On Sunday at the 10:30 service, the side doors were opened, and a nice breeze was blowing through the front of the church. The wind caught the normally languid American flag, and for a few moments it was caught in the breeze, proudly fluttering like its outdoor brethren.
The first thing I felt when I saw the flag flying in the breeze was pride, followed shortly by awe. What a wonderful thing, for the flag to be flying INSIDE the church! Surely this was a God moment. But then my mind caught up with my heart, and my enthusiasm was tempered. I get antsy and uncomfortable tying God to country; as Paul wrote several times, there is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female, but all are one in Christ Jesus. This doesn’t mean I’m not proud to be an American.
I am proud to be an American, in the same way I’m proud to be an Episcopalian, a Hoosier, and a Shelby. These are all part of who I am as a person, and all of these things have shaped who I am, for good and for ill. I love our church, and I have never been a part of any other denomination, but that doesn’t mean I think we are without fault. Far from it; the same goes for being an American, Hoosier, and Shelby. We can be proud of who we are and still recognize that we aren’t perfect, and in the same way, while we are pointing to our failures, we do well to remember our successes.
On July 4, we will celebrate the day we declared our independence from England; for 250 years, we have been a work in progress. We are not perfect, but neither are we finished. We can love our country and recognize our faults, but unless we are actively working to correct the wrong we see in the world, we are nothing more than a noisy gong or clanging cymbal.
Our founders never expected us to be blindly obedient; we are all of us called to help shape this land of ours. I give thanks that I had the privilege of being born here, and I pray to use the gifts that God has given me to further the Kingdom, for though I am many things, I am first and foremost a child of God.
The Rev. Jason Shelby
Rector