Sermon

INTRODUCTION: In the Fall of 2003, by special invitation, Dr. William Sloane Coffin Jr., preached for the last time at Riverside Church. He was introduced by Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations. The time was six months after America’s invasion of Iraq. Dr. Coffin told the Riverside congregation, that there is "a huge difference between patriotism and nationalism."

"Patriotism at the expense of another nation is as wicked as racism at the expense of another race," he declared, and then added, "Let us resolve to be patriots always, nationalists never. Let us love our country, but pledge allegiance to the earth and to the flora and fauna and the human life that it supports — one planet indivisible, with clean air, soil and water; with liberty, justice and peace for all."[2] Patriots, “Yes!” Nationalists, “No!” So who was William Sloane Coffin, Jr.?

He was born in 1924, and died only two years ago in 2006. He was an internationally trained pianist, whose first of three wives was Eva Rubenstein, the daughter of Arthur Rubenstein. Coffin was born to wealth and upper class culture; in fact, his father, died on the steps of the Manhattan Museum of Art, where he was chairman of their board.

Coffin served as an infantry officer in World War II, and as a CIA agent during the Korean War. Afterwards, he decided to follow his uncle into the ministry and was ordained as a Presbyterian, and his ordination was then accepted by the United Church of Christ. He served briefly as chaplain at Williams College, and then went on to become chaplain at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Eventually, he was called as Senior Minister at Riverside Church in New York City, a cathedral built in the 1920s by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

He was arrested three times in the South due to his civil rights activities. He was founder of Clergy and Laity against the War. He presided over a service at Arlington Street Unitarian Church in which 185 draft cards and 173 draft classification notices were given to him, which he then delivered to the U.S. Justice Department. He and baby doctor, Benjamin Spock were arrested and charged with engaging in a conspiracy to counsel draft evasion. He went to Hanoi and accompanied three prisoners of war home. He led efforts against nuclear war and for peace. He was an ardent supporter of gay rights, and preached that only societies which subordinate women are harsh in their treatment of homosexuals. He said there is not one single mention of lesbianism in all of the Bible. And he said never forget that the Nazis put 200,000 homosexuals to death. And in 1961, at the request of Sargent Shriver, he created the first training programs for the Peace Corps, while on a temporary leave from Yale.

Now with that so very sketchy bio, I invite you to sit back and listen to some of my favorite quotations:

n What about the tax breaks that the current administration has put in place. Here’s what Dr. Coffin says as a Christian minister: “How Jesus would scorn the economic theory that says we must heap more on the platters of the rich, for only in that way will crumbs fall to the poor. Never in recent history have we had so blatant a plutocracy: a government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy.”

n What about the rights of the poor: “Given human goodness, voluntary contributions are always possible; but, given human weakness, legislation is indispensable….What we keep forgetting in this country is that people have rights, basic rights: the right to food, the right to decent housing, the right to health care, the right to education. Food pantries and homeless shelters are painful reminders of how the richest country in the world still denies fundamental human rights to the poorest of its citizens.”

n Should we really expect improved education, health care, environmental cleanup: “Were our government for the people, we would have the best educational system in the world, universal health insurance, a decent way of financing elections, and a massive commitment to sources of clean energy.”

n Why is charity such a need at this time: “Handouts to needy individuals are genuine and necessary responses to injustice, but they do not necessarily face the reason for the injustice. Charity is desperately needed in an economy whose prosperity is based on growing inequality."

n What about the claim that all that’s really needed is for people to find religion…to become good Christians…observant Jews…practicing Muslims: "Public good doesn’t automatically follow from private virtue. A person’s moral character, sterling though it may be, is insufficient to serve the cause of justice, which is to challenge the status quo, to try to make what is legal, more moral, to speak truth to power, and to take personal or concerted action against evil.”

n How concerned should we be about politics in Lee County, Florida, and the United States: "In our time all it takes for evil to flourish is for a few good men to be a little wrong and have a great deal of power, and for the vast majority of their fellow citizens to remain indifferent."

n My favorite on faith: “I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap and then you grow wings."

n What about the war on terror, as our president calls it: “There is nothing metaphysical about terrorism. It springs from historical causes – political oppression and economic dependence.”

n As to the war in Iraq, he states: “We support our military women and men; but we don’t support their military mission. They were not called to die for their country, but to kill for their country, all in an illegal and unjust was opposed by the UN Security Council and virtually the entire world. What more unpatriotic thing could we have asked of our sons and daughters than serving in the military?”

n Is it unpatriotic to protest the war: “When a government betrays the ideals of a country, it is an act of loyalty to oppose the government.”

n And perhaps my all time favorite about ministers being involved in politics: “You’ve heard it said that ministers should not meddle in politics. Actually that statement was first made by Pharaoh to Moses.”

So what to make of the life of Dr. Coffin and what it teaches us about living in difficult times?

"Hope is a state of mind independent of the state of the world. If your heart's full of hope, you can be persistent when you can't be optimistic. You can keep the faith despite the evidence, knowing that only in so doing has the evidence any chance of changing. So while I'm not optimistic, I'm always very hopeful."

I will always feel a debt to Dr. Coffin. Over the phone in December 1970, he agreed to come to Oklahoma City and speak at an anti-war symposium I was personally sponsoring in late April following. I had lined up a stellar list of speakers that was truly solidified when Dr. Coffin committed. Nonetheless, there were several of my colleagues in Oklahoma who were skeptical that the president of the National Council of Churches in New York, or the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, much less, the most prominent anti-war figure in America, Bill Coffin, would come to Oklahoma City for this event.

Sure enough, in early April, less than a month before it was to happen, I received a letter from Dr. Coffin that he was canceling because of over scheduling. Brochures, printing, and mailings had gone out.

So with my heart in my throat, I got on the phone and reached him at Yale. He explained that he had overbooked and he simply had to decline.

I said I understood. Then I added, “Dr. Coffin, so many of my colleagues told me, ‘Bill Coffin will never come to Oklahoma City.’ Every one of the speakers who are on the program I personally assured that you were coming. All the literature is in the mail, and university facilities are reserved. My United Methodist bishop has publicly criticized me for inviting you because of your opposition to the Vietnam War. If you don’t come, there are those who will think you probably never agreed to do so in the first place.” Then I was silent.

He said, “Wayne, you don’t make it easy, do you.” I didn’t say anything. Then he said, “I’ll be there.”

On the morning of the day he was to arrive, I received a phone call from his office that New Haven was socked in and he would be running late, and wouldn’t be able to speak to the luncheon of campus ministers’ from around the state. And even though it would be close, he thought he could make the 2:30 presentation.

As proof that there is a god, only minutes later, I received a phone call from Patience Latting, the mayor of Oklahoma City, whose campaign my wife and I had worked in. Mayor Latting said, “My son is at Yale and he said I had to come hear Dr. Coffin.” She said, “I talked to him this morning over the phone and he said that the weather’s bad in New Haven. Do you need any help in getting him from the airport?”

I told her his flight was running late, and that every minute would count once he arrived. She asked the time and the flight number, and said, “I’ll take care of his getting to the university.”

Unbeknownst to me, she sent her city limousine to pick him up and brought him to the university with a red-lights-flashing-police-escort.

When he arrived, he said, “I’ve been escorted by the police several times in the past few years, but this was the first time in a limousine.”

[1] A sermon presented October 05, 2008, as the first in a sermon series entitled, “PROFILES IN COURAGE: What the Lives of Others Teach Us About Living in Difficult Times,” followed by the Conversation Café of All Faiths Unitarian Congregation, meeting at the Crestwell School, 1904 Park Meadows, Ft. Myers, FL, with the Rev. Dr. Wayne Robinson, minister.

[2] Most quotes come from either What’s a nice church like you doing in a place like this? Compiled by Wayne Robinson (Word Books: Waco, Texas) 1972; Credo, by William Sloane Coffin (Westminster John Knox Press) 2004; or The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin, Volumes I and II (Westminster John Knox Press) 2008.