For the last several days the media have been talking about the “July 4th weekend,” based on an erroneous assumption that because the Fourth is on a Tuesday this year, people would not be working on Monday. However, most businesses and government offices are open, working hard just as the Continental Congress did the day after it voted to dissolve its allegiance to the British Crown.
It was warm, very warm, in Philadelphia 1776 just as it’s pretty warm and humid now. But it’s July, we say. True, and now that the Supreme Court has ended its session, we’re now trying to make sense of its decisions. The Congress hadn’t yet put together a structure of the new government that would replace colonial rule but they had some ideas of justice, something lacking in some of the Court’s decisions.
The writings of the Founders made it clear that justice is not a narrow concept but a broad one, and would evolve to broaden even more. What may have been considered just in the past may not be considered just in the future. As Christians, we are not bound by the fact that societal structures in Scripture reflect ancient times; we consider the essentials and move on from there.
Prayer for the Day
Reveal yourself to us, Eternal Spirit, giving us a vision of the future;
Be visible to us tangibly as we are visible to one another;
Open our eyes so we recognize you in the faces of others
Whether they are people we know or in the world beyond.
Open our hearts in welcome as we encounter our brothers and sisters,
Making your Presence visible to us so we may make it visible to others.
In the name of the One who shares your Presence with others,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
The meanings of concepts and words change with use, and even the Supreme Court has admitted that the original perspective of the American social contract has been altered by the passage of time.
- David E. Wilkins, Lumbee Nation political scientist federal Indian policy
When the votes of justices in controversial cases can be predicted at the outset, constitutional law simply becomes partisan politics by another name.
- David A. Kaplan, from The Most Dangerous Branch
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark says from of old…
Psalm 78: 1-2