Proper 24C
October 19, 2025
St. Dunstan’s
The Rev. Patricia Templeton
“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”
These words describe events that have happened across America in recent weeks. Terrible things are happening.
In Portland, Oregon, ICE agents threatened to arrest and kill an ambulance driver, who was dispatched to the ICE office to treat an injured protester. Agents crowded around the ambulance, threatening to shoot and arrest the driver, refusing to let him leave the scene.
In Chicago, the Rev. David Black, minister at the city’s First Presbyterian Church, was with a group of peaceful protesters outside an ICE detention center praying when agents on the roof opened fire, hitting Black in the head with a pepper ball, knocking him to the ground.
Also in Chicago, agents from several federal agencies raided an apartment building in the middle of the night, pulling men, women, and children from their homes, some of them naked, others in pajamas and barefoot. Kids were separated from their parents, thrown into U-Haul vans, and taken away.
At an elementary school in Chicago, ICE agents surrounded a car in the carpool line, smashing its windows and pulling two young sisters from the vehicle. The girls were later released after it was proved they are in this country legally.
Not all the recent violence we have witnessed is physical. Violent language is also on the rise. Reporters from Politico analyzed thousands of messages among Young Republicans (ages 18-40) from New York, Kansas, Arizona, and Vermont, some of whom held local and state office.
The vile texts praised Hitler, and were deeply anti-Semetic, racist, homophobic, and misogynistic. Most of them are too disgusting to read in church.
State leaders from both parties quickly denounced the texts. But not our national leaders. Our vice president called the uproar over the texts “pearl clutching.” Our president has said nothing.
This week the speaker of the House of Representatives called those who planned to participate in the No Kings rallies across the country yesterday terrorists, haters of America, pro-Hamas, and antifa. As an aside, there is no organization called antifa. The word is short for antifascist. I am proudly antifa, and I hope that you are, too.
Mike Johnson should have seen the No Kings rally I attended in Brookhaven yesterday. It began with the singing of “My Country Tis of Thee.”
Since this rally was organized by members of Canterbury Court, an Episcopal retirement community, many protesters came with canes, walkers, wheelchairs, and oxygen tanks, perhaps slowed down a bit, but determined to make their voices heard.
American flags were prevalent. Lady Liberty and Uncle Sam meandered through the crowd. Posters denounced the firing of health care workers, cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, the prevalence of guns, efforts to restrict voting rights, cuts to humanitarian aid, and many other topics. One simply said, “No signs big enough for all the reasons I’m here.”
The vibe was peaceful, joyful, and hopeful. It was a day to take a stand for democracy and the constitution, a stand for America.
I know some of you are thinking here she goes again with another political sermon. And you’re right. This sermon is political – not the partisan kind, but the kind that cares about the policies of our government, and how they affect those who Jesus called “the least of these.”
Yesterday was not just a day to take a stand for America.
For Christians it was a day to take a stand for our faith.
Listen again to these words from our second scripture reading today, in a letter written by Paul to his follower Timothy. He reminds his protégé that scripture is inspired by God, and equips us to do “every good work.”
“I solemnly urge you,” Paul writes, “proclaim the message, be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.
“For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth.”
The time that Paul warned about almost 2,000 years ago is upon us now.
Much of what is going on in this country is horrifying. That it is cheered on, supported, and led by people who call themselves Christians makes it even more appalling.
If we say we are Christians while bowing down to a convicted felon and sex offender, who encourages violence, disregards the truth, and treats the people he is supposed to serve with contempt, we are not following Jesus.
If we support making health care inaccessible to millions, and cutting funding for food stamps and humanitarian aid, we are not following Jesus.
If we cheer while immigrants are violently pulled from the streets, from their work, and from their homes; if we cheer when children are separated from their parents, we are not following Jesus.
If we approve of the denigration and degrading of God’s gay and transgender children, we are not following Jesus.
If we believe that the white race is superior to God’s Black, brown and Asian children; or that people of other faiths should be condemned or persecuted, we are not following Jesus.
If we believe that cruelty is a sign of strength, while compassion and kindness are signs of weakness, we are not following Jesus.
By going to the protests yesterday, by speaking out, by standing with those who are the victims of this corrupt and evil administration and the racism it promotes, we are taking a stand for our faith, a stand for Jesus.
We are bearing witness, proclaiming that Christian nationalism is neither Christian nor patriotic. We are reclaiming our faith as a force for good.
And those words with which I began this sermon, the words that so accurately spoke about recent events?
They were written on January 13, 1943 by Anne Frank, whose diary is now banned from many school systems across the country.
Horrible things were happening then. Horrible things are happening now.
Jesus calls us to respond.
Amen.