It’s Sunday! And as happens every so often it is also a High Holy Day of American Civil Religion: July 4th.

But it’s Sunday and that’s the day I try to remember to count my blessings and pause to remember all the things in my life for which I’m grateful. So, I’m going to go ahead and do that.

• I’m grateful for the accident of birth that allows me to live in this country. With all it’s warts and arguments and wrong-headed selfish policy makers it’s still a lot better than many places.
• I’m grateful that there are a lot of people like me that love this country enough to point out where we get it wrong and work to get it right. I’ll call them Progressives, just to be clear.
• I’m grateful that my church community does not push a single political agenda. While I’m frustrated sometimes that we can’t as a church be more effective in doing what I think ought to be done to make this a better country, I recognize that if it worked that way it wouldn’t be the country – or the church – I love… and it would be bad, overall.
• I’m grateful that my faith community will not sing patriotic songs  this morning nor will we hear patriotic tunes. We won’t hear a sermon about “the greatness of ‘Merica.” We WILL hear the Gospel. It will break our hearts and then it will heal them.
• I’m grateful for G and DS2 hanging out with me this weekend and working to make our little corner of the planet a little nicer place in which to live (read: cleaning and gardening.)
• I’m grateful that a few friends will come over for a BBQ on the patio tomorrow… or we can eat in the house if it’s raining, like it is supposed to.

There’s much more, but those are the ones related to the Independence Day crazy.