Thought for Today
Psalm 32:11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.
Psalm 118:24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Luke 24:1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. . . 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.
Happy 4th of July. Happy 250th anniversary of the approval of the Declaration of Independence.
Obviously, this morning 2 different thoughts are ‘dancing’ in my mind. First is an earworm. Running on a loop is the hymn This Is the Day. Les Garrett wrote this hymn in 1967 based in large part on those verses above. The first line begins, “This is the day., this is the day that our God has made, that our God has made; we will rejoice, we will rejoice and be glad in it, and be glad in it.”
This is not a patriotic hymn. There are patriotic hymns included in many hymnals, hymns such as The Star Spangled Banner, America, The Battle Hymn of the Republic. We sometimes even sing those hymns during worship, especially when July 4th comes on a Sunday. But, this is the hymn looping through my mind on this July 4th.
On more levels than any of us want to admit, ours is currently a much-divided country. Pick a topic, politics, religion, ethnicity, culture, food or sports, we are divided. While hosting the World Cup has been positive in many ways, it has also reminded us of some of our divisiveness.
It is easy to forget that ours is a nation born of division. We knitted together 13 separate and somewhat diverse colonies. The colonists of those 13 came from different regions of the British Empire and came for different reasons. Some came to find new hope for social and/or economic advancement. Others came for the freedom to worship as they thought most appropriate.
In our current understanding of ‘separation of church and state,’ it is easy to lose sight of the glaringly obvious truth that our Founding Fathers were at least nominally Christian. “The majority of the signers were members of Christian churches, including Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Quaker, Lutheran, and Baptist denominations, reflecting the dominant Protestant traditions in colonial America. Only one signer was Roman Catholic – Charles Carroll of Maryland - and no signer openly denied Christ or Scripture . . .” (Bing.com)
I believe our Founding Fathers would have found This Is the Day a very appropriate hymn to sing on July 4th. The Declaration and our Constitution are the foundation for a better, more just society embodying the idea of “Luke 10:27 love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
Are we there yet? Have we ever fully attained the goal of such a society? Not yet! We are still striving toward our goal. We can (and do) argue about whether or not we are hurrying as fast as we can. But, we are trying. Irrespective of our faith tradition or lack thereof, all can accept the Christian ‘motto’ that we are not perfect, we are just forgiven.
As a Christian, as I celebrate July 4th I must also be very careful not to fall into a sort of national supersessionism, “The belief that on the basis of the coming of Jesus as the Messiah (Christ), the Christian church has superseded Israel as the chosen, covenant people of God.” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, pg. 273.
Christians in the U.S.A. and in every other nation need to pay careful heed to Jesus’ own words, “Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." The personal pronoun in Jesus’ words is plural. Jesus’ promise is to be with all of God’s children to the end of the age.
Stay safe, celebrate this day, trust God,
Pastor Ray