A July 4th Blessing

"For the church to be a community that does not need war in order to give itself purpose and virtue puts the church at odds with nations... The battle is one we fight with the gospel weapons of witness and love, not violence and coercion."
_Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon (Resident Aliens p62.)

"I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity"
_Frederick Douglass

Today, may you especially remember that our God is a God of peace and of service, not of war and conquest. May you remember that freedom is indeed free, as Christ gives it freely. And as you celebrate with your families, friends, or neighbors may you find and remember what is worth dying for only to discover that there's nothing worth killing for. If you only have one allegiance to give, give it to Christ--the crucified servant who gives his life for the forgiveness of sins--rather than to any man's flag.

Who's your brother, who's your sister
you just walked passed him I think you missed her
as we're all migrating to the place where our father lives
'cause we married in to a family of immigrants

My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it's to a king & a kingdom

There are two great lies that I've heard:
“the day you eat of the fruit
of that tree, you will not surely die”
and that Jesus Christ was a white,
middle-class republican
and if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be
like Him

But nothing unifies like a common enemy
and we've got one, sure as hell
but he may be living in your house
he may be raising up your kids
he may be sleeping with your wife
oh no, he may not look like you think

_Derek Webb, A King and a Kingdom