Independence Day

After watching “Waters World,” segments on the O’Riley Factor and the ignorance demonstrated about most historical events, I risk writing: "If I were to ask the common man on the street in American about the most historically significant event of 1776, I think I would most certainly hear about the signing of the declaration, independence from Great Britain, and the birthday of our nation." But 1776 also significantly marks the publication of Adam Smith's influential Wealth of Nations, widely considered the first modern work in the field of economics and a work that remains widely influential today. Both Wealth of Nations and The Declaration of Independence are publications that have inarguably shaped the world in ways beyond even what the original authors imagined.

All the same, Christian historian Mark Noll suggests there is a third publication of 1776 that may have been even more historically influential than both of these momentous options. In a lecture at Harvard Divinity School, he argued: "I say with calculated awareness of what else was going on in Philadelphia [the signing of the Declaration of Independence] and in Scotland, where Adam Smith published his Wealth of Nations, that of all world-historical occurrences in that year, the publication of August Montagu Toplady's hymn [Rock of Ages] may have been the most consequential."

It wasn’t until I read a little deeper into the book, Where Shall My Wond'ring Soul Begin?, that I thought it seemed a surprising choice—particularly because I had always associated 1776 with fireworks and parades and its critical role in forming our national identity. But Noll's suggestion asked me to look beyond national citizenship, perhaps even beyond my identity as a citizen of the world. I found that Toplady's hymn is one of the two most reprinted hymns in Christian history, and its words remind me of a history far beyond even this:

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood, From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure, Cleanse me from its guilt and power.
Not the labors of my hands, Can fulfill Thy law's demands;
Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears for ever flow,
All for sin could not atone: Thou must save, and Thou alone.
Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy Cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Saviour, or I die.

Beyond my faith group, beyond this nation I am a citizen of, I am a creature in  need of God's redemptive plan, in need of freedom from sin, in need of the liberating sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Like many confessions throughout the history of the church, Toplady's hymn calls its hearers to identify with a greater citizenship, the cloud of witnesses described by the writer of Hebrews, the one holy catholic and apostolic church you and I confess in our creeds.

Father, I see clearly that history is filled with the ebb and flow of influences and events, but of You as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there is no greater, unswerving influence. Thank You for inspiring James to write, "God does not change like the shifting shadows" (1:17). Thank You for the revelation: as David praised, and Hannah prayed, and all saints will continue to discover, You are the Rock of Ages. Hidden in the Trinity, clinging to the Cross, cleansed by the Son whose blood removes both the guilt and power of sin, I am free indeed. Amen