Someone freely offered me pot on Independence Day Weekend in downtown Seattle. In Fremont, people exercised freedom of assembly to dress up like Zombies and shamble through city streets. North of Seattle in hickilicious Monroe, people celebrated by demolishing cars and freely flaunting their mullets. Everybody was celebrating “independence”.

John Adams said of Independence Day: “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.” While there is nothing wrong with fireworks displays, barbecues and parties on this memorable day, I can’t help but think that many Americans miss something important.

Most of the talk I hear about “freedom” has become blurred, abstract; instead of a historical marker about deliverance from an oppressive authority and deliverance to better governance, it has become a personal anthem for a rejection of all authority. This is not the heart of a Christian, encapsulated in 1 Peter 2:16: “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”

It’s important to put a cultural mindset like this in perspective, remembering that we are contingent beings, wholly reliant on God, absolutely dependent on our Creator and Savior for everything from our existence to our salvation. It’s important to understand rightly our state of birth, and our rights, properly contrast with the GIFT of freedom that we have in Christ. We have a King. His name is Jesus, and he has freed us from sin. We are His subjects, and thus subject to our King. Is this how we live?

Considering where we’re headed as a congregation in Northeast Seattle, Peter’s words are appropriate… but it seems God’s sovereignty has ensured its relevance to all generations, from Peter’s to ours.

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