Celebrate God’s blessings to the USA

Photo Mark Schroeder wearing green vest with cross — WELS President Mark Schroeder

This month, the United States of America is celebrating its 250th anniversary. It’s a time to look back to its founding and to the revolution that gave birth to this great nation.

In looking back, we certainly have much to celebrate. We celebrate the brave patriots who risked their fortunes and their lives for the sake of liberty. We recall the Declaration of Independence that so beautifully articulates the principles on which our nation was founded: “We hold these 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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” We recognize that this nation has been blessed with a constitution that limits the power of government and has established the rule of law. This nation enjoys amazing prosperity, to a degree never before seen in human history. The list could go on. We have much, as citizens of the United States, to celebrate.

But as Christians, we also have much to celebrate and to give thanks to a gracious God for the country we live in.

We live in a country in which the First Amendment guarantees the freedom to practice our faith in keeping with our beliefs. In the US, our pastors can step into the pulpit every Sunday and know that they will be able to preach the truth of God’s Word without restriction by the government. As a part of the religious freedom we enjoy, we live in a country in which the government has no ability to establish an officially approved state church or to enact laws that favor one church over another.

Another blessing is that of peace. Someone once said, “It’s not easy to teach a Sunday school class when soldiers are marching in the streets.” For the vast majority of its history, God has blessed the United States with peace domestically. Just as God used the Pax Romana (the Roman peace) to help the church grow and spread throughout the Roman Empire, so the peace that we have enjoyed has helped us to spread the gospel here in the US without fear and without the disruption that wars always cause.

We have the freedom and responsibility to choose our leaders through elections. With that right to vote, we have the ability to choose leaders who we believe will do their best to enact laws and policies that reflect our own biblical values and make decisions that will benefit as many people as possible.

The United States of America is not perfect. Its history is filled with failures and shortcomings. But the good things we enjoy far outnumber the flaws. So, as citizens, let this anniversary be a celebration of those good things. And, for us as Christians, let this anniversary be a time of thanksgiving to a God who has used the US to bless us and his church. Let it also be a time to keep this nation, its leaders, and its institutions in our prayers.

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