Tomorrow is July 4. Independence Day. I have complicated feelings about this country. I love it, and I weep for it because I know we can do better. When we pledge allegiance to the flag, we assert that this is a country "under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." We sing of "the land of the free, and the home of the brave."
As a Christian, I pray that it will be "on earth as it is in heaven." It is not, yet. Neither is our country any of the things we dream of being. That does not mean we stop singing songs of liberty, any more than we stop singing hymns of hope. It means that we remember we are not there yet. We have a lot of work to do.
If we are the land of the brave, why do we let fear get the best of us? If we are the land of the free, why do we pass laws restricting freedom? If we are indivisible, why do we focus on how we differ from each other rather than what we have in common? If we are committed to liberty and justice for all, why are so many excluded? And what on earth does it mean to be a nation under God?
To me, it means we are humble. That we remember God's dreams, God's imagination, God's creative genius are infinitely vaster than ours. Our currency says "in God we trust," but over and over again we prove that what we really trust is our own control, our own power, and that we will do whatever it takes to hold on to it.
I took this picture on a beautiful summer evening in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. Many of the buildings predate the Declaration of Independence. You can see the different flags being flown. Our country has been through a lot. But we haven't yet been able to produce a sunset like the one I saw that night.
I believe our Creator wants more for us than we can even conceive. This July 4, dream with me about how we can help this country become what we profess to be. Dream with me about liberty, about justice for all, about honoring each other so well that we become indivisible. Dream with me about the rights and responsibilities that come with freedom, so that we might create a more perfect union. And beyond all that, dream with me about the day all nations lay down their weapons of all kinds so that every person and all creation can flourish, free of fear.
Whatever your faith, or none, dream, and let the dream empower you to act. Tomorrow let's celebrate what we dream of becoming, and then let's get back to work to make it so.
And when I learned the pledge of allegiance, "under God" was not in it. I think we should have left it alone, so as to provide freedom of religion.