July 1^st, 2007, Sunday observance of Independence Day, All Souls' Episcopal Church                                                                

“Lord God Almighty… Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain these liberties in righteousness and peace.”

From the Collect for Independence Day

      Three days from now, Americans will gather with family, friends and neighbors to celebrate Independence Day.  On the fourth day of July, 1776, in the midst of what we in Oklahoma and Texas have now come to regard as “the rainy season”, representatives of the Second Continental Congress signed their names on the Declaration of Independence and changed the course of human history forever.  It was an almost unbearably hot day on that Fourth of July in Philadelphia 231 years ago.  Horseflies from a nearby stable flew through opened windows and formed a swarm which bedeviled the delegates.  But, these brave and principled architects of our republican democracy had more pressing concerns on their minds.  They knew that by adopting this declaration they were in fact pledging to one another their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

       At first blush, “independence” may seem a rather odd principle to celebrate and apply to the founding of our nation.  In fact, although the founders were declaring their independence from Great Britain, duly stating the causes which impelled them to separation, out of a “decent respect to the opinions of mankind,” they well understood the utter necessity of remaining united in this their common cause.  Twenty-two years earlier, Benjamin Franklin published in his newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, a now famous political cartoon showing a snake divided into eight pieces, each piece representing one of the colonial governments, with the caption: “Join or Die.”  Unity had long been a central issue within the American colonies and later the American States.  Indeed, upon signing his name to the Declaration on that Fourth of July, Ben Franklin famously said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

       When the first Continental Congress met for its inaugural session on Tuesday, September 6^th, 1774 at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia, the very first thing they did was to have an argument.  And their first fight was about religion.  An attorney from Boston, Thomas Cushing, moved that the session be opened with a prayer.  John Rutledge, a lawyer and planter from South Carolina, a staunch Episcopalian and parishioner of Christ Church in Charleston, and John Jay, another Episcopalian, who would become Warden of Trinity Church, Wall Street, objected.  They feared that the Congress was so divided by religious opinion that an act of worship, even as simple as a prayer, might further divide the assembled body at a time when unity was essential.  Eventually, Samuel Adams, a one-time tax collector from Boston, moved that an Episcopal clergyman named Jacob Duche, Rector of St. Peter’s Church in Philadelphia, a son of the former mayor of that city, being a man of unquestioned character, might begin their proceeding on the next day with a prayer.  The motion passed, and on that next day, the clergyman, dressed in liturgical robes, chose as his opening Scripture a passage from the Thirty-Fifth Psalm: “Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.  Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.”  Perhaps that passage was on the minds of those members of the Second Continental Congress as they met two years later to declare their Independence and set a new course for the nation and the world.

       The founders of our nation in declaring our independence as “a separate and equal” nation were stating their intention that our country should be self-governing.  In doing so, they gave their assent to one of the most amazing documents in all of human history.  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men have been created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  They were declaring that these inalienable rights belonged to all mankind, and were not granted by the King or by any State, but were endowed by the creator Himself – by nature and by nature’s God.  This was a profound declaration on the very dignity of humanity.  They well understood the import and weightiness of this assertion.  It would come to serve as a beacon for all humanity, that shining city on a hill calling out freedom for all.  As Thomas Paine wrote: “He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violate this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.”

       Self-government requires unity.  The founders knew that their independence required a great dependence upon one another.  Their young country’s motto would become “E Pluribus Unum”, from the many, one.  One hundred and fifty-seven years later, President Franklin Roosevelt would speak to unity in his first inaugural address in 1933, on what he called “a day of national consecration.”  He spoke of our “interdependence” upon one another as a nation and how cooperation and a united effort would pull our nation out of long and devastating financial crises.  Surely, this sense of interdependence and of a common struggle for something much greater than ourselves is needed today as much as ever.

      Today, we must also recognize that self-governance means that we, each one of us, should govern ourselves, our own action, and our very lives in a manner which blesses the whole of our nation and humanity.  No person can be free and self-governing if they are ruled by the tyranny of their own passions.  No men or women can be free unless they are united within themselves, not allowing the tyrants of greed, envy, strife, bitterness, anger, malice, and hatred to make them divided and ultimately self-defeating.  How can we best celebrate Independence Day and pledge ourselves anew to this great nation?  We can do so by asking our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to make us whole.  We can take seriously the petition in our Prayer of Consecration, that we present unto God “ourselves, our souls and bodies” so as to be “a holy, reasonable, and living sacrifice.”   We can recognize that we are indeed our brother’s keeper.  We can follow our Lord’s direction to love one another as He loves us and care for the lowest and least of God’s children.

      If we do these things, then every Independence Day truly will be for us a day of national consecration.  If we celebrate self-governance by pledging to govern ourselves in the manner of a holy, reasonable and living sacrifice which brings a blessing to others, we shall inherit the great blessings of liberty.  If in proclaiming our independence, we recognize interdependence on one another, we may find ourselves a blessing to others and to the land we love.  We will live up to the high calling and sacred beauty of that much revered hymn:

America, America, God shed his grace on thee.
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.