When I was a little boy, the church in my hometown in middle Georgia was the center of our lives. Our family was very religious. We went to church every Sunday morning and often again in the evening. There was also prayer meeting on Wednesday evenings and sometimes there were other meetings during the week. Church was not only very important, it was very frequent.

In my younger days the message I got at Church was that it was very important how I behaved myself. Church was about being nice, obeying the ten commandments, listening to sermons and Sunday School teachers. It was also about funerals and weddings. And it was about attending week long revivals every summer. Church was about sitting in a very old building with stained glass windows, singing songs about the blood of Jesus, being saved, being good, being nice, and thinking nice thoughts.

There were lots of things I liked about Church. I got to see people in my family. I liked to sing. I liked the picnics at Indian Springs.

There were lots of things I didn't like about Church. I felt as if God disapproved of me and my behavior and my secret thoughts. I felt as if some of the preachers expected me to have a more intense religious experience than I could have. I didn't like having to sit still for so long. I didn't like the long prayer the preacher said every Sunday. Sometimes the preacher would look at me from his pulpit and I was afraid he knew everything I was thinking and that he suspected what a bad little boy I had been.

I'm telling you all this for two reasons. One is that it relates to the scripture read here today. Two is that it relates to Independence Day.

In relation to the scriptures for today - St Paul says; "For neither circumcision no uncircumcision is anything: but a new creation is everything."

Isn't a lot of what goes on in Churches today like the early church's uproar about circumcision. Some said that before you could be baptized you had to be - if you were male - you had to be circumcised. Others said that if you were circumcised you were giving in to the old ways of doing things - ways outmoded by the Gospel - and that was bad. Paul was saying that debating about this issue was really missing the point of the Gospel.

Much of what went on in the church of my childhood was missing the point of the Gospel. The overwhelming concern about being nice and about not smoking or drinking or playing cards or dancing or gambling was missing the point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not that I'm advocating drunkenness or smoking or gambling and all the rest. What I want to say is that when these kinds of concerns seemed central and basic to the faith of the church, the true message of the Gospel was overshadowed by human anxieties.

Much of what goes on in the churches in 2004 is akin to that ancient debate over whether males should be circumcised or not. Now the issues are about other matters. And in their zeal to promote their opinions over against the opinions of others, people lose sight of what truly matters. St. Paul tells us that a new creation is everything - a new creation is the only thing that really matters.

Some folks get hot and bothered about which translation of the Bible is the best or which Prayer Book is the best. (Once someone dropped by the church to see what it looked like. She told me she did not like our Prayer Book - the one we're using here today. She said that unlike the old 1928 Prayer Book, the new one used third grade language. (God was with me and prevented me from making a disdainful response to her comment such as, "What's wrong with third grade language?)

Christians can get awfully worked up about various matters. And often what we get most agitated about are issues which have to do with who belongs and who does not. That was the case with the concern about circumcision. Some proclaimed that only the circumcised belonged.

So, where did women fit into this debate? Is this why women have been pushed to the back of the bus of Church for so many centuries?

Today we have other belonging issues. Even today in the 21st century, no less, some people, proclaim that women don't belong in the same way as men belong. Some pronounce that gay and lesbian people don't belong as fully as straight people do.

Yes, and some assert that people confirmed by a Bishop in the Historic Apostolic Succession enjoy a deeper degree of belonging than those who are merely baptized. Some say that the only baptism that counts is when you are totally immersed in water. There are all kinds of conditions people require for belonging and being included.

It seems to me St. Paul is saying that none of these conditions is anything; but a new creation is everything.

What does that mean? Doesn't it mean that what is really important is that Christ has died for us, Christ is risen and Christ will come again? That's what we call the Mystery of faith.

The epistle for today begins with this mystery also as Paul asserts, May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And doesn't he mean that what is of central and primary and basic importance is not whether we are circumcised or not circumcised or whether we use the King James Version of the Bible or the New Revised Standard Version or whether we use wine or grape juice for communion or whether women wear hats in church or whether a person is gay or not? Isn't Paul saying here that the only thing that really matters is that Jesus Christ was put to death, and that he rose from death and that he is coming to us again, that indeed God himself is with us now? Paul says he will never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't the cross stand for more than death? The cross stands also for the living Jesus Christ.

I said at the beginning that I also have thoughts about how the gospel relates to Independence day. The thirteen colonies were under the control of the government of England. They paid taxes but had no voice in how the revenue was spent. They had to put up with British military occupation. They certainly had some freedoms. But they were also encumbered by the presence of the British control over many aspects of their lives. In some colonies there were state churches. State and church were not separated.

When I was a little boy it seemed as if the church was intertwined with the state even then. The constitution implied separation, but in reality it was not so. Church and nationalism seemed to go hand in hand.

Over the years of my life separation of Church and State has become a political issue again. There's lots of uproar over public prayer in public schools, and the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. There's lots of uproar over the so called Biblical teaching about the place of women and of homosexual people. There is discussion about writing these issues as amendments to the Constitution. During the centuries of slavery in this country, preachers asserted that slavery was O.K. according to the Bible and therefore the state should make no laws forbidding it. Today there are some very religious and pious folks who seem to want to have their way all the time even with respect to the laws that govern this land. Some of them want not to consider the desires and needs of others who are of different religious and ethnic persuasions.

I noticed in the collect for Independence Day these telling words. Lord God almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn; Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace.

It occurs to me that Independence is not just separation from the British government. Independence is freedom from all arbitrary controls others would impose on us. And this fits in with what Paul was saying about circumcision and uncircumcision. Neither is anything. But a new creation is everything.

Last Sunday the Epistle began this way;, For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery. For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. (Gal. 5:1) Can you see why I would connect Paul's thinking with the meaning of Independence Day?

I think Paul was not completely aware of all the implications his words would have. Sometimes the New Testament presents contradictory ideas about the place of women. In one place it will say that In Christ there is neither male nor female. In another place it will say that women should keep quiet in church and that wives should submit to their husbands. These are issues that are currently debated but in light of the freedom Christ brings I think it is sad that we get bogged down in these issues rather than celebrating the freedom Christ has given us.

We Episcopalians are sometimes accused of misunderstanding the freedom of prayer because we use the Book of Common Prayer in our worship. The critics are probably right in some cases. If we think we can't pray without reading a prayer out of the book, haven't we misunderstood the meaning of prayer? I think the wonderful thing about the Prayer Book is that it sets us free from one individual clergyperson's ideas about prayers and enables us all to join in prayer we as a church agree on. And that's probably why many folks had a hard time with the new prayer book 25 years ago. They had become so accustomed to the old language that they thought the new language was saying something very very different from the prayers they were used to.

I want to get back to the point that the Gospel is about independence and Independence Day affirms something basic contained in the Gospel. Jesus says, You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Some people probably think that by the truth Jesus means every word in the Bible. I think he means something different from that. I don't believe he is thinking about the Bible when he says that. I believe he is referring to the truth that God is love - has become a human being - truth as the Church would come to know it that Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again - the truth that sets us free from being bogged down in all kinds of controversy about debatable matters - the truth that sets us free to become the people - the Church - God is creating us to be.

I have found the Episcopal Church to be a community where this kind of freedom is affirmed and valued. It concerns me when I hear of some who seem to want to move us away from the freedom of the Gospel and into a kind of binding legalism where do's and don'ts come to center stage and freedom and liberty and rational and reasonable thinking are pushed aside.

Finally, I want to say something about today's good news with respect to prayer. Some years ago the head of a very large protestant denomination proclaimed that God does not hear the prayers of Jews and that God can only hear prayers said in the name of Jesus. I was shocked to learn that he said that and scandalized that anyone would believe such a thing. Did God not hear any of the prayers of King David who composed so many of the Psalms? Didn't God hear Moses' prayers, and Abraham's? None of their prayers were said in the name of Jesus! Does God ignore the prayers of those who gather week by week in the Synagogues to pray? Did God ignore the prayers of the Jews caught in the holocaust? Is that why they suffered and died by the millions at the hand of Hitler's people? Was it because God couldn't hear their prayers for deliverance? Does anyone here believe God does not hear the prayers of faithful Muslims?

Doesn't the idea that God only hears Christians' prayers contradict even Jesus who taught his disciples a prayer which does not end with the words, through Jesus Christ, or in the name of Jesus. Amen? And doesn't such an idea contradict even St. Paul who said neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything?

It is true that for Christians the new Creation is Jesus Christ. But Jews also recite Psalm 51 in which we all pray, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

I think we Episcopalians have a special calling as a minority form of Christianity here in the midst of the so called Bible Belt. I think we can represent the faith as a way of life free and unencumbered by so much concern about modern day versions of the debate over circumcision.

I think we could show our fellow Christians of other persuasions that we can pray with people who are different from us in belief and in style of life. Christianity is not about homogeneity. Christianity is not a religion where everybody has to act the same or even believe the same. The only thing Christians agree on is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, and that he died on the cross and rose from the dead and will come again. And Christians don't even agree about exactly what that means.

The first scripture reading assigned for Independence day is from the Book of Deuternonomy in the Old Testament. Moses speaks to the people. He addresses them about their relationship with people who are different from the so called norm, different from the majority. Moses calls them strangers. Aren't strangers people who, because they are different from the majority or those in power - aren't strangers often ostracized and excluded and left out? Given the right circumstances any of us could be the stranger. Moses says something that sounds very much like Jesus: For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Isn't he talking about tolerance? Isn't he talking about the importance of accepting people as they are and not trying to change them into what we think they ought to be? Isn't he saying that God hears the prayers of all people who seek God? God hears your prayers. There's nothing special you need to do to get God's attention. You don't have to send up a smoke signal. You don't have to be confirmed by a Bishop. You don't have to use a certain religious formula.

You don't have to be a man or wear a hat or be free of sin for 24 hours. All you have to do is be still and listen and open your heart to God.

"May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen."