It was the early summer of 1776 and the thirteen colonies were caught up in a spirit of independence. Over the course of the past year, the Continental Congress had stepped up its activities in cutting the colonies' political ties to Great Britain. In January of that year, Thomas Paine's provocative Common Sense hit the newsstands and sold by the thousands. By the time May rolled around, eight of the colonies had decided that they would support independence. In the middle of that month, the Virginia Convention passed a resolution that their delegates to the Congress be instructed to officially propose that the United Colonies become free and independent states.

It was Richard Henry Lee of Virginia who carried out that task in Congress with a resolution presented on June 7^th. It began with these words: Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved of all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

A final vote on the Lee resolution, however, was delayed because there were still some delegates who wanted to pursue a path of reconciliation with Great Britain. On June 11^th, the Congress recessed for three weeks with the intention of returning to adopt the resolution. At the same time, a Committee of Five was appointed to draft a statement expressing to the world the colonies' case for independence.

This Committee consisted of John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Livingston, and Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, of course, was elected to write a draft, which he did, submitting it to the others for corrections. By the end of June, a final version of the Committee's work was ready for Congress when it reconvened on the first of July.

On the 2^nd of the month, the Lee Resolution was adopted by 12 of the 13 colonies, New York not voting. Then the Congress took up the declaration. There was spirited debate and additional changes were made. All through July the 3^rd and into the late afternoon of the 4^th of July, revisions were made. Then, at last, church bells rang out over Philadelphia as the Declaration of Independence was officially adopted.

One of the most common misconceptions about the Declaration is that it was signed on July the 4^th. Actually, it was not until the document was engrossed - re-written in a large, clear hand - that the members of Congress signed it. That process began on August the 2^nd, with John Hancock - the President of the Congress - placing his "john hancock" in the center of the parchment, just below the text. Then the other delegates signed, their signatures arranged according to the geographic location of their states, beginning with New Hampshire to the north, and ending with Georgia to the south.

And each signature represents incredible courage, for in the very face and presence of what was then an occupying, oppressive, colonial power, these people stood up and declared what they believed:

And in the declaration of the truth that they believed, these people planted the seed that blossomed into a new hope-filled nation - America.

I think it is good to remember these things. Not only to learn from them the lessons of history, along with an appropriate sense of national respect and pride, but also to see in them the divine principles that lay behind the establishment of good things of life.

I've been wrestling this week with our lectionary text from the 10^th chapter of Luke. How can we relate our 4^th of July celebration as a nation with this simple story about seventy of Jesus' followers sent out to heal, and to cast out demons, and to preach good news?

Although I don't want to force a connection between the two, I do see a common thread.

You see, both the Scripture passage and this holiday are, at their core, about courageous people stepping out into the dark reality of the world as it is, and declaring an ALTERNATE REALITY - a NEW reality of a DIVINE truth.

Yes, you are oppressed by an unresponsive and unjust colonial power, but there is an alternative: God created you to be free!!!

Yes, your lives are broken and torn apart by the injustices of life - by sin and sickness and indignity and unfairness and even death. But there is a greater reality that can overcome the present one and it is that God LOVES you and wants to lift you to new life!

The truest moments of human progress and change, I believe, come when someone stands up in the midst of darkness and declares, "I believe in the light!"

Now take a look at this passage with me and discover some really neat things about how this can be applied.

First of all, notice that it says in verse 1 that Jesus sent the seventy ahead of him to every town and place he himself intended to go.

I think it was the great Episcopalian Christian Agnes Sanford who once wrote about standing in her kitchen window every day and watching as the alcoholic man who lived next door came staggering home. She thought to herself, "There goes a lost, shameful, poor-excuse-for-a-man! Poor Alice, having to put up with a man like that!"

I must confess, that's not unlike how I look at people sometimes. How about you?

Well, one day Agnes Sanford was studying her Bible and being confronted by the challenge to try seeing other people not through our own human eyes, but through God's eyes. Then she thought of the alcoholic guy next door. She wondered what God saw when he looked at him?

A short while later, she was standing at her kitchen window when the fellow stumbled up the walk to his house. Agnes took a deep breath and forced herself to not think to herself, "There goes a hopeless drunk". Rather, she said out loud, "There goes a man who God loves!" And from that time on, she took up the discipline of spiritually affirming this man as one of God's children, as someone Jesus gave his life for, as someone the kingdom is promised to. And she found that new attitude changing the way she related to the man when they were together, and they ven became friends.

And Agnes Sanford says, within six months, the man had sobered up and was in recovery!

Was it because of her changed attitude toward him? I don't know the answer to that. What do you think? Even Agnes Sanford wouldn't try to analyze it. But what we do know is that Jesus does send us to others - to those who are hurt and broken by life. And we can go to them with the confidence that we are going to those people and places where he himself intends to go! In a sense, we are going to prepare the way for his arrival in peoples' lives! And when we do that, it so often happens that new life is born, and people change, and even nations emerge.

Jesus sent them to every town and place where he himself intended to go.

This week, as you step out into the lives of others, do so knowing that Jesus intends to pass that way. You are preparing people for his arrival, in the midst of the reality they face.

A second point of interest is found in verses 9 and 11. Jesus tells his followers to declare to those to whom they go that the kingdom has come near!

You know, one of the questions I have wrestled with over the years is why Jesus didn't heal everyone. If you are a student of the Bible, I might invite you to read through the Gospels and record the number of healings Jesus performed. You'll be surprised to find out that there are not as many as most people presume. And not only that, but what is the point of a healing if we all ultimately die? That's the particular struggle that goes with a story like the one of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Do you remember? Well, didn't Lazarus eventually die again? Some of you know that you can visit the tomb of Lazarus even today when you travel to the Holy Land.

So what's he point of a healing if it doesn't last?

The Bible teaches us that the healings of Jesus were intended to be signs of the kingdom. The raising of Lazarus from the dead was a visible foretaste of what will one day be when the kingdom comes. In God's kingdom, death is not the final word on our lives! In God's kingdom, the dead will be raised! In God's kingdom, families will be reunited and sorrow will be turned to joy! And the raising of Lazarus is a sign of that great hope!

And ever since Jesus gave us this sign - this foretaste - of what will one day be, Christians have gathered in hope around the death of their loved ones. We saw that last Thursday here in our own church as Matt Brennan's family and friends gathered to celebrate his life. And as they did, the very words of the Lazarus story were repeated: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives believing in me, shall never die!"

A sign that God knows, that God cares, and that God promises the Brennans and all of us that the kingdom is near.

One of the most important things we Christians are called to do is to step out every day into the reality of peoples' lives and hold up signs of the presence of the kingdom of God.

Jesus said, "Say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you!'"

In just a few moments, we are going to gather around the Communion Table. The Table itself is a symbol of what we're talking about today for the 23^rd Psalm declares that God prepares a table before us

But, do you remember where the table is prepared in the psalm?

Why, in the presence of our enemies! In the shadow of the government that oppresses us, or the sickness that threatens us, or the sin that unravels us, or the force that breaks our hearts. Why, the table is prepared for us in the shadow of the divorce we're going through, or the struggle of our child's problem, or the challenge of a great societal need. In the presence of our enemies...

...a table is set.

And its the sign of God's presence. A sign that Jesus intends to come to us. A sign that the kingdom is near. A sign that there is a greater reality than the problem we face! A sign that there is hope!

This week, will you stand up for this greater reality? Will you bear its signs to the people you meet?

The greatest moments of human progress and change come when someone stands up in the midst of darkness and declares, "I believe in the light!"

That's how America was born. That's how new birth occurs among people.

God bless America.

And God bless you...for the moments this week when you bring the kingdom near to someone God loves!