July 5, 2026 Independence Day First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield MA
Romans 7:15-25 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. For I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Back in the day, Maine storyteller Jo Radner tells us, every meal includes pie — well, that’s what her dad believed, and her mom made a new pie every day so that he could have pie at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
One day, her mom died, and the family gathered. As the day progressed, with horror they realized that none of them were pie makers, and their dad expected, needed, a pie to be there for dinner. Jo’s aunt might have tried, but she was a terrible cook, and so Jo’s parents jumped in — her dad would fix a steak dinner and her mom —- who hated baking — would make a pie.
You need to understand, her mom had never made a pie before. She persevered, gave it her best, whacked the daylights out some recalcitrant pie crust, and ended up with a pie that could have been bounced on the floor without breaking… not to mention that it hadn’t occurred to her to mix the ingredients up when she assembled the filling — producing a pie that had layers of apples, then sugar, then flour, then lemon, and then the various spices.
Eating the pie was an experience – she says that to this day, you can break the family up by saying, “have you tasted the lemon yet”…. but each of them ate their slice and their stalwart Maine Yankee farmer father, praised it. Everyone knew it was terrible, but they all thanked Jo’s mom, who then said, she’d make another pie the next day.
And over the days, her mom’s pies got, not just better, but really good.
Today’s lesson doesn’t look as though it’s about pie making, any more than it looks like it’s about being a citizen on this Independence Day weekend, but it is both, and more.
St. Paul wants us to stop and take some time to think about what it means that we so often fail in our endeavors…. What does it mean that we are not perfect? And on this day, so close to the official two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, what he writes applies to our responsibilities as citizens of a country, of this country in particular, though we believe the responsibilities apply to all nations.
What does it mean to be a Christian and a citizen of a country that is not perfect? Are we, as Christians, supposed to unquestionably support everything our country does? Or is it our responsibility to ask questions?
And what does it mean that the church itself is no more perfect than we are? So, does the fact that we are broken mean we have no standing? Or can/must we speak, even in spite of the ways we’ve fallen short of God’s vision for us?
The most important thing to remember today is that it is our job to stand up for what our faith tells us is right —- that love is the operating principle of the world, that honesty matters, that justice leavened with mercy creates good community. It tells us that means children need to be loved, housed and fed. It tells us that everyone is supposed to be welcome. We build hospitals, create and support public schools, enact laws to help establish safety.
And it doesn’t all work out the way we hoped, but that doesn’t mean we don’t try.
Paul’s lesson encourages us to not stop just because we’ve not yet managed to do it right, not to get discouraged at the failures of others, or even the failures of our country. We are engaged in a life-long journey of making the world better, one step at a time. Sometimes, it has to start with us, in our personal lives. Sometimes, we’re able to go further, to work on issues that cross town or even state boundaries, like establishing the Last Green Valley National Heritage Corridor. And sometimes, we stand up for national issues —- like in the years when we called for truth about what was really happening in our war in Vietnam.
Being a Christian and a citizen is something like being a Christian and a parent. You’re never going to get everything perfect, but you’re going to continue to work at it, hoping that every day is a little better than the day before. And just as parents are expected to speak up when their children need guidance, so also are citizens expected to speak up when their country needs their feedback.
That’s what we did in the years before the War for Independence. Conscious of our own imperfections, humble about our vision for tomorrow, we spoke up, and so we do today as well.
God has called us, in spite of our failures, to be followers on the Christian path. Strengthened by our faith, let us continue on this way.
Amen.
© 2026, Virginia H. Child
To Believe is to Care. . . To Care is to Do 