In Celebration of Heroes

 In Celebration of Heroes 

A meditation delivered electronically by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer, August 23, 2020

Psalm 16:1-3; Hebrews 11:35-39a NLT

Today’s meditation might be considered part two or a follow-up meditation to a sermon I gave on August 28, 2011.  I’m sure all who were present at the Chapel for worship that day remember it word for word.

When I was a child and teenager, the weekend closest to August 17 (which actually was last weekend), meant a huge celebration to commemorate the birthday of our local hero.  On Saturday night and Sunday afternoon there was a huge talent show that drew dozens of musical groups and dancers who competed for 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place cash prizes.  On Sunday noon, the local Ruritan Club prepared hundreds of barbecued chicken plates.  On that one weekend of the year, a few thousand people descended on the small town of Limestone, Tennessee, to commemorate the birthday of frontiersman and local legend Davy Crockett. 

When Disney released the movie Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier in 1955 (which was filmed in the Great Smoky Mountains, by the way), the movie star Fess Parker made an appearance at Davy Crockett Birthplace State Park to promote it. 

Crockett was born on August 17, 1786, in a one-room log cabin on the bank of the Nolichuckey River in East Tennessee, five miles from my boyhood home.  I enjoyed a lot of happy times there, at church picnics and large family gatherings.  As I said, Crockett was our local hero and claim to fame.

But what was it that might qualify Davy Crockett as a hero?  Was it that he supposedly killed a bear as a child?  Or that he lost his life at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, alongside Texans fighting for their independence? 

Well, in my book, the indisputable historic fact that qualifies Crockett as a hero was that as a United States Representative, he took a stand for the rights of the poor settlers.  But even more importantly, Crockett stood up for the Native peoples of the Southeast and stood against President Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Act that drove thousands of Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and others from their homes and land and forced them to walk thousands of miles in the cold of winter.  Many of those native peoples died along the way from hunger, cold, exposure, and illness.  That horrible, shameful chapter in American history is now known as the Trial of Tears.  Davy Crockett was opposed to it, he reproached President Andrew Jackson because of it, and he voted against it.  And because he did, he lost the next congressional election. 

Now, Davy Crockett was not a saint or morally perfect.  Most heroes are not.  But because of the stand he took for the right on behalf of the wronged and oppressed, Crockett will always be a hero in my mind.

Well, events of the past few months have caused me to think a lot about heroes; and the need for heroes; and the lack of heroes who are willing to speak truth to power and say and do what is right and to stand up for the rights of the wronged and oppressed of our nation and world. Greed and political expediency and what will assure getting reelected seem to be of more concern than acting in the interests of rightness and justice.

So, I felt the need and got inspired to write a book, especially for older reading children and youth, on heroes who have stood for the right and issues of social justice.  I hope to finish that book by year’s end.  Davy Crockett is the first hero in the collection.

Turning to the scriptures, in today’s reading from Psalm 16, the author celebrates what he calls and the New Living Translation renders “true heroes,” those whom he remembers who are “godly” or do what is right.

And although the writer of the book of Hebrews doesn’t actually use the word “hero,” I think it can be deduced that in cataloging in that chapter the many faithful of old who were persecuted and mistreated for acting on faith, he would certainly see them as heroes, too.

A hero: one who stands for the right thing, the just thing, the equitable thing.  One who stands against corruption, greed, oppression, injustice, and systemic racism.

How we need heroes today in local government, Congress, the Senate, and the White House!  Such are places that you and I likely will never go.  But the world still needs “everyday people” like you and me who are committed to taking a stand for the right, just, and equitable thing, and committed to taking a stand against corruption, greed, oppression, injustice, and systemic racism.  And by that definition, any one of us can be a hero.  May it be so.  Amen.