St. Peter's Lutheran Church

PASTOR’S MESSAGE - July 2024

July is a month of Joy for all Americans. There is nothing else like the United States of America. Our constitution broke the mold for individual rights and government without a royal sovereign. Pilgrims came here seeking religious freedom, and the right to free speech is a treasured liberty to all people.

As we celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks, cookouts, and time with friends, let us also remember to pray for our country. No matter what end of the political spectrum you fall on, we can always remember in prayer our nation’s leaders and look for ways to advocate for peace, justice, and love for our neighbors.

Our Country was founded on some very ambitious ideals: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the right to assemble - just to name a few in the first amendment.

We are given the right to vote, and through which to shape our country as we see best. These ideals were ambitious, and I do not think our Founding Fathers even knew how ambitious they were many years ago. We are still trying to live into these ideals and create a country where everyone is free to vote, free to speak, free to worship and loved and honored for who they are.

We have more to do as a Country, to become who we started out trying to be. As Christians, we are “in the world, but not of the world,” and that includes our citizenship. We see the places where the foreigner is not honored as God has commanded. We see the places where race determines one’s freedom and rights and God’s children are oppressed. We can see the places where equality and freedoms are not shared with all. We as Christians see how far we have to go to live into God’s vision for our Country and freedoms upon which our Country was founded.

I believe that the best way to be patriotic is to be grateful for our Country and everything it gives us: this is no small list! And, to see how we can do even more and be even better. We can see our strengths and celebrate them and see our weaknesses and work for change. We can be a part of the change that continues our tradition of living up to the values of equality, liberty, and freedom.

Go and be Christ’s presence “in the world.” Go forth in the power of the Spirit. Take great pride in where God saw fit to place you on this earth. But take even greater pride in our God who is above all nations.

In Christ,

Rev. Perucy N. Butiku - Coverage Pastor