July 3, 2026
Dear church,
Tomorrow is the 4th of July and this year marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. For most of us, it is a complicated day. There are things about our country very worth celebrating, and there are also things about our country that we lament and decry because they avidly work against our founding principles and turn us away from the vision God has for the world. The presiding bishop of the ELCA, Rev. Yehiel Curry, has written a reflection in light of tomorrow’s celebrations, naming how we can hold gratitude and humility together at the same time.
I’ve shared a portion of it below - the full text can be accessed here.
May you find ways to celebrate that are both honest and hopeful. Our faith can hold it all.
In Christ,
Pastor Sarah
America at 250: Holding gratitude and humility
Dear church,
As we look toward the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, many of us will celebrate with fireworks, parades and barbecues. Independence Day often brings us together with family and friends. Yet there is more that connects us than our communal celebrations. We are also connected through a common vision.
Signed in 1776, the Declaration of Independence proclaims a vision of equality for all people. While there were other nations pushing for equality at the time, the declaration was and is a monumental document in the way it names the aspiration so boldly. As we observe and celebrate the 250th anniversary of that signing, we also affirm the vision of freedom and equality it casts. We can be grateful.
And with contrition and humility, we acknowledge all the ways we have failed to embody that vision. As Lutherans, we know the importance of naming realities for what they are. As citizens, we confess the ways we have not yet realized the vision of the Declaration of Independence and, more importantly, as Christians we confess the ways we have participated in or been complicit in failures to live into the vision God provides.
The history of the United States is complex, and all too often we have fallen short of our stated values. Indigenous peoples across this land have been forced to cede their ancestral homes and pushed to reservations. Women and men have been prevented from voting because of their sex and race and spat on and jailed when they demanded their rights. Japanese American families were interned during World War II. Queer and transgender people’s lives are obstructed by federal and state orders.
Holding both the failures and the vision in our hearts and minds, I invite us to ask ourselves, “What does it mean to celebrate a promise that is real and yet still unfolding? What does it mean to be a people who always live in ‘the already but not yet’”?
As we celebrate 250 years of the Declaration of Independence, we can hold gratitude and humility, possibilities and shortcomings. We continue to live in the already and the not-yet. We celebrate this occasion neither as a perfect nation nor as a perfect church but as a people held in God’s grace and called into community in service to all neighbors and for the sake of the world God so loves.
In Christ,
The Rev. Yehiel Curry
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
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