Celebrating the Life of Our Nation

O God, our help in ages past, today we give thanks for that which happened in many beginnings, in the beginning of the world, and in the beginning of our nation 200 years ago, and for those who dreamed dreams, and framed those dreams for a nobel experiment in man’s relationship to God and man.

As we remember this day in history when our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence, we remember too, that what they did was possible only because they had affirmed their dependence on your providence, as today we affirm our dependence on you as the source of our freedom from sin’s power over us, and as the hope of tomorrow.

As our fathers were used in the beginning of this nation, and made themselves available even to the point of total sacrifice of their lives, their Fortunes, and their Sacred Honor, show us, O Lord, how to move out of ourselves and our self-centeredness.  Give us the gift of a great caring for our nation, a great love of righteousness and right living.  Make us conscious of the price paid for what we enjoy in this good land, and them help us respond in concern for our posterity, as they fought for theirs.

Our founders sought freedom, justice, and peace, may we also strive for them today.  Let us love the good in our country more than we hate the evil, remembering the truth that evil must be overcome with good.  Deliver us from narrow affections and partisan considerations, that our hopes may be inclusive rather than exclusive, and that our spirit be to share rather than hoard.  That which is evil in us let it die; that which is good let it grow, until there is brotherhood from sea to shining sea, and we become in truth, as in hope, America the Beautiful.

To that end, renew our confidence in the nobility of the dreams of our forefathers and our own, while we acknowledge our mistakes and failures.  Forgive us for our pride in our own righteousness; turn our might as a nation to creation instead of destruction.  And set up on the path to another centennial which may be marked by the fruit of the Spirit.

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