I’ve always had a special affection for July 4, although I cringe a little over the partying excess and shrill rhetoric that seems more prideful than proud, more cocky than grateful. And the way some still believe that the United States enjoys some special favor from God? We’re reading the founding narrative of Christianity in Luke and Acts. A great many nations and peoples are mentioned, but none would be us. Our Bible is everyone’s Bible; our God is everyone’s God – which is the delight and joy of it all.

And just as other nations have founders and founding days and celebrations and stories and songs and a proud heritage, we have good cause humbly to have ours, as God hopes we will, while understanding our humble place within the larger cosmos of what God is all about.

I wrote this blog, “Jesus and July 4” over a decade ago. You may have read it before, but I share it again – and it’s interesting to me to see how things have gotten… worse? since then. There’s certainly a different mood and tone in our country, and my bipartisan self is pretty sure God’s not delighted with our division and rancor.

Not to mention what we do with our freedoms – some good and noble, some petty and self-indulgent. Recall that the Gospel Peter and then Paul preached is that you are not free apart from God, and that freedom is God’s gift to you for you to use to serve God and others. The signers of the Declaration of Independence understood they were making serious commitments to the public, shared good.

Peace to you this day. Take time to be still, to listen, to savor whatever beauty there is, and pray for our country, and for our world. Never has the need for prayer been greater.