Independence Day

A visitor from Holland was chatting with his American friend and explained the red, white and blue in the Netherlands flag. “Our flag symbolizes our taxes,” said the Dutchman. “We get red when we talk about them, white when we get our tax bill and blue after we pay them.”

“That’s the same with us,” the American said. “Only we see stars, too.”

Exactly 61 years ago, on July 4, 1960, the 50-star flag of the United States was flown for the first time in Philadelphia. The 50th star was added because Hawaii had been admitted as the 50th state only the year before.

We’ve had 50 stars for a long time. That feels kind of neat and complete, doesn’t it?

As human beings, we like certain numbers. And this goes way back. Since ancient times, people have attached symbolic significance to numbers. For the Israelites, the number one signified uniqueness or undivided wholeness. The Book of Deuteronomy says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (6:4, KJV).

Three is largely regarded as a divine number. When Abraham is visited by three mysterious men by the oaks of Mamre, he comes to realize that the Lord is visiting him (Genesis 18:1-15). Christians later affirm that God is a Trinity, one God in three persons.

According to The Oxford Companion to the Bible, the number seven signifies completeness and perfection. In ancient Israel, the great festivals lasted seven days, and every seventh year was a Sabbath year. Twelve is also seen as a number of completeness and perfection: Israel had 12 tribes, and Jesus had 12 disciples.

What did the apostles do after Judas betrayed Jesus and committed suicide? They quickly cast lots and selected Matthias to replace him (Acts 1:26). Eleven apostles just didn’t seem complete.

So here we are with 50 states and 50 stars — in the minds of some people, completeness and perfection. But life in America is never perfect and complete. When the Declaration of Independence was signed, 245 years ago today, its words described the beginning of a process, not the end.

It was a Declaration of Incompleteness.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” wrote Thomas Jefferson, “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The pursuit of happiness. That phrase alone shows us that our work is never finished.

On this Independence Day, it’s appropriate for us, as Christians in America, to look at where we’ve been and where we’re going. Sixty-one years ago, it wasn’t at all clear that “all men are created equal” because segregation was enforced in many parts of our country. People of color were treated as second-class citizens. It took a massive civil-rights movement to outlaw racial discrimination and move us closer to a society in which all people are accepted as equals.

And there is still work to do as we continue to strive for equality.

Notice how theological the Declaration of Independence is on this point: “all men are created equal.” It doesn’t say born equal — it says created equal. Creation requires a divine Creator, and as Christians we believe that “God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).

This anniversary is the perfect day to look at ourselves as people created in the image of God, with tremendous intellectual, spiritual and relational gifts. Psalm 8 tells us that the Lord has made human beings “but a little lower than the angels, and adorned them with glory and honor” (v. 5).

That’s who we are, according to Scripture. A little lower than the angels, adorned with glory and honor. And that’s who our neighbors are as well: the working-class family from El Salvador across the street, the single mom with three kids in the grocery store, the unwanted child in need of adoption, the wealthy attorney with a broken marriage and a drinking problem. It’s time to break out of our categories and caricatures and begin to see each other as equals — as brothers and sisters, created in the image of God.

Only then can we reach out to each other with love and compassion and understanding, accepting each other as the Lord accepts each one of us.

Today is also the time to focus on a life of service to God. The Declaration of Independence describes life as an unalienable right, but as Christians we believe that God has given us life so we can give it back to him. In Luke 20, Jesus illustrates this point quite clearly when a group of spies come to him, sent by the Jewish chief priests and scribes. They’re trying to trap him and hand him over to the authority of the Roman governor. They ask Jesus, “Teacher, we know that you are right in what you say and teach, and you show deference to no one, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”

Jesus perceives their craftiness, realizing that a “yes” answer will get him in trouble with the Jews and a “no” answer will put him in hot water with the Romans. So he says, “Show me a denarius.” (Jesus is pretty crafty himself, revealing that even these pious Jews carry Roman coins!)

“Whose head and whose title does it bear?” asks Jesus. They say, “The emperor’s.” So Jesus says to them, “Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Luke 20:20-26).

On one level, Jesus is giving a simple “separation of church and state” answer, which would certainly please Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Jesus is saying that we are to give to the state the things that belong to the state, including our fair share of taxes and other obligations of citizenship. Once we’ve taken care of the state’s business, we can give to God the things that belong to God. This is an important separation, keeping the state out of the church’s business and the church out of the state’s business.

But on a deeper level, Jesus is saying that the emperor’s money is hardly worthy of consideration. It’s as though he’s stating, “The denarius belongs to the emperor, so give it to him. It means nothing to God!” What really matters is that we give ourselves completely to God — heart, mind and spirit. Just as the image of the emperor is stamped on the Roman coin, the image of God is stamped on each one of us. When we give ourselves to God, we are giving to God the things that are God’s.

We do this whenever we use our intellectual, spiritual and relational gifts to advance God’s work in the world. Helping a young family develop a budget, praying for the sick and the suffering, gathering a small group for Bible study or a mission project — all these are ways of giving our life to God. We aren’t our own; we are the Lord’s. God has given us life so we can give it back to God.

This Fourth of July is also the day to concentrate on liberty and on the freedom we have as Christians. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were anxious to escape from the tyranny of the king of Great Britain, but our bondage today is to another tyrant — human sinfulness. In John 8, Jesus says, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (v. 34).

We understand how sin can trap us because we’ve discovered how gambling makes us want to gamble more, whether we win or lose. We’ve found that drinking problems tend to get worse instead of better until we discover that we’re powerless over alcohol and need professional help. We’ve come to see how cheating gets easier and easier until we get caught. And then we’re trapped.

But there is a way out. “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples,” says Jesus, “and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (vv. 31-32). Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. When we follow him, we gain freedom from sin and a new, abundant life. “If the Son makes you free,” promises Jesus, “you will be free indeed” (v. 36).

Each of us needs forgiveness. Each of us needs independence from slavery to sin. The good news is that we gain this freedom when we put our trust in Christ and follow him in faith.

Equality. Service to God. Christian freedom. Unless we focus on these goals, we’re going to find ourselves living in an increasingly segregated, self-serving, sin-saturated and self-centered society.

So let’s move a little closer to becoming a nation where all of God’s children can enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Completeness and perfection will never be captured by flags but will be found only in a relationship with the One who has created us and called us to be his own.

We will continue to declare our incompleteness until we are one with the one Lord God. This is a union that will happen beyond the stars …And the stripes.