Hello, and welcome to another blessing Sunday. Traveling with me on this path are
Abbie Johnson Taylor and

Lynda Lambert who shared the idea with me.

Tomorrow is June 14, or Flag Day. Less than 3 weeks from then is July 4, when America will be celebrating its 250 anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Lot of patriotism floating around.

America has grown from 13 colonies/states in 1776

to a country that literally spans “from sea to shining sea.”

My relationship w/patriotism has always been a bit frought. When I was growing up, the saying regarding it was “love it or leave it.”, which basically meant American could do no wrong, and if you called out injustice, you were somehow unpatriotic. I don’t think that’s how the founding fathers saw it, but then, how would I know? I wasn’t there.

My problem was, I was doing a lot of calling out injustices, primarily discrimination. Discrimination against those of color; discrimination against women or those who maintained different sexual & gendor identities; discrimination against those living w/disabilities. It wasn’t that I didn’t love this country. I just knew it could be better. And I definitively did not like the “love it or leave it” attitude. I still don’t.

I understand no country is perfect, and, because those who inhabit it and those who run it are human, it never will be. On the other hand, failure to acknowledge and correct those things we are doing wrong is nothing but cloying loyalty, on which the 3rd Reich thrived.

The Constitution and its Bill of Rights was designed to protect the rights of those voices crying in the desert for justice. Calling America out for those areas where she needs to improve is not unpatriotic–it’s our God-given duty. Those of us who raise our voices in dissent do not do so because we hate America. We do so because we love her and want her to truly live the ideals to which she aspires. Dictators flourish when people are unwilling to do that. Democracy burgeons when people demand that justice be served and won’t rest until that happens.

My prayer for this nation and for all nations and peoples who strive for freedom is Amos 5:24. “Let justice flow like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream.” NIV.

Father, thank you for the fact this nation has survived 250 years. It’s young compared to many nations, but old to others. We know we haven’t always lived up to our pledge of “liberty and justice for all.” Please forgive us where we’ve failed and help us do better. Please allow people to see that those who demand justice are not doing so to draw attention to themselves or annoy others, but rather because they long to see this nation achieve her full potential. Help us first and foremost to abide by your commandments and precepts, and speak the truth in love boldly, for only then can we be free. To God be the glory. Amen.