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Happy 250th Independence Day!
Many of you know that I am a reader of history and especially American History. So, this anniversary is powerful to me intellectually. You may also know that I am the daughter, spouse, aunt, sister and mother of combat veterans. So this anniversary is powerful to me emotionally. And my family has been here since before there was a U.S.A., so it is powerful for me as an American.
But I am struggling with how to find my way as a Christian. The forces of religious repression that are part of the origin story for this day are foremost in my mind. The desire for religious freedom, for self determination, justice and compassion is not unique to our national story, but it is determinant.
So, I ask myself, if I were a pastor to the founding families (not entirely unlikely, as so many were Church of England/Episcopalians) (though, I could not be their pastor), on what scripture would I ask them to pray.
I open this question to you. Imagine you are asked to pray over a gathering of leaders from across the colonies. What text would you ask them to hold in their hearts as they gather to break up with their King, as they compose and revise a founding declaration, as they passively and aggressively rebel, as they make the fateful decision to wage war…
Where would you begin to look? Would you look to the Gospels? Or Psalms? Is there something in the Wisdom literature or the Prophets?
Would you search for passages about courage? About liberation? About justice? Would you direct them to “put on the armor of God” or “beat their swords into plowshares”?
And then how would you pray for them? When they have left the room to take actions that would cascade across the globe and down through the ages… How would you pray?
Mindful of the fact that this war will pitch brother against brother and friend against neighbor, I might offer this bit from Amos:
Seek good, not evil,
that you may live.
Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you,
just as you say he is.
Hate evil, love good;
maintain justice in the courts.
Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy
on the remnant of Joseph.
As for prayer, as is so often the case, I would find the words I needed in the Book of Common Prayer:
Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
You remain in my prayers,
+Shay
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