Thoughts on Independence Day…

God, I’m grateful for the beautiful land, 50 states of remarkable grandeur.  I thank you for our founders who established the ideals of democracy, a new impulse in human history which began to be made real in 1776.  I offer thanks for the many peoples who have come to the U.S. from so many nations, the tired, poor, and the huddled masses.  And I’m grateful for the freedom of speech.

O, divine physician, come to us.  Our wounds are so much more palpable as we make others pay the price for letting them fester.  What pain is coming to the surface!  What rage!  Is there balm in Gilead to heal?

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters;  only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.  For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’  If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. (Galatians 5: 13-15)

In this land of plenty, so many still hunger.  Even the rich seek more and more.  Our hunger is insatiable, O God.  What diet would help us be nourished by what we have so we may feed others at the same time?  Teach us your way.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.