Independence Day
INDEPENDENCE DAY
The great-grandson of an Anglican minister, George Washington, was raised an Anglican and practiced his faith his whole life. He kept a daily time of prayer and Bible reading (even in the midst of the revolutionary war), often appealed to the providence of God, and served as a Vestryman of a number of Anglican churches in Virginia including The Falls Church Anglican and Truro Anglican Church. One of the most famous depictions of Washington is Friberg's painting of Washington at prayer at Valley Forge, the winter encampment of the Revolutionary Army, in the darkest days of the war (which is on the cover of your worship bulletin). Friberg painted the scene for America's bicentennial from a description by Isaac Potts, recorded by the presbyterian minister the Rev'd Nathaniel Snowden in his Diary and Remembrances:
In that woods, pointing to a close in view, I heard a plaintive sound as of a man at prayer. I tied my horse to a sapling & went quietly into the woods & to my astonishment, I saw the great George Washington on his knees alone, with his sword on one side and his cocked hat on the other. He was at prayer to the God of the Armies, beseeching to interpose with his Divine aid, as it was a Crisis, & the cause of the country, of humanity & of the world. 'Such a prayer I never heard from the lips of man. I left him alone, praying.
The religious beliefs of the American founders are a topic of continual debate. On the one hand, the vast majority of the founders were baptized Christians raised up in the church and regularly attended Sunday worship in a variety of denominations throughout the colonies. On the other hand, if we study the writings of the founders, we find significant doubts in some of the founders concerning the core claims of the Christian faith. Most notably, both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were avowed deists who believed in a Creator God but denied the divinity of Christ. Famously, Jefferson created his own version of the Gospels by cutting out all the miracles. Even John Adams, though a great proponent of religion in public life, seems at times to express doubt concerning the core claims of Christianity.
We need to distinguish, however, between the doubts of some of the founders and the growing secularism that we find today. The major difference is that the founders had an educated and appreciative skepticism, while contemporary skepticism is mostly founded in ignorance or antipathy. The late 1700s marked the high tide of rationalism in western culture, a philosophical and theological movement that contributed to the American Revolution (and the much less successful French Revolution).
Grounded in the scientific advances of the preceding century, especially the discoveries of Isaac Newton, rationalism imagined the world as a place of rigid scientific laws. Rationalism fits well with the idea of God as a Creator but not as well with miracles or the doctrine of the Resurrection. The result was a wave of highly educated skeptics, who were highly interested in religious ideas, but found it difficult to believe in the truth of the Bible.
Thus, the skeptics of the founding era tended nevertheless to be highly supportive of religion, provided that its particular form was not established by the state. They understood and even relied upon the solid foundation that came from the historic faith, desiring only the freedom to pursue their own rationalist ideas. They were men of their time and prevailing philosophies (as we are today), but we mustn't forget that nearly all the founders, including those of a more deistic persuasion, were convinced that it would only be by God's providence that America could gain her independence and "win her liberties of old."
Skeptics they may have been (in the classical sense), yet they believed in the God of Scripture. And they understood that every single thing (their cause, the time and circumstance in which they lived) to be derived from the providential hand of their Creator. In other words, life and all of reality was subsumed within the Divine reality. There was no doubt in their minds that the Lord had given them this good land.
And we would do well to remember this today: that this beautiful and bountiful country in which we enjoy such sweet liberty and unparalleled freedoms is a providential gift from the God of Heaven. The rocks and rills, woods and templed hills; spacious skies and amber waves of grain; the purple mountain majesties who tower above-fruited plains… all a gift given from the hand of God. And unto whom much is given, much is required, as today's epistle reading from Deuteronomy reminds us, as it did ancient Israel, that the mighty God who has given us this good land for our heritage will judge us according to the standards of justice which our political institutions apply. "The LORD your God is God of Gods, and LORD of Lords, a great God, a mighty and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: he doth execute judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment." Thus, the Lord charged the nation of Israel to do the same; to love the vulnerable, the needy, and the stranger. God said, "Love ye, therefore, the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." Like Israel, our founders were strangers as well, who were given the new Canaan to settle and build up for the glory of God.
In our day, the American idea is suffering. It's not as clearly discerned as it once may have been; it's obfuscated far too much by unhealthy partisanship, secular orthodoxy, apathy, and anger; these among other prevailing pressures of this age, are corroding and chipping away at the Divine idea for our national life as it is expressed through our political and social institutions and activity. We have forgotten the most important ingredient, the one thing which binds any union, let alone a nation: and that is the virtue of charity. Within our national life, brother is sadly becoming an enemy. And how will we live up to the Divine ideal if brother is against brother and sister against sister? Will our differences and oppositions finally break the bond we share as citizens? Do our faith and the word of God allow for such finality of separation? Surely not.
The Divine national idea is union and diversity. It is a whole array of strangers brought together under the American idea, the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. Yes, with just as many differences as well, and yet one people, not peoples. At this present moment in our nation's history, I can think of no better response for American Christians than what our Lord tells us this morning "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." Only by consciously exercising the virtue of charity will we make the deliberate effort necessary to begin reconciling differences, helping the less fortunate, and exercising our rights as citizens to make this a more perfect union. I won't press this any further. Search your heart and your conscience.
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how, as an American citizen to whom the Divine gift of this great country has been given, how as one united people, we might attain what God desires for our national life. Christian, let charity be the impulse and guide of your citizenship. And let us, with one voice, commemorate this day of national independence with reverent thanks to Almighty God, our Creator, who sent his Son to free us from sin and death, and by whose gracious providence we live in a free land, free to do what we were made to do, to praise God, to glorify Him, and to enjoy him forever. Amen+
