On this 250^th anniversary of our nation’s founding, we have a lot to be thankful for. And while in our current cultural climate we are encouraged and rewarded for complaining and spreading doomsday gloom we as Christians must not fall into this temptation as we are commanded to “give thanks in all things” (1 Thess. 5:18). Nor should we allow the words “America is fortunate” to pass our lips. Fortune has nothing to do with the rise or fall of nations, “all good things come from above” and Job 12:23 teaches us that, “He makes nations great, and he destroys them; he enlarges nations, and leads them away.” Even in the Old Testament we see God dealing with non-elect nations such as Nineveh and Babylon. If you have something to be thankful for today it is a gift from God’s hand, not a twist of fate or the production of mortal men alone. I think all the videos from Europeans discovering our nation for the first time has reminded all of us how much we take for granted.

                God has shed his grace on America, he has blessed us, and as the children of Israel were commanded to do in exile we Christians who are in the world but not of the world should also, “Seek the prosperity of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord in its behalf; for in its prosperity will be your prosperity” (Jeremiah 29:7). America is our temporary home. She is the land where we lay our heads, build our homes, run our businesses, raise our children, and establish our churches. We celebrate that we still have freedom in our nation. Freedom to exercise our religion and criticize bad ideas. Freedom to pursue dreams. Freedom to fail or succeed. This is truly a gift that not many peoples in human history have gotten to enjoy.

                And as Anglican Christians we had a particularly special role in the founding of our nation. America was founded on Christian values but not just generic Christian values. This nation is the product of Protestant theology and Articles 37-39 in the 39 Articles of Religion show some early ideas that didn’t exist in Roman Catholic contexts that influenced how our founders thought about government. Of the 52 signers of the Declaration of Independence 32 of them were Anglicans. Our first president George Washington was an Anglican (you can still visit his church The Falls Church in Viriginia to this day). 24% of our Presidents have been Anglican/Episcopalian. The kind of ideas that shaped our nation were specifically Protestant in origin. Let’s not forget how big of a deal it was when JFK was elected (him being Catholic and all). You’d have Anglican vicars lead morning prayer then remove their surplice, take up a musket, and join the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. And let's not forget that Protestants abolished slavery not once but two times. Once in Great Britain thanks primarily to Evangelical Anglican William Wilberforce and then again through Christian abolitionists during the time of the Civil War and the 13^th Amendment.

                But what America got right that Britain got wrong was America does not have an established church. In Britian the Church is an organ of the government but here in the USA we have free churches all around. The Church has always functioned best as a prophetic minority, calling a nation to repent instead of being a member of its parliament. The “wall of separation between church and state” mentioned in the letter to Danbury Baptist Church written by Thomas Jefferson is meant to protect that prophetic voice from the encroachment of the state not the state from the voice of the prophet. We are completely free to preach the Gospel, call out sin, and ask our leaders to heed the voice of God in their decisions. It does not take an act of congress to make decisions in our churches, which again is a blessing. Even the idea of religious liberty stems from the Christian idea that conversion cannot be forced. It must be a personal decision. You are not a Christian by nature of your American birth but Christians are free to call people to freely repent and choose Christ.

                America has the world’s most powerful economy, the world’s most powerful military, we make the media, and we are a bastion of liberty on this planet. But America is not the Kingdom of Heaven. We must never forget the words of Jesus when he taught us how to pray, “Thy will be done, thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.” We should be praying that God’s will is done in America. That the way things are done in heaven are done in our nation. That comes first and foremost through the witness of churches and individual Christians spreading the Gospel in their own lives. This is our mission field and we aim to shape our mission field in the image of our future permanent home as much as we can while we are here.

                So, on this momentous occasion, an occasion that is a blessing and was never a guarantee, we ask God to bless the United States of America. We ask God to bless the churches that do ministry in this land. We ask God to convict the hearts and minds of our leaders. We ask God to protect our service men and women, our police officers, our fire fighters, and our EMTs. We ask God to give wisdom to our teachers and preachers alike. We ask God to bless and guide the parents who raise their children here. And most of all that he protects our free exercise of religion. Even in the days of the early church Christians desired the freedom to exercise their faith. In AD 155 St. Justin Martyr wrote his First Apology to the emperor of Rome trying to get him to cease killing Christians. In chapter 17 he wrote, “Whence to God alone we render worship, but in other things we gladly serve you, acknowledging you as kings and rulers of men, and praying that with your kingly power you be found to possess also sound judgment.” What Justin Martyr was asking for was not that Rome be a Christian nation to the exclusion of all of other faiths. But what he was pleading for was for the emperor to actually look into the practices and teachings of Christians (instead of relying on evil rumors) and judge for himself whether or not they were deserving of death. We don’t have to make those kinds of pleas and I pray we never do. Happy birthday America!