The Rev. Dayle Casey
The Chapel of Our Saviour
Colorado Springs, Colorado
July 4, 2008

Independence Day
Deuteronomy 10:17-21
Hebrews 11:8-16
Matthew 5:43-48

“Americans Balance Patriotism and Reflection,” the headline read on July 4, 2002, the first Independence Day after the attack on the World Trade Center, as if patriotism were one thing and reflection another, as if patriotism were fireworks and flags and flag lapel pins and bratwurst and beer, while reflection is just something unhappily thrust upon us by September 11 – which shows just how far down the slippery slope we’ve slid, just how close to the bread and circuses of ancient Rome we’ve moved, because if patriotism is fireworks and flags and agreeing with the government, and not reflection, then we might as well throw in the towel, because, as our Founding Fathers remind us, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Both Sundays and the Fourth of July, both religion and patriotism, were made for reflection, for remembrance and for prayer. And because our vigilance is fleeting, we just forget. We just forget what freedom is.

“When, in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.”

And here Jefferson and the other Fathers of our political independence introduced the long litany of all the abuses they alleged against King George. I’ll skip those details, which are the stuff of a particular day in history, but I do want to share their final reflections:

“Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our Separation and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

Do we still believe all this? Not just those of here this morning, but we as a people. Are we still committed to these truths? Do we still believe that there are certain truths that are self-evident and that among them is the truth that it is God, and not government, who gives us certain unalienable rights? Do we still believe that because it is God, and not government, who is the author of liberty, then it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish a government when that government is destructive of the the just purposes of power? Do we still believe that it is not only the right of the people, but also our sacred duty, ”to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for [our] future security”? Do we still rely upon “the protection of Divine Providence” and appeal “to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions,” and do we still believe that the order of our common life requires that “we mutually pledge to each other” not the lives and fortunes and sacred honor of our Founding Fathers , but our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor?

If we today, in the Year of Our Lord 2008, are to measure our independence today by that of our Founding Fathers, then reflections such as these are what political freedom is all about, what just and proper government is all about.

And if we are to measure our freedom today by that of our spiritual Fathers, by the freedom of Moses and Jesus and the other Fathers of the Scriptures, then must we not also reflect on some other questions as well? Do we still believe that God is God of gods and Lord of lords, and that our true freedom rests in the measure of our trust in God’s promise, our trust in the One who brought us out of slavery in Egypt? Do we still believe that God also loves those who are not of this fold, and that, therefore, our freedom in God leads us to love the alien among us, because it was as aliens in a foreign land that God first loved us when he brought us into this promised land? Do we still believe in God’s mercy and realize, therefore, that our freedom in God will lead us to seek justice for the fatherless and the widow, as God expects?

Do we still believe that even this fine land is not our true home, and that real freedom leads us to follow where God beckons, to follow even as Abraham followed, living in tents, as Abraham lived with Isaac and Jacob as heirs of a promise, and longing for a better country, for a city with firm foundations, whose architect and builder is God?

Do we still believe that Christ has freed us, truly freed us as he freed St. Paul, freed us to choose what is good, and freed us enough that we are free not to choose those things that are not beneficial? Are we still committed, in Christ, to that noble freedom we just sang about, to the freedom to seek more than “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” committed to the freedom that leads to giving our coat as well as our shirt to him who just asks for the one?

Are we still committed, in Christ, to that noble freedom we pray for, to that freedom to love not only our neighbors, but also our enemies, and to pray for those who persecute us, so that we can be children of our heavenly Father? If we love only those who love us, what kind of freedom is that? Any old tax-collector or heathen has that much freedom. Do we still believe that Christ has freed us, truly freed us? Do we cherish our freedom in Christ enough that we can choose to put no limits to our goodness, just as our heavenly Father’s goodness knows no bounds?

Well, I leave it to you to answer all these Independence Day questions for yourselves. What Jesus insists, and what his Church insists, is that reflections such as these make up the substance of any patriotism worth crowing about. Without such reflection, tyranny and slavery prevail, and setting off fireworks and waving flags is just so much clanging of gongs and clashing of cymbals, as our fathers, both spiritual and temporal, remind us.

In the Name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.