Fourth of July 2023

My memories of the Fourth of July are set on the upper part of my parent's property. Dad would dig a fire pit and set up benches. He and my older brothers would build tables out of plywood and logs. Mom would decorate the tables ready for our relatives' pot luck offerings. Around three in the afternoon people would start to arrive and the fun would begin. The cousins would run around with sparklers and the adults would sit around the fire and reminisce and tell jokes. When the sun set the older kids would start lighting the fireworks and we would all ooh and aah at the pops, sparkles and the colors. My memories are quite idyllic.

The education I received in my schooling was also idyllic. George Washington chopped down a cherry tree but could not lie. Thomas Jefferson was a great scholar and architect. Betty Ross sewed the first flag for a young nation. Abraham Lincoln saved the nation. But, just like my memories of our Fourth of Julys, we soon learn that they are not quite right. Washington and Jefferson owned slaves, Ross did not make the first flag, and Lincoln might of won a war, but also wiped out a generation of Sioux warriors so that the white population could move west.

My brothers remind me of the things I missed from those celebrations - the adults arguing, my mom getting upset at some perceived slight. We must come to terms with the reality of our own personal history as well as the history of our nation and communities.

I love our country. It gave my parents a new start and allowed my family to thrive. It provided the world with medical and engineering break throughs. But, it is not a perfect nation. Like anything that involves the human race it struggles to do the right thing.

This is also true of the Church. It is easy to fall into the trap of nostalgia and thinking that if we just do it like we did in the past we can save the Church. We have to face the hard truth and stop looking through old church directories for the answers. We need to stop trying to be something that we no longer can be. The reality is that it is God's Church - and God's Church will continue to thrive. The question is whether we can open our selves up to the call of the Holy Spirit to join in. 

I love our congregation. It is a place that has brought people closer to God since 1886. This congregation is made up of a group of faithful people who long to help the world heal. This is a place where we have embraced God's beautiful creation in all of its glory. My prayer is one that reminds us that we are not called to our past but into God's wonderful future.

This Is My Song

1    This is my song, O God of all the nations,

a song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home, the country where my heart is;

here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;

but other hearts in other lands are beating

with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

2.   My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,

and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.

But other lands have sunlight too, and clover,

and skies are ev'rywhere as blue as mine.

So hear my song, O God of all the nations,

a song of peace for their land and for mine. 

3    This is my prayer, O God of all earth's kingdoms,

your kingdom come; on earth your will be done.

O God, be lifted up till all shall serve you,

and hearts united learn to live as one.

So hear my prayer, O God of all the nations;

myself I give you; let your will be done.

Text: Lloyd Stone, 1912-1993, sts. 1-2; Georgia Harkness, 1891-1974, st. 3

Text sts. 1-2 © 1934, 1962 Lorenz Publishing Company. Text st. 3 © 1964 Lorenz Publishing Company. All rights reserved.