The Fourth of July is coming up this coming Sunday. We have recently started calling this holiday simply “The 4th of July” but it’s proper name is “Independence Day” as we celebrate our independence of our country from Britain on this day. As a nation, we wrote this thing called the “Declaration of Independence” which outlined why our nation was no longer going to be under the rule of King George III. In some ways, the moment feels like of “Lutheran” to us, as we remember that Luther broke ties with the ruling power of his day, the Roman Catholic church. And so because of that, sometimes we start to think that “independence” is a spiritual value. But is it?
Independence is often what gets us into spiritual problems. We declare our “independence” from “tyrants” like the Church or the Bible or other Christians. Perhaps we even imagine that we would be better off on our own – that perhaps if we had a good Bible (to interpret ourselves), a good cup of coffee, a good Christian music playlist, and maybe a decent Christian podcast (that agrees with us), we could declare ourselves independent of the Church. Or maybe we even go as far as to think that if we could just be free of God, then we would be better off.
Certainly, God is no fan of tyranny. Jesus Himself warns His disciples against the ways of those who lord power and authority over others. But He stops short of saying that independence is an ultimate good. Rather, if anything, Jesus seems to advocate for a radical dependence: a dependence upon God, upon our brothers and sisters in Christ, and even a dependence upon our neighbor. Jesus recognizes that there is something healthy happening in us when we go to another and say, “I need you.” He even invites us to come to God and say “I need you” every day of our lives.
So this Sunday, let’s celebrate our independence as a nation and let’s celebrate all of the good things that our independence has meant for our citizens and even the world. But let’s also celebrate our radical dependence upon God and upon one another. Let us go to God and say “I need You, Lord” and let us even go to our Christian brothers and sisters, even to our neighbors, and let us say “I need you” to them. Perhaps what we will find out is that there is a power in making this 4th of July our “In Dependence Day”.