Acts 5:21-32
“Freedom of Speech”
August 5, 2018
“Be careful what you say.” “Don’t make waves.” “Silence is golden.” “Children should be seen and not heard.” These messages that have been engrained in us from the time we were little have managed to make us people who can be afraid to speak up for what is right and just. And right now, given the volume and ugliness of the discourse we’re exposed to on a daily basis, it is so tempting to become turtle-like and retreat silently into our individual shells and yet that is not our call as disciples of Christ and it is not what makes this 242 year experiment called democracy work here in the United States.
We use the saying “Actions speak louder than words” to demonstrate that we walk the walk and not just talk the talk and yet, somehow most of the movement and change and justice-seeking that we’ve experienced throughout history came accompanied by words – words that pointed out injustice, words that lifted up the lowly, words that highlighted inequality, words like those of Jesus who told the rich young man to go and sell what he had and give it to the poor and then come and follow him. This was not well received. Jesus taught that whatever one does for the very least among us, we are doing for him and the same is true for what we don’t do. From my Catholic childhood I distinctly remember the message that the sin of omission can be as great as that of commission.
Words have power and the apostles knew this. They faced imprisonment because they had to speak out and teach what they knew about Jesus and God. They had to speak up, even if they were nervous and afraid. They were compelled to speak even when it would be safer to keep quiet.
Jim Edgerton couldn’t help but speak up either. Fire had destroyed Arlington High School in 1940 when the discussion and planning began about what should happen next with most wanting to rebuild but a minority of folks thinking it made more sense to send the high school students to Manchester or North Bennington just as they had before the new high school opened in 1922. Norman Rockwell was fairly new to town when he attended the meeting which was held at Town Hall. He was drawn in by the quiet grace of his neighbor Jim Edgerton who, knowing that most of those around him disagreed with him stood up anyway and stated his opinion and the reasons behind it for why the town should not rebuild the school. The select board had already determined that it would be rebuilding and was officially sharing their plan that night but they afforded this respected citizen the right to publicly speak his mind. Jim’s thoughtful and unpopular opinion as well as the respect given to him by those who wanted to rebuild left an indelible mark on Rockwell and would serve as the inspiration when he was commissioned to paint the Four Freedoms to be accompanied by essays offered by famous writers of the day as part of the war effort and as a way to raise money for the Second War Bond Drive. Those who contributed even received a color set of the Four Freedoms.
To “Speak your mind even if your voice shakes” as Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers famously said, is a right that we treasure as Americans while also recognizing that to stand up for the poor, the widow and orphan, the sick, the outsider, or the immigrant are all part of our legacy as followers of Jesus. For those of us here in this community, the Four Freedoms are local and as many of us know, it can be harder to speak up when you’re surrounded by the people who live around you or work with you, whose kids go to school with yours or that you see in church. This, however, is the only way that injustice can be faced down. We pay more attention to issues when they feel local or involve people we know or places we live. Gun violence and the issue of school shootings felt tragic but distant when in Parkland, Florida the high school was the site of a mass shooting in February but only 3 days later when a potential threat at Fair Haven High School only an hour away in another small Vermont town solidified the determination and witness of local students and staff here in Arlington who silently rallied for change.
The Freedom to Speak also carries with it a responsibility to speak out when we witness others being harmed or shut down or excluded or discriminated against. Exercising our free speech as a way of living into Christ’s example is the work of a lifetime and that is the work of loving our neighbors, even the hard to love ones, even the ones who look and sound different from us. For as Paul offered the people of Corinth, “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.” (1 Corinthians 13:1) Checking to see if we’re speaking in love most likely means checking our egos at the door. To speak in love means to have true compassion and concern for those whose lives will be affected. And freedom of speech need not be restricted only to getting up at a public meeting like Jim Edgerton did here more than 75 years ago.
Speech comes in many forms – letters of concern with possible solutions written to our elected officials or to the editor of local newspapers is exercising free speech; voting our consciences in local, state and federal elections is free speech; speaking truth to power whenever or wherever we witness the possibility of bringing peace or justice or relief from suffering happens when we stand up to those who would oppress or bully or intimidate. And contrary to what President Calvin Coolidge thought when he proclaimed, “I have never been hurt by anything I didn’t say,” there are times when not to speak up is to agree to injustice and if we take Jesus’ love thy neighbor instruction fully to heart, when others are hurting so, too, do we hurt.
Those we lift up in admiration – Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Pope Francis and so many others – have risked much with their words. Sometimes arrested, other times ostracized, often dragged through the mud and even enduring threats to their lives, and they often had to keep on speaking truth, even hard truths, for years or even decades to bring about change. That’s what William Lloyd Garrison did when he began The Liberator his anti-slavery newspaper in 1831 which he published for the next 34 years until slavery was abolished. He said at the start, “I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice…I will not equivocate…I will not excuse…and I will be heard.”
Our voices have the power to help make us the change we wish to see in the world, a world that we would hope would listen with the rapt attention and respect given to Jim Edgerton by his fellow citizens here in Arlington, captured so beautifully by Norman Rockwell, but which we cannot count on. What we can do, though, is to speak from a place of strength paired with respect. As the Psalmist proclaims, “Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep close watch over the door that is my lips.” (Psalm 141:3) May we use our freedom to speak for the purpose of building up God’s kingdom here on earth, this day and all our days. Amen and amen.