Dear Cornerstone Family,
Over the course of July 4th weekend, many of us fired up the grill and gathered with family and friends to remember and celebrate our nation’s founding. For Christians, this weekend is also an opportunity for us to pause and look up—not just at fireworks, but to our God—and to give thanks for the United States of America.
In light of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, the 53rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, passed the following resolution: “Therefore, be it resolved, that the 53rd General Assembly encourages all congregation in the Presbyterian Church in America to give thanks to the Lord for the United States of America as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Nation’s founding.”
As we celebrate this special anniversary, we do well to remember the familiar history of our nation’s founding. Shaped by English law, local assemblies, Protestant churches, and a growing sense of self-government, the original thirteen colonies increasingly came into conflict with Great Britain over taxation, representation, trade, and political authority. These conflicts escalated until the first shots of the War for Independence were fired at Lexington and Concord in April 1775. A little more than a year later, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Several years later, in 1787, the Constitution was drafted, establishing the framework of government we still live under today. Not long after, the Bill of Rights was penned which further strengthened our union.
This week I revisited G.K. Chesterton’s work, What I Saw in America. At one prescient moment in the book, Chesterton remarks, “America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence... It enunciates that all men are equal in their claim to justice, that governments exist to give them that justice, and that their authority is for that reason just. It certainly does condemn anarchism, and it does also by inference condemn atheism, since it clearly names the Creator as the ultimate authority from whom these equal rights are derived.”
Though Chesterton is right, America was founded on a creed. It is also true that we haven’t always followed our creed. Like each of our lives, our nation’s history is complicated, filled with noble aspirations and grievous sins.
As we join our fellow PCA congregations in offering thanksgiving to God for the United States, we are not turning a blind eye to the many ills that plague our nation. We are far from the country God wants us to be. In recognizing this, our thanksgiving should soar all the more for God’s immense grace and patience toward us. He has preserved us these 250 years; he’s given us what we haven’t deserved. For this I am deeply thankful; I am prayerful that his great kindness toward us will be a catalyst that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4).
So, this July 4th weekend, let’s give thanks to the Lord for our beloved nation. Let’s pray for our leaders. Let’s seek the good of our neighbors. Let’s confess what is sinful and cherish what is good. And let’s bear faithful witness in our nation to the otherworldly King and His Kingdom that is not of the world.
Your servant,
