdom. Most of it is advice, likely geared towards young people, young men at the time, going out into the world for the first time, and our passage for today is a good encapsulation of that— “Know that wisdom is such to your soul / [that] if you find it, you will find a future, / and your hope will not be cut off.” But “…the evil have no future; / the lamp of the wicked will go out.” But the task at hand is to be motivated to be sure that lamp does go out, and that the loving and righteous are the ones to build a future worth living into.

One of my favorite political writers, John Ganz, just recently wrote about what’s a stake for the future of America in regards to citizenship. And for all this country’s hypocrisies on how it was founded, as Paul noted in his sermon, it was founded on ideals—ideals and visions of a future in which all people born in this country were free and subject to all its laws and protections. And after the Civil War, thanks to the fourteenth amendment, that was made official… that all born in this country, all those on this soil, “…are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Ganz writes, “If [those in power] successfully destroy American citizenship as enshrined in the Constitution they will have destroyed the country. We will be, all of a sudden, somewhere else.” [ii]In other words, we will find no future for the United States as we know it. Because the evil have no future.

And it’s not just politicians. Tech oligarchs are fighting for a future lacking in wisdom—pushing artificial intelligence that purports to improve efficiency, but really just destroys curiosity and wisdom; and they’re toying with pseudo philosophy about transhumanism and seriously wondering if the human race should survive, as Peter Theil just did in a recently interview with the New York Times, as if the survival of the human race were up to him.

Bleak! I know! I’m sorry! But “Do not fret because of evildoers” says the writer of this passage in verse 19. Because as long as we heed the advice of this passage—to never stop learning, to never stop being curious, to never stop pursuing wisdom; to not take joy in the failures or demise of our supposed enemies, but rather to be wise and curious about each other—we will, indeed survive. We will thrive. There is a reason doctors and scientists are being defunded and deported. There is a reason AI is being pushed over critical thinking… the evil in power are afraid of the wisdom that will overtake them. There is a reason anyone who thinks differently than the powerful, regardless of citizenship status, are being targeted. Those in power are afraid of the wisdom that will snuff out their lamp. They are afraid. Just as, during the founding of this country, King George III tried to tighten his tenuous grasp with taxes and violence when he feared this colony slipping through his fingers, so too are the powerful today. That desperation and fear can be destroyed by curiosity, by creativity, by love, by wisdom. Make no mistake, it will be difficult—“[the righteous] will fall seven times,” we’re warned (seven is likely just a stand-in for a significant number of times), but “they will rise again.” Fear and attempting to subvert wisdom are not sustainable strategies. This is why the evil have no future. This is why the lamp of the wicked will go out. The evil bring this calamity upon themselves, and we must then work to build back a world worthy of a future.

When we imagine a future, we are practicing our humanity. And when we imagine a future these days, we could be driven to despair. But by imaging a future at all, we are practicing hope. By imaging a future at all, we are practicing wisdom. And by practicing wisdom, by opening our hearts and minds to possibility, we are resisting the death knell that the evil are trying to usher in. As our Universalist friends with us today say when they light their chalice every Sunday, that it's lit as a reminder of the light of Love that shines in darkness, and is not overcome by it; and as our tradition says, John 1:4-5, “in [God] was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.”

Friday was Frankie’s first Old Home Day parade experience. She was in absolute awe. When the parade was over, she stood on the curb clapping, expectantly looking up and down the street, hoping for more fire trucks and tractors to come by, and it was simultaneously the most heartbreaking thing I have ever seen, and also the sweetest thing. There was my daughter, hoping for more, contemplating a future— a future in which we have more to celebrate, more people coming together; a future without borders, without strife, war, violence; a future with more love and more light. Watching her hope and joy in that simple moment made it clearer than ever— the evil have no future. The lamp of the wicked will go out. And our lives, our love, our light will be shining throughout. So may we all, from the toddlers to the aged, never stop searching for wisdom; that way, we will have a future, and our hope will never be cut off. Amen.

[i] 1. Lauren Markham, Immemorial (Berkeley, CA: Transit Books, 2025), 86.

[ii] https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/death-to-america