Happy Independence Day!

When we sang "America the Beautiful" this morning I first thought, is a patriotic song appropriate in church? It is a song in praise of America, and I would not choose it for a church service myself; in that context it seems to put love of country before love of God. But I realized as we sang that the song is also prayer. A beautiful and very pertinent prayer for our wonderful country in these troubled times.

America the Beautiful

O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed his grace on thee —
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine!

O beautiful for glory-tale of liberating strife
When once and twice, for man's avail, men lavished precious life!
America! America! God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain the banner of the free!

O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!