"Moral Union" | The Rev. Dr. Luk De Volder | July 5, 2026

Congratulations America on the 250th anniversary of our country! I hope you all had a beautiful 4th of July yesterday. There is so much to celebrate, even though celebrating doesn’t feel right this year. The act-of-God heavy storm last night seemed to agree.

I wasn’t going to say this but these days the support for country has been coming from an unexpected corner. All around the country, there has been unbridled cheer for the USA. Go USA! It is our national soccer team that is boosting patriotism. And tomorrow night they will play against no other team than the Belgian one. What am I to do? For 90 minutes I will have a split personality. Speaking of loving your enemy. Another moral wrestling with lasting historical impact.

Let us clear the air with Mark Twain, who once clarified, “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." All the time, therefore, it is important to give thanks for our country. For example, we are so grateful for our Declaration of Independence that changed the whole world: we still hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable. Or after Franklin’s correction: these truths to be self-evident: that all are created equal, with unalienable rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. No other country has such declaration marking the moral values and igniting the imagination of its nation.

But combining Morality and politics is a high bar, already notable in how the founding fathers edited the Declaration of Independence. From the beginning this coalition has brought so much tension in our union. It is such a wrestling match. Yesterday masked people marched into DC with confederate flags. People continue to wrestle. This past week, David Streever, married to the Episcopal Priest, the Rev. Hilary Streever, was questioned by ICE agents because last January David had posted a message denouncing ICE actions in Minnesota. Hilary and David got married about a decade ago here at Trinity. The wrestling match between morality and politics is not an innocent fight, as we all know. By now, we all have a litany of conflicts and tensions that illustrate the strain on our Union. Yes, the American uprising in 1776 was an unfinished revolution.  And the last decade has deepened our collective ache for a more perfect union. And most of us are so impatient to see this trial pass. Can’t we settle and get beyond our differences?

You probably have digested your fair share of history bits and bites over these past few weeks. Let me lift up just one iconic person, an American All-Star who embodied Jesus’ word: to love your enemy. Disclaimer, this Gospel message is the one assigned for today, not selected by me.

Upon the Centennial in 1876 then president Ulysses Grant prophesied: “If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.”

After his Mason Dixon remark, he continued: “Now, in this Centennial year of our national existence, I believe it a good time to begin the work of strengthening the foundation of the house commenced by our patriotic forefathers one hundred years ago at Concord and Lexington. Let us all labor to add all needful guarantees for the more perfect security of free thought, free speech and a free press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments and of equal rights and privileges to all men, irrespective of nationality, color or religion.” 1876.

Strengthening the foundation of the house! As you may detect, I too am a great admirer of Ulysses Grant, not just as a war hero, not just as a quintessential American from Point Pleasant Ohio who upholds the Never Give Up mindset— but the General who won the Civil War. At all times Grant kept three words close to his heart: love your enemy. So many people gave him a hard time: his pro-slavery father in law, many army superiors who were jealous of Grant’s military excellence, and the robber barons of the Gilded Age didn’t hesitate to defame Grant’s exceptional reputation.

But with his Never Give Up mindset, Grant believed in loving your enemy and in starting over, over and over again. And because he sought to strengthen the foundation of the nation he launched the Reconstruction. During and after the war he continued to practice to love for the enemy. He held no personal malice toward General Lee, allowed Confederates to rejoin official political office, and supported the former Confederate soldiers. He gained so much trust in the south that when a Ponzi scheme and throat cancer hit Grant, former Confederate soldiers sent him letters of support and gratitude. Because of Grant’s down-to-earth authenticity, Mark Twain became good friends with the president, and called him the greatest man in the world. (And by the way, historians rank Grant as third behind Washington and Lincoln when it comes to importance for American history. Cf. Ron Chernow, Grant) Twain helped the impoverished Grant publish his memoirs and secure a fortune for Grant’s wife and children.

Look, I am well aware that patriotism has been hijacked; that America is not only unfinished revolution but that we all experience the excruciating distress of our national bifurcation between moral ideals and political practice: all are created equal, but there is still so much stratification. 

What I learn from quintessential Americans such as Grant is that our American spirit upholds a Never Give Up mindset, that the American drinking water spreads the readiness to start over over and over again, and unfortunately that a distressed democracy, like America in the 1860s, requires the practice of that morality, including to love our enemies. Whatever ideals we may embrace, it is the practice of this divine mercy that brings back the trust in the American dream as a banner for our Union.

Every soccer match that our USA team plays concludes with the song: Country Roads, bring me home to the place where I belong. We all belong; we all long for this home. The whole stadium sings it with heart and soul because most Americans want this home; they want to strengthen the foundation of this house, and feel ready for a more perfect union. So let us ban the abusive ignorance and labor on; labor for our more perfect union. We have the brain power, we have the money, we have to vision— like no other country in this world. Seriously. So let us strengthen the foundation of the house, love the heck out of our enemies, and let us fight for the Spirit of America.