Worship on July 7, 1776
Photo by Eric Wiser on Unsplash
Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
-- 2 Cor. 3:17 (KJV)
On the evening of Thursday, July 4th, 1776, the vestry of Philadelphia’s Christ Church was busy.
The rector, also a chaplain to the nearby Continental Congress, and others had met to alter their Book of Common Prayer from prayers for the King of England to a prayer for a new nation: “That it may please thee to endue the Congress of the United States & all others in Authority, legislative, executive, & judicial with grace, wisdom & understanding, to execute Justice and to maintain Truth.” Prayers for the King got struck out. Another church quite literally cut and pasted in new sections.
Worshippers on Sunday, July 7th might have been surprised by something else. The Continental Congress required that once a liturgy or worship service had ended, all ministers were then to read the new Declaration of Independence from their pulpits. I’m sure some churches did that again for America’s 250th Birthday.
The first Congress was a religious body. Many members were deeply devout believers. Chaplains were appointed, prayer was recited before every session, and daily worship was held. Members personally fasted and prayed for guidance on how to form and lead this new nation. They held those “truths to be self-evident, 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.”
When you worship next, think about how much courage and faith these men, and the women who supported them, needed to give us the freedom to choose a church and worship God as we see fit. Think about the courage it took for Jesus to willingly go to the Cross.
The Continental Congress may have risked their lives set us free from Great Britain, but only Christ’s death offers true freedom from sin.
For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. (Romans 6:7, NLT)
Questions for Reflection:
1. Does freedom from sin mean that Christians never sin?
2. What does it mean to “die with Christ”?
