September5th Sermon
"Back at the Ranch"
* Today’s first reading comes from the second book of The Constitution of the United States of America. The 24th Amendment with was ratified in 1964.
Turn with me to page 7
2 Constitution 4:1-4
1The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, 2for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or representative in Congress, 3shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State 4by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Today’s second reading is on page 4, from the first book of the Constitution of the United States of America, Article 4 section 4.
1 Constitution 5:3-5
3The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, 4and shall protect each of them against Invasion; 5 and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
These are the words of our Constitution
The Constitution of the United States of America
*The Supreme law of our land
Now if you would welcome
Our Constitutional Prophet
BCG
BCG
BCG:
Thank you Citizen North
How are you doing tonight Citizens
I just wanted to remind everyone
*That tonight’s special is
Samuel Adams
It’s $1 off
All Sam Adams Beers
As I said before
We’re not overly formal here
So if you get thirsty
During show
Grab yourself a drink
I know how
The summers get around here
So
How was your summer Citizens
Me
I made like a snowbird
And got the hell
Out of Arizona
I went on a tour
A tour
*Of America’s heartland
I spent
3 Weeks in Arkansas
With my grandparents
4 Weeks in San Antonio
Visiting my parents
5 Days in Corpus Christi, TX
Chilling with friends
And 2½ weeks in Colorado Spring
Hanging with my sister
This was my tour
Of America’s Heartland
And this being
My heartland tour and all
I guess I was supposed
To learn something
Learn some lesson
At each stop
*I’m going to confess now
I don’t remember much
About my five days
In Corpus Christi
But I now know
Why Corpus
Was recently ranked
The 2nd dumbest City
In the United States
You see
My friends work
At this Biker Bar
Called the Silver Dollar
And everyday ended up being
Bring a friend to work day
So each night
I occupied a seat at the bar
From 6pm till 3am
Not the smartest decision
Regardless to say
I didn’t help out their ranking
While I was there
However
While there I was able
To acquaint myself
With some of the local bikers
The Banditos
What I learned
Other than a few new shots
Such as the Red Hot
Which consists of
Hot Damn
And a splash
Of Tabasco
And believe it or not
It really does
Taste like
A Fire Jolly Rancher
Another one of those
Smart ideas
Here have another one
Anyway
I also found out
That Biker Clubs
Such as the Banditos
Or the Angles
Are at their hearts
Charitable Organizations
They give away bikes
To needy kids for Christmas
And have Fundraisers
Such as
Help Free Gorilla
A fellow biker
In need of bail
For the most part
They’re really nice people
They have their own politics
They have their own concerns
They just love to ride
Iron horses
Well
The closest I got
This summer
To riding a real or Iron horse
Was in the land of Arkansas
Where the nearest neighbor
Is a mile away
And it’s another relative
I spent some time
Hanging out with
*My Grandpa Bob
Helping him with his Cattle
And around the farm
While there
Like Grandfather’s should
He enlightened me
During our many discussions
Because
In Arkansas
You have time to
Sit down
And chew the fat
My Grandpa Bob
Enlightened me
He passed on
Some of his wisdom
And I learned about
What I am going to call
The Heartland Perspective
My Grandpa Bob
Broke it down
For me
He boiled it down
To one Concept
To one Phrase
* Back at the Ranch
This was the heart
Of the Heartland
Back at the Ranch
Iraq
Marriage
Economics
Anything Political
Could be reduced
To this one
Simple Concept
Back at the Ranch
It wasn’t about
Big theories
Or
National Agendas
It was about us
You, Me, Him, Her
And how
These Ideas
These Policies
These Ideologies
Affect us
As individuals
Our Families
Our Communities
The Ranch
So when you look
At America
Through this perspective
*You realize
The Constitution
Isn’t a Republican Document
The Constitution
Isn’t a Democrat Document
The Constitution
Is an American Document
And then you see that
The Founding Fathers
Weren’t Republicans
The Founding Fathers
Weren’t Democrats
The Founding Fathers
Were Americans
You, Me, Him, Her
And
Regardless of Party
Regardless of ideology
We are all Americans
And in the End
We’re all in this together
And myself
As a Constitutional Prophet
I’m going to say things
That are going to anger Conservatives
I’m going to say things
That are going to piss off Liberals
I’m going to say things
That are going to upset
Each and every one of you
But there is one thing
I’m not going to do
I’m not going to deviate
From The Constitution
*Of the United States of America
The supreme law of our Land
Because
It is our devotion to this document
That makes our lives
As know it
Possible
It words are supreme
Because
It is our adherence
To its principles
That separates us
From all other countries
The Rule of law
It is this one single document
The Constitution
Of the United States of America
That provides the Freedoms
We so often take for granted
*Like many of you
I inherited my Freedom
I didn’t earn it
I didn’t work for it
I didn’t fight for it
We are the Paris Hilton’s
Of the Free world
Because good ole Uncle Sam
Along with all
The Founding Fathers
And Mothers
Willed it to Us
Will it to
We The People
This was their legacy of Freedom
This is our trust fund
But they understood
It wasn’t perfect
America was
A work in Progress
*So on the Great Seal
Of the United States
Just pull out any dollar bill
And you can see it
They left us a clue
The Unfinished Pyramid
With the all Seeing Eye
Envisioning perfection
The Ultimate Goal
Novus Ordo Seclorum
The New Order of the ages
Freedom for all
And No
We may never reach it
It may never be
Fully realized
But that doesn’t mean
We shouldn’t strive for it
We shouldn’t work towards it
We shouldn’t build upon
The legacy of our Founding Fathers
Their legacy of Freedom
You see
This is how we earn it
How we earn our Freedom
But you may ask
How do we get there
How do we obtain
This ultimate goal
Our founders left us
Another Clue
If you look at the other side
*Of the Great Seal
Of the United States
You’ll see
The American Bald Eagle
With Wings Spread Wide
Proclaiming
With a ribbon
Between it’s beak
E Pluribus Unum
Our Nations
Original Motto
E Pluribus Unum
One From Many
The American Eagle
Proclaims
We are all in this together
One from Many
E Pluribus Unum
Our Freedoms Dwell
Not in ourselves
But in the Many
Our Neighbors
Our Families
The Ranch
As my Grandpa Bob says
It all comes down
To this one thing
Back at the Ranch
How does America affect
Each and every one of us
As individuals
As Families
As Communities
Because America is
A Community of Communities
We live in
Separate States
Separate Districts
Separate Cities
Separate Neighborhoods
But we are one America
And within these
Separate Neighborhoods
We have separate Beliefs
Separate Religious Beliefs
Separate Political Beliefs
Separate Social Beliefs
But we are one America
And it is this convergence
Of the Many
Where our Country
The United States of America
Tempts what many consider
The Impossible
It puts the power
In the hands of
WE the People
With all our differences
With all our diversity
Father Madison said that
Our personal sovereignty
Our Community’s sovereignty
Our State’s sovereignty
Shall be maintained
*In Tenth Amendment to our Constitution
He writes
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
And with the tenth Amendment
Father Madison
Opened the door for Self Governance
We the people of Arizona
We the people of Phoenix
We the people of
The Phoenix Union High School district
Get to pick
Our School board members
Our Mayor
Our Governor
Our State legislators
We are allowed to govern ourselves
It is in our Constitution
The supreme law of the land
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
It allows for that separation
It allows for diverse Beliefs
It allows for differing opinions
Our Constitution
Turns what many would consider
Obstacles
Problems
Defects
And Transformed
Thirteen Separate Colonies
Into one Country
Into One America
The United States of America
E Pluribus Unum
One From Many
Where the one
Is only as free
As the many
And you
Are only as free
As you make others
This is why our Mission
*At the United Church of America
Is to Spread Freedom
So that we may be free
We are taking on
Our Founder’s legacy
And earning our Freedom
By giving it to others
We earn our Freedom
By giving away
But you may ask
How do you give Freedom to others?
Is it ours to give?
And the answer is
Yes
It is yours to give
And ironically
In order to keep it
You must give it away
So
How do you give Freedom to others?
You give Freedom to others
By giving them knowledge
By sharing the words of the Constitution
By sharing the words of our Founding Fathers
Freedom comes through knowledge
And as the old adage goes
You never know what you have
Until you lose it
And Freedom works
The same way
If you don’t know
What the Constitution says
If you don’t know
What your rights are
Then you don’t know
What rights you’re losing
Or
More importantly
What rights
You’re taking away from others
From somebody else
See
This is were many of you
Are going to get upset
Because most of us
Myself included
Have our own opinions
On what
America should be
*And as Father James Madison said
In his letter to
Edward Livingston
We are a government of opinions
And that is were
Our greatest Freedom
And
Our Biggest problems
Lay
At that intersection
Were our opinions
Don’t match the facts
The words of our Constitution
The supreme law of our Land
So
By learning these words
By learning these facts
It allows us to not only
To look out for ourselves
But more importantly
To look out for others
It allows us not only
To understand
What rights we have
But more importantly
To Understand
What rights our neighbors have
It allows us not only
To know when we are losing our rights
But more importantly
To know when we are taking rights
Away from others
E Pluribus Unum
One from Many
* We are all in this together
Regardless of Party
Regardless of Ideology
We all have the same goal
To see our Country succeed
Because if our Country Succeeds
Then
We the People
Succeed
But you know what I hear
Most of the time
A lot of Complaining
I hear complaints
That our Government
Is broken
I hear complaints
That our Justice System
Doesn’t deliver Justice
I hear complaints
That our Representatives
Are corrupt
I hear a lot of complaining
The one thing I don’t hear
Are a lot of solutions
Have We the People
Lost our Will
Have We the People
Given up on America
Because
If we give up
On our Government
If we give up
On our Justice System
If we give up
On our Representatives
Then
We are giving up
On ourselves
We are giving up
On the Heart of America
We are giving up
The Ranch
You see like many
I too used to believe
America was
A Democracy
Where the Majority rules
So
How could my one little vote count
How could my one little vote make
A difference
So in the first 11 years
Of my eligibility
I didn’t Vote
I’ll confess now
I’m going to confess
To you Citizens
Tonight
I’m going to confess
I voted for the first time
At the age of 29
I made the mistake
Of believing America was
A Democracy
But it isn’t
America is
A Republic
* In Federalist #10
On Page 17
Father Madison explains this difference
2 Madison 5:14&15
14A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, 15opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking.
And we learn from him
From Father Madison
That there are two fundamental
Differences between
Democracies and Republics
The First
Is that in a Democracy
You have the right to Vote
But in a Republic
You have the duty to Vote
You have to earn
Your legacy of Freedom
And secondly
In a Democracy
Majority Rule Trumps
Minority Rights
But in a Republic
You seek to protect
The Minority
As Father Madison says it
promises the cure for which we are seeking
Majority Rule
The disease of democracy
*Father Madison explains in verse seven
7and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual
In a Republic
You seek to protect
The Minority
The Obnoxious Individual
Citizens I ask you
What is the greatest Minority
In America
What is it?
It hasn’t changed
Since the early days
Of our Founders
What is
The greatest Minority
It is
You, Me, Him, Her
Or as Father Madison
Referred to us as
“The Obnoxious Individual”
When
You protect the minority
You are protecting yourself
Citizens
When you protect the minority
Who are you protecting?
You are protecting yourselves
Because someday you might be
“The Obnoxious Individual”
Amen
Praise the Constitution
That’s the difference
Between a Democracy
And
A Republic
And that’s why
On page 4
*Of your Political Scriptures
In Chapter 5
Of the First book
Of the Constitution
Article 4 Section 4
Reads
1 Constitution 5:3
The United States shall guarantee to every state in the union a Republican form of Government.
Let me read that again
The United States shall guarantee to every state in the union a Republican form of Government.
And one of the places
This form of government exists
One of the most neglected areas
Are
The primaries
See
We in America
Tend to treat
Our right to Vote
Let me correct that
Our Duty to Vote
Like a sporting event
We all tune in
To the World Series
Or The Super Bowl
But we forget about
The Regular Season
By guaranteeing
A Republican Form of Government
Our Constitution says
* We the People
Get to pick
Who we vote for
We the people
Get to pick
Whose on our Ballots
We the People
Get to pick
Who goes to
The World Series
Who goes to
The Super Bowl
So if you think
The Government is broken
Or if you believe
The Justice System just stinks
Or you don’t agree
With your representative’s
Voting record
Then it is up to you
Us
The many
We the people
To pick our best team
To put together
Our dream teams
For the finals
And where does that happen?
That happens at the Primaries
So if you’re like many
And you don’t like
Your current representative
But there’s no way in hell
You’re going to vote
For that other party
Then the primary
Is where you clean house
Your party’s house
The Primary
Is where you make your decisions
The Primary
Is where you make your trades
Where you Choose
Who you get to choose from
Where you Choose
Whose on your Ballot
Just this last Month
On Tuesday August 8th
3 incumbents
2 Democrats
And a Republican
Were booted off of
Their Party’s ballots
By their own Constituents
House Democrat
Cynthia McKinney of Georgia
House Republican
Joe Schwarz of Michigan
And Senate Democrat
Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut
Were given pink slips
By their parties
We the People
Of Connecticut
Decided who would be
On their teams
We the People
Of Michigan
Decided who would be
On their ticket
We the People
Of Georgia
Decided who would be
On their ballot
You see Citizens
It is this
Primary Process
Which separates us
From dictatorships
Where the government chooses
Who you can
Or can’t
Vote for
And your right
Your duty
To vote in the primaries
Is protected by the Constitution
*The 24th Amendment reads
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary
Let me read that again
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for elector for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State
It is your right
To vote in a primary
It is your right
To choose who
You choose from
This is a right
And with America
Being a Republic
It is not simply
A right
It is
A duty
It is
Your Duty
To vote
In your Primary
So the next time
Someone complains
“There aren’t any good choices”
Or they whine that
“It’s the lesser of two evils”
All you have to do
Is ask them
“Did you vote in your primary?”
And not just the presidential
Or Congressional Primaries
But your Local Primaries
The people
Who take care of your district
The people
Who take care of your community
Your School Board Members
Your representatives
Your Primary
Because
That’s were the real choices are made
Back at the Ranch
So help us
Help
The United Church of America
Spread Freedom
So that we may be Free
Because
We are all Americans
And we’re all in this together
So help us
No
Help yourself
Help make all of us
Freer
By Spreading
Knowledge
By Spreading
The words of the Constitution
By Spreading
The principles behind
The Bill of Rights
And Earn your Freedom
By honoring
The legacy
Of our Founders
Earn your Freedom
By Spreading it
Because
You are only as Free
As you make others
Earn your Freedom
By giving it to others
Because Freedom
Exists outside of ourselves