Dear Friends,
This weekend is Fourth of July Weekend. Each year, we set aside a three day holiday around July 4th to celebrate our nation’s independence. As fireworks fill the skies, we stare into the heavens – united in our pride regardless of creed or heritage.
This sense of American pride is beautifully captured in our Sabbath prayer book. The words are powerful reminders of our hopes and dreams as a nation, and I believe that they embody the spirit of Independence Day.
God, who has made us one nation out of many peoples, amid our diversities of race and tradition, unite us in a common love of freedom and in a high ambition for our national life.
Continue in us the pioneering spirit which led our ancestors across the estranging sea and upheld them in the wilderness.
Deepen in the people of this land a devotion to the common good, so that we may open new doors of hope to the neglected and the oppressed. . .
Help us establish this land in righteousness. . . (Union Prayer Book p. 121).
These words remind us that we live in a country where diversity is celebrated and ingenuity of thought and belief are part of the fabric of our national identity.
Indeed, each year we have a great deal to celebrate, and through our fireworks and picnics, we certainly do our share of rejoicing. However, if we fail to remember what the fireworks are all about; if we fail to appreciate the liberties we have been afforded and fail to defend the liberties of others, the Fourth of July will be just another day.
May the words of this prayer and the joys we plan to share with family and friends this weekend help us remember that we must constantly stand up for the core values of our nation so that in every generation liberty and freedom, diversity and independence will be guaranteed to all.
L’Shalom-Steve