Happy 4th! Let's try again

This weekend we celebrate our 250th anniversary as a country, a particularly special Independence Day. It is a time to lift up the best of our American ideals: liberty and justice for all, a home and a haven for those yearning to be free. Even though we have struggled from the beginning to live up to those ideals, they remain worthy of celebrating, inspiring us to strive yet again to bring them to life.

As our scriptures teach us, we humans have a long history of failing at our ideals. Despite their repeated attempts to renew the covenant with God, our spiritual ancestors fell again and again. We see repeated prayers of confession, contrition, and repentance scattered throughout the Bible. And as the Daniel Bible study discussed this week, those prayers remind us that it is not by our doing that we begin again, but by God's mercy and goodness towards us. We are the endless recipients of grace, in this country and throughout the world. There are no grounds for triumphalist nationalism here.

So we put on our red white & blue, join our friends and neighbors in a cookout, sing some patriotic songs - and ruefully, wistfully, and gratefully give thanks that despite our worst behaviors, our good intentions remain, and that God is still working to mend our flaws, guide our hearts, and bring about God's kingdom of love for all the world -- in this country and throughout all of God's creation.