On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress passed a resolution that declared that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.” Two days later, on July 4, 1776, the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. We honor this day with barbeque and fireworks because it marked the beginning of our new nation.
The Declaration of Independence, however, did not lay out the specifics about how we would be governed. The Articles of Confederation were supposed to do that. They were drafted in 1777 and ratified in 1781. But the young nation began to realize that these Articles were insufficient to answer the pressing questions concerning the relationship between the states and the nation.
Alexander Hamilton (and others) planned a gathering of representatives from the various states to update, and it turns out replace, the Articles with a Constitution. This Constitutional Convention gathered on May 25, 1787 in Philadelphia and four months later, on September 17, it produced an entirely new Constitution for the United States of America.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of this document. In many ways, Constitution Day (September 17) is more important than Independence Day because our independence is not as unique as our governance. Historian Wilfred McClay, in his book Land of Hope, says it this way: “Many nations have their great leaders and laborers, their war heroes, their monuments, and their days of independence. But there is only one nation on earth that can point with pride to a written Constitution more than 230 years old, a continuously authoritative expression of fundamental law that stands at the very center of our national life.” McClay goes on to tell us why our Constitution is so unique and so crucial:
“The U. S. Constitution is not merely our most weighty legal document; it is also an expression of who and what we are. Other countries, such as France, have lived under many different constitutions and kinds of government over the centuries, so that for them, the French nation is something separable from the form of government that happens to be in power at any given time. Not so for Americans, who have lived since the 1780’s under one regime, a remarkable fact whose significance nevertheless seems to escape us. Yes, we do revere our Constitution, but we do so blandly and automatically, without troubling ourselves to know very much about it, and without reflecting much on what our Constitution says about our national identity.
That identity is a complicated one, and there are elements of it about which we all will probably never agree. Ties of blood and religion and race and soil are not sufficient to hold us together as Americans, and they never have been. We think of ‘diversity’ as something new in American history, but in fact the conduct of American life has always involved the negotiation of profound differences among us. We are forever about the business of making a workable unity out of our unruly plurality, and our Constitution accepted the inevitability of our diversity in such things, and the inevitability of conflicts arising out of our differences. In addition, it recognized the fact that ambitious, covetous, and power-hungry individuals are always going to be plentifully in evidence among us and that the energies of such potentially dangerous people need to be contained and tamed, diverted into activities that are consonant with the public good.
Hence we have a Constitution that is not, for the most part, a document filled with soaring rhetoric and high-sounding principles. Instead it is a somewhat dry and functional document laying out a complex system of markers, boundaries, and rules of engagement, careful divisions of function and power that provide the means by which conflicts that are endemic and inevitable to us, and to all human societies, can be both expressed and contained; tamed; rendered harmless, even beneficial. Unlike the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution’s spirit is undeclared, unspoken; it would be revealed not through words but through actions, through processes, and through events that would express the unfolding demands of history.”
The Constitution of the United States of America is exceptional and is the firm foundation of our nation’s ordered liberty. It was ratified by 55 delegates in Philadelphia in 1787 and, 235 years later, it’s hard to overstate its importance. It serves as a covenant of sorts that binds us together, making many one. It’s a covenant that has been sealed by the blood of hundreds of thousands of men and women who died to defend it, protect it, and promote its value.
But as beautiful as it is, it pales in comparison to an even more important and fundamental covenant, or constitution if you will. The agreement that God entered into with us, the unilateral covenant of grace that was sealed with the blood of Christ, is more precious than the world’s most precious political arrangement.
So on Independence Day, remember the Constitution. Better yet, read it for yourself. In light of the debates raging in our culture concerning Supreme Court decisions and the role of the President and the Congress, we would do well to know what the 235-year-old document that binds us together actually says.
Then, after you have read the Constitution, read your Bible. It contains truths and promises that are immediately relevant in every culture. And it is the only document that will last forever.
Hoping You Have a Good Independence Day,
Pastor John