Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your sovereign comes to you; triumphant and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Your Sovereign will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and Your Sovereign shall command peace to the nations; the Sovereign's dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.

Zechariah 9 :9-12

We are, this fourth of July weekend, those children of our sovereign, who remember our freedom, and prisoners of hope in our brother, sovereign and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Early founders of this country asked that the winning of independence should be remembered yearly ... honored ... celebrated ... praised ... with illuminations (fireworks), music, and prayer. It is not a celebration nor a remembrance that is static however. Freedom never is. And throughout this country's brief and young history by the rest of this world's standards, freedom is always to be remembered and renewed, revisioned, reclaimed and protected with vigiliance. This revisioning and reclamation prompted the vision of freedom and civil rights for persons of color, suffrage ... and now a revisioning and reclamation is asked, no, justly required, for lesbian, bi, gay and transgendered persons.

So as we celebrate this 4th of July, let us honor those who have gone before us to claim and maintain our freedoms, who remain vigilant, and for those who revision and reclaim freedom for those of us who are to be included in new ways in the vision, true to the vision.

And let us remember our freedom in our Sovereign, regardless of what humanity's structures and obstructions may dictate. We are free in Christ--prisoners of this hope. Happy 4th of July!

Blessings,
Rev. Carol Peterson

Christ Covenant Metropolitan Community Church, Hampton Roads, Virginia.