This Week in Montreat - Issue #5

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The Fourth of July

Montreat may have one of the most grand Fourth of July parades that occurs anywhere in this beloved country. And what fun we have at the parade! I hope to see you there on Saturday. Yet as we celebrate the Fourth of July and wrap ourselves in all sorts of symbols of patriotism, I believe it is important to remember what it is to be a patriot — at least from a Christian perspective.

A patriot loves one’s country, serves the well-being of one’s country, participates in the civic life of one’s country, and gives thanksgiving to God for one’s country. But a patriot, a Christian patriot, does not worship one’s country. A Christian patriot never allows one’s country to be the sovereign, the ruler, of one’s life. A Christian patriot never gives ultimate trust to one’s country. Only the Triune God is to be worshiped. Only the Triune God is to be ultimately trusted. Only the Triune God is sovereign. As the Brief Statement of Faith of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) declares, “. . . we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel.”

I think the late William Sloane Coffin, Chaplain at Yale University and later Pastor of the Riverside Church, New York City, had it right when he said, “There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good. The bad ones are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics. Good patriots carry on a lover’s quarrel with their country, a reflection of God’s lover’s quarrel with all the world.”[1]

Let’s have a great time here in Montreat on the Fourth of July. But let us also be good patriots out of obedience to God and for the sake of the well-being of this country and the whole world. Grace and peace,

Pete

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Courtney Kovaks is the Creative Assistant at Montreat Conference Center. She works on This Week In Montreat and the Sunday Worship Bulletins. This is her second year on Summer Staff.

Courtney can be reached at creativeassistant@montreat.org.