It doesn’t happen very often that we hold a church service on a national holiday when that holiday really has no direct or specific religious significance. As far as the liturgical calendar of the Church is concerned, today is the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost in the third year of our three-year lectionary series. But we all know that today is also the 4th of July, the national holiday known to the world as Independence Day.
For over 200 years Independence Day has been a time of great celebration. Parades are held, friends and family gather for cook-outs and get-togethers, and many places hold great fireworks shows like the one scheduled for later tonight in Pana. Politicians will make important speeches. The National Anthem will be sung, as well as popular patriotic songs like “God Bless America.” The name of God will be invoked.
In early July 1776, John Adams, who more than any other man was truly responsible for the creation and ratification of the Declaration of Independence, wrote a letter to his wife Abigail in which he said that this day “will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.” Adams’ prophecies about pomp and parades and celebrations were right on the money. But his prediction about this day being commemorated by “solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty”? Not so much.
A lot of people have never actually read the Declaration of Independence, but if you do sit down to read it, you’ll discover that God is barely mentioned at all. The final sentence refers to a “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,” the second paragraph says that all people “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights” and the first sentence makes reference to “Nature’s God” – but beyond those few vague references, God really wasn’t considered to be playing a role in the Revolutionary War or the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Today almost every politician will close his or her speech with the words “God bless America,” but don’t you sometimes get the feeling that they’re just mouthing those words, referring to a generic kind of god who can be whatever you want your god to be? A 2008 survey found that 92% of Americans say they believe in God – or at least they believe in some type of universal spirit. But 70% also said that they believe that many religions can lead to eternal salvation, and only a quarter of those surveyed believe that there is only one way to interpret their religion’s teachings.
So here we are celebrating Independence Day, they day that we all claim to be one nation under God. But does God really matter on our Independence Day? Does anybody really care?
When the Declaration of Independence was written some 234 years ago, most governments decided what religions – which denominations – were legal and which weren’t. One of the first Lutheran pastors in what is now the United States was a man by the name of John Ernst Gutwasser, who arrived in New Amsterdam – or as we now know it, New York City – in 1657. At that time the Reformed Church was the only legal church in New York. Rev. Gutwasser was met at the boat by Peter Stuyvesant, the Governor of New Amsterdam, who told Gutwasser to get back on the boat and go back to Germany. Since there were no Lutheran church buildings in New Amsterdam, Rev. Gutwasser was forbidden to hold worship services in houses or to baptize children. When he began preaching in barns, a law was issued forbidding preaching in barns. When Gutwasser preached in fields and on boats, it became illegal to preach in fields or on boats. After almost two years of hiding out from the authorities, Gutwasser was captured, arrested and forcibly shipped back to Germany. Five years later New Amsterdam was captured by the English – and it finally became legal to hold a Lutheran worship service in New York, but it took another five years before a second Lutheran pastor came to New York and the first legal Communion service was held in that state.
Now it may not have seemed like it so far, but my point today is not to give you a history lesson on this Independence Day about the Declaration of Independence or about freedom of religion in North America. But rather, I want to remind you of the true independence that we Americans, that we Christians, that we Lutherans truly have in Christ Jesus our Savior. For as we hold our celebrations and cookouts and watch the fireworks, it is entirely fitting for us to pause and remember that our true independence comes not from a piece of paper signed by men like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, but by the suffering, death and resurrection of God’s own precious Son.
In our Epistle lesson today, St. Paul writes: “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that he will also reap.” We like to think of the United States as the greatest nation on earth, the world’s champion of democracy and freedom. But we are increasingly a nation where “god” seems to be nothing more than a three-letter word, and in the name of tolerance – or perhaps just the fear of people making fun of us if we actually bother to stand up for our faith – the true God, the Triune God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit can seem to become less and less important in our daily lives. It can become all too easy to concentrate on our own faith in God and conveniently ignore the fact that others do not have that same saving faith. It’s almost too easy to say things like “In God we trust” or “God bless America” while having no faith or conviction that those words are in any way true. No, my friends in Christ, do not be deceived. God is not mocked.
Because Jesus suffered and died for our sins, we have been freed from the death sentence of sin – the sentence of eternal damnation in hell. We have been freed to live our lives as Christians who thank God for our blessings and who share that thankfulness with others. We have been freed to show and demonstrate our faith through good works and good deeds. Our constitutional freedom of religion – and more importantly, our unshakable belief that we have been saved by God’s grace and not by anything that we have ever done or ever will do – allow us to stand up and proudly confess our faith to anyone and to everyone, believer and nonbeliever alike.
When you hear today’s patriotic speeches and songs or while you watch the fireworks tonight, I’d like to suggest that you pause – just for a moment – and thank the Triune God for the freedoms that we celebrate on this Independence Day. Thank God for the blessings and privilege of living in a nation where we truly can worship whenever and wherever we wish. Thank God for the blessings and privilege of living in a nation where we can freely and without fear proclaim Jesus Christ and the true eternal independence that He has won for us. Thank God the Father for sending His beloved Son to suffer and die for our sins. Thank God the Son for willingly suffering the agonies of the cross so that we can enjoy the eternal bliss of heaven. Thank God the Holy Spirit for bringing us to faith.
Several days before the Declaration of Independence was ratified, General George Washington sent a letter to the Continental Congress, lamenting how badly the war of independence was going. Washington’s troops were outnumbered, they were hungry, they weren’t getting paid, they were losing battles, they were becoming fewer in number as more and more men simply gave up and went home, they didn’t even have enough gunpowder to fight new battles with the British. Washington’s requests for help seemed to go into a black hole, because it seemed like the Continental Congress was ignoring every report he sent them and everything he asked for. So after 15 unanswered dispatches, Washington wrote again and asked the Continental Congress: “Is anybody there? Does anybody care?”
Ask yourself those same questions today. Is anybody there? God is there. Does anybody care? God cares. And that, ultimately, should be the true reason for our celebration on this 4th of July and on any day of our lives. As Jesus told the 72 disciples in our Gospel lesson, “rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
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