Themes of Faith from the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost: Independence Day

A Prayer of George Washington
I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have ... the State ... in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation. Amen

America, the Beautiful, Verse 2 by Katharine Lee Bates
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness
America, America, God mend thine every flaw
Confirm thy soul in self-control
Thy liberty in law

Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.


Excerpts from the Gettysburg Address by Abrahan Lincoln
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. ... It is ... for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion— ... that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Luke 9:1-2; Luke 10:1; -17, 19-20
Jesus called the twelve [apostles] together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. ... After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two and two before him into every city and place, where he intended to go... The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ ... See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’

O For a Closer Walk with God, anthem by Charles Villiers Stanford, performed by by the Trinity Choir of Trinity Church, Boston, MA, USA