On the Greatest Freedom
June 28, 2026
Rev. Traceymay Kalvaitis

Psalm 13
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God! Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”; my foes will rejoice because I am shaken. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me.

Matthew 10: 40-42
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
***

Today’s sermon is titled On the Greatest Freedom.

For the third week in a row, we remain in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, the tenth chapter of the good news according to Matthew. The good news we find there, in the three short verses we are offered, sounds so straightforward; it is all about welcoming, giving and receiving.

It is with these few verses that Jesus concludes his instructions to his students before sending them out and into the world to be of service to all they encounter because Jesus knows that it will be through their acts of service that the nature of God will be revealed and hearts and minds will be turned and returned to the Source of all that is.

What we know of Jesus’s students, at this early point in his ministry, is that more than half of them were fishermen and laborers, one was a tax collector, and one was a political revolutionary. Later in his ministry, Jesus would lead his students in ministering to all people, Jews and Gentiles alike, but for the very first time they were sent out, Jesus sent them with instructions to only go to Jewish neighborhoods. “Go nowhere among the Gentiles,” Jesus says earlier in Chapter 10. Jesus knew his students would be welcomed more graciously by those with whom they already shared something in common. This was true then, and it is just as true now. I am sure you will agree that when we perceive shared similarities with another person, we are naturally more receptive and less defensive. Our brains are hardwired to react this way, Friends. This has been a key to our survival in the far distant past but now it has become the primary obstacle that prevents us from accepting one another and caring for one another as we should. We get so distracted by our differences that we lose sight of our commonalities, especially when it comes to religion.

I was taught at an early age that my ancestors fled their homes in England because they could not worship as they chose. What I was not taught is how fractious it became in this new land as so many different denominations established themselves. It turned out that people were desperate for more freedom for themselves but they were very reluctant to grant the same freedom to others. It was a long road to religious freedom in this country and the way was often marked by cruelty and violence in communities across the colonies.

The freedom of religion that we take for granted today has come at great cost. The upcoming anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is the perfect time to consider what freedom of religion affords us and what ensuring other’s religious freedom requires of us. I always thought we had James Madison to thank for our freedom of religion, but this week I learned, for the first time, that Madison was influenced by what happened to a Baptist preacher by the name of Elijah Craig.

Elijah Craig was the youngest of five children and he was born in 1738 when Virginia was still a colony of the British Empire. His parents were tobacco farmers, that much is known, and it is also known that in his early twenties, he began hosting Christian meetings in his parents’ tobacco barn. Records show that when Elijah Craig was 26 years of age, he was baptized by a preacher from North Carolina. Seven years later, he was ordained into the ministry and began work as teacher and preacher at Blue Run Church in Culpepper county, Virginia.* There was one big problem for Elijah Craig. He was not licensed by the Anglican church and the Anglican church was the official church of the Virginia colony. Clergy of the Anglican church were supported with tax revenues, so you can imagine that the word from the pulpit and the word from the Governor were in perfect lockstep; the survival of the church depended on it. Elijah Craig was not obliged to be a mouthpiece for the Governor. Twice, Eliah Craig was jailed for not having a license to preach. ”Instead of being bullied into silence by his imprisonment, he would continue to preach through the bars of his jail cell. It is said, on one occasion, that his congregation gathered outside the jail to hear his preaching.”* Craig was eventually released.

Years later, when the time came for Virginia to vote whether or not to join the new United States of America, lawmakers and influencers gathered from all over the state of Virginia for the Ratification Convention and the Baptists sent their own Elijah Craig. Legend has it that Elijah Craig and James Madison met there and this meeting solidified Madison’s assertion that freedom of thought and freedom of conscience could only thrive with the guarantee of freedom of religion, and furthermore, that church and state must be separate (note!) for the protection of the church. Madison was able to convince Virginians at the convention to vote in favor of joining the United States, but the vote was very close. Some key votes were won with the promise that they would also draft language for a separate document, a Bill of Rights which, “included what we now know as the First Amendment.”* The very first phrase of the First Amendment concerns our freedom of religion and the separation of church and state; it reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” The imprisonment of the good Reverend Elijah Craig was not in vain. We have him to thank, in part, not just for the freedom to worship or not to worship as we see fit, but also for the separation of church and state.

Before we close, I’d like to say more about the separation of church and state because there are not many times it comes up directly and yet there are always undercurrents. As clergy, we are trained to always relate the scriptures to the times in which we live or… what are we doing, really, except studying someone else’s story from long ago. As clergy, we are reminded that to maintain our tax exempt status for the religious institutions we serve, we can not endorse any particular candidate for office. As clergy, we are trained to follow the long line of prophetic tradition that calls all people to align with the higher laws of loving God and loving one another; the “state” is not exempt from this. Separation of church and state is not intended to protect the state from the church. Separation of church and state is intended to protect the church from the state. Churches do not receive financial support of any kind from the state lest they be beholden to further the agenda of said state. Faith communities have and, as long as our democracy holds, faith communities will continue to shape the values of “the state,” as we speak up for those on the margins and as we offer an extravagant welcome irregardless of our differences. In this great nation, freedom of religion goes beyond the practice or the lack of practice of religion; we are ensured freedom of religion and therefore we have a freedom of conscience. James Madison held the conviction that one’s conscience is “the most sacred of all property…and that one’s property was a natural right.”** James Madison would probably say that freedom of conscience, freedom to think for one’s self and act on one’s beliefs without fear of punishment is the greatest freedom of all. In one of the many letters between Madison and Thomas Jefferson, Madison wrote in 1786, “I flatter myself we have, in this country, extinguished forever the ambitious hope of making laws for the human mind.”**

In closing, and as we prepare to celebrate the anniversary of our declaration of independence later this week, may we carry a deeper appreciation for how the teachings of Christ support and encourage our democratic ideals, especially the freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, and protection of the church from the state. May we also take time to honor the interdependence that creates a strong and resilient society, a society that is strong enough to ensure religious freedom for all. So be it. Amen.

*https://solaecclesia.org/articles/the-elijah-craig-you-thought-you-knew/
**https://www.montpelier.org/religious-freedom/

Pastoral Prayer
Infinite Spirit we call God, I thank you for our pasts and all the experiences that have made us who we are, in this moment. May our lives be a testament to all we have learned along our life journey and may we be ever mindful to respect the chosen paths of our brothers and sisters, so that we not stand in judgment, but rather uphold each other in kindness and encouragement. Help us, Lord, to be kind and encouraging with ourselves, as well, and remember that all change begins with us. In accepting ourselves, may we be more accepting and more welcoming of others. May we radiate your love in all we think, say and do. May we all be ministers to those who are in need, giving of ourselves however we can. I pray for our nation this morning, Lord. May we grow ever more deeply into our democratic ideals and become a beacon of light for the world. I pray this in the name of Christ. Amen.

Benediction

I leave you now with the following preamble from our Declaration of Independence, signed on July 2nd and ratified 240 years ago today, in the year 1776:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”