This season marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. While we celebrate the birth of our nation on July 4th, if you remember your history, you know the founding was anything but swift or certain. In the early months of 1776, the delegates gathered in Philadelphia were deeply divided. Some colonies feared the consequences of a full break with England and preferred to pursue what many called "the middle way.” They wanted to resist the Crown's overreach, but stop short of separation and remain Englishmen. Others, like the Virginia delegation, were convinced that separation was not only necessary but already, in every practical sense, inevitable. For months, the Continental Congress limped on the matter, debating, delaying, unable to reach a resolution. Until June 7, 1776, a delegate from Virginia rose and forced the issue by making a formal motion. "Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." Richard Henry Lee's formal motion could not be tabled or talked around. It demanded a vote. It forced a choice. And ultimately, it required a Declaration. Nearly three thousand years earlier, the prophet Elijah stood before the people of Israel on Mount Carmel and forced the very same question. "How long will you go limping between two opinions?" he asked. They had refused to declare what, in their hearts, they already knew to be true. Elijah did not debate them, and he did not allow room for additional delay. He dismantled the pretense that silence was a neutral position. Like the delegates in Philadelphia, and like the people of Israel on Carmel, many of us are limping. This Sunday, we will open 1 Kings 18:17–40 and be challenged to choose!
