United Church of Christ Daily Devotional 4th July 2025, Friday Message
Red Coats and Hats
By Matt Laney
They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. – 2 Peter 2:19 (NRSV)
Today the U.S. celebrates the adoption of a document that began with “all men are created equal” while simultaneously excluding women, Indigenous peoples, and enslaved Africans. Independence for some. Chains for others.
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This year we’re watching our imperfect yet hard-won freedoms vanish like ink in a driving rain.
Tyranny has evolved. It no longer wears a red coat. It disguises itself in slogans about freedom while legislating fear. It speaks of liberty while banning books and silencing dissent. It wraps itself in the flag and demands allegiance not to neighbor or justice, but to party, power, and a past that wasn’t golden for everyone. The red coat has become a red hat.
While that hat may claim to make a nation great again, Jesus never told us to make nations great. He told us to love our enemies, welcome the stranger, lay down power. For Christ-followers, patriotism is never a higher calling than mercy and peacemaking. National loyalty is never a substitute for gospel justice.
What do we do when an empire baptizes bigotry and calls it righteousness? We do what Jesus did. We flip the tables. We tell inconvenient truths. We feed the hungry, shelter the refugee, vote for the vulnerable, and pray with our feet.
If fireworks ring hollow, you’re not alone. Light a candle instead. Celebrate a deeper kind of freedom, one granted not by documents or borders but by the Spirit who moves through protest songs and communion tables alike.
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends when we pull.
Prayer
Liberating God, give us courage to do justice, love mercy, and march boldly when fireworks fail.
About the AuthorMatt Laney is co-Pastor of Virginia Highland Church UCC in Atlanta, GA and the author of Pride Wars, a fantasy series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for Young Readers. The first two books, The Spinner Prince and The Four Guardians are available now.
