The Fourth of July
July 5, 2026
St. Dunstan’s
The Rev. Patricia Templeton
“God is not ashamed to be called their God.”
This sentence from our second scripture reading today, a letter to the Hebrews, has been knocking around in my mind all week.
That reading, like all those we heard today, is from the scripture lessons for the Fourth of July, the day we celebrate the founding of this country that we all love.
It is always a challenge to me when the Fourth is on or close to a Sunday. It is not a religious holiday, but patriotism and Christianity are very intertwined in our country, often in ways that are not healthy.
Wrapping the cross in the flag is an insult to our faith and to the ideals of our nation.
There has always been tension between our Christian faith and patriotism, and that is a good thing. What is worrisome in recent years is the conflating of the two. For many in our country being a good patriot is synonymous with being a good Christian.
Taking that a step farther is the increasingly loud rhetoric that conflates being the leader of the country with being a Christian leader.
We saw that a month ago when Donald Trump released a blasphemous picture comparing himself to Jesus. The president was dressed in white robes, healing a sick man in a hospital bed while light radiated from his hands and bald eagles soared above him.
We see it in many of our cabinet leaders, including the secretary of defense, who see themselves on a mission from God to turn our nation into a Christian country. We see it in the wrapping of politics in the authority of God, blurring the lines between faith, which always means Christian faith, and politics.
We see it in the chair of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, Dan Patrick, who proclaimed from the Oval Office last week that “no president in our history has stood more for God than this president.”
I find that statement appalling. And I can’t help but think that God does, too.
Commentator Heather Delaney Reese notes that this administration is following a well-worn authoritarian playbook on religion and politics.
“Franco wrapped his dictatorship in Catholicism and called it a crusade,” she writes. “The Taliban imposed religious laws and called it virtue. The Islamic Republic of Iran fused mosque and state and called it revolution.
“And in every single case, the faith itself was not the point. The point was that once you convince people that their leader speaks for God, they stop asking questions. They stop demanding accountability.
“They stop believing they have the right to resist. Because resistance is no longer a political act. It becomes a sin.”
The scripture lessons we hear today tell us what God desires in a nation, an important reminder on this national holiday.
First we hear that God does not take bribes and “executes justice for the orphan and widow, and loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.”
Time and time again in scripture we hear that this is how God judges a nation, by how the most vulnerable are treated – widows and orphans, strangers and immigrants.
So how are we doing in these areas?
Because of this administration’s policies there are now 5 million fewer people eligible for SNAP benefits, or food stamps, than there were a year ago. Many of those who are still eligible have had the benefit slashed.
Sheila Boyd, an 81-year-old woman from New York wasn’t kicked out of the program, but her benefits went from $298 a month to $24. “I’ve worked hard all my life,” she says. “This is just a slap in the face.”
These cuts come as grocery prices continue to rise. So do health care costs. In the last year health insurance costs increased more than 20 percent, meaning many of our most vulnerable no longer can afford coverage.
The vulnerable in this country are not the only ones affected by these policies. Trump’s cuts to USAID, which has provided vaccines, nutrition, and health care to the poorest of the poor around the world, have caused at least 600,000 deaths so far, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. By 2030 that number could climb to 14 million preventable deaths.
Before the drastic cuts to USAID’s budget, helping the most vulnerable around the world cost US citizens about $64 a year.
Looking at these statistics I wonder – is God ashamed to be called our God?
And what about how we treat the strangers in our midst?
Masked government agents kidnapping people off the street. Separating children from their parents. Deporting people to countries where they are likely to be arrested or killed. Throwing people in overcrowded detention centers with inhumane conditions.
Is God ashamed to be called our God?
Jesus tells us that we are to love our enemies; that blessed are the peacemakers and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
In our culture now we demonize those with whom we disagree. We bomb a school in Iran, killing hundreds of innocent students and teachers. We have turned the justice system into a tool to persecute those who dare stand up for true justice.
Is God ashamed to be called our God?
It’s a sobering question. So is this one. How do we celebrate a country that we love when so many of its policies are antithetical to the teachings of our faith?
I have been reminded this week that as Christians our first allegiance is not to the flag, but to our faith. To the cross, which stands for forgiveness, redemption, and new life. To the altar, where people of every nation, creed, orientation, and tribe are welcome as God’s beloved children.
To the words of the prophets and teachings of Jesus, commanding us to care for the vulnerable, the marginalized, the ostracized, and the poor.
I am reminded that resistance to a government that does not do those things is not a sin, but a sacred duty. That our faith demands that we speak out against injustice, and work tirelessly for peace. Demands that we protect the vulnerable and care for the strangers.
We are not now and have never been a Christian nation. And I pray that we never are. We are a nation where people of all faiths, or no faith at all, are welcome and valued.
But our faith’s values of justice and peace, welcoming the stranger, caring for the vulnerable are also values that have been part of our nation’s DNA from its founding.
As Christians we often fail to live into those values. As a nation we do, too.
Jesus called a world in which those values are lived out “the kingdom of God.” We haven’t gotten there yet, but he reminds us that it is near.
As Americans, too, we strive to make those values a reality in the lives of all our people.
That is the true American dream. We haven’t gotten there yet, but love of our country demands that we continue to strive for those goals.
This prayer for the Fourth of July says it well.
Grant us, Lord God, a vision of our land as your love would make it:
a land where the weak are protected, and none go hungry or poor;
a land where the benefits of life are shared, and everyone can enjoy them;
a land where different races, creeds, and cultures live in tolerance and mutual respect;
a land where peace is built with justice and justice is guided by love.
And give us the inspiration and courage to build it, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
If we do these things, then God will not be ashamed to be called our God.
Amen.