Reflections on Freedom
Rev. Lee Ann Bryce
Community Christian Church
July 3, 2011
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” - Galatians 5:1, 13-14
(Show clip from The Shawshank Redemption)
What is freedom? Is it bestowed on your from an outside force? Is freedom something you claim for yourself? Is the feeling for freedom (as they said in the film clip) “something so beautiful that it can’t be expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it?
On Independence Day we celebrate our country, the freedom we enjoy and we honor the heritage that has provided this freedom to us. Certainly we consider the recent vote for marriage equality in our state to be an extension of freedom. Though Lisa and I would not have traded our Connecticut marriage for anything in the world, no longer will same sex couples be required to travel out-of-state for the freedom to marry. And since our congregation was active in the campaign for marriage equality, we celebrate that freedom today.
Freedom is an American value, though Americans don’t hold a corner on the freedom market. Central to the faith of Jews and Christians is the enslavement of the ancient Hebrew people and how God raised up a man named Moses to lead the Israelites from slavery to freedom. “Let my people go!” Moses told Pharaoh, and eventually they were given liberty.
Jesus talked about freedom too. In John Jesus’ words are recorded, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Jesus modeled for us a life lived freely and completely before God.
Even in our free country, there have been times when we have fallen short of the ideal of freedom we proclaim. Africans were brought against their will to our so-called “free country” and sold into slavery. And ironically, astoundingly, what kept many of those slaves going was their Christian faith in a liberating God, a God who would break down the barriers set up by their white (often Christian) owners.
Paul writes in Galatians, “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” (Gal 5:1).
Freedom is a tricky concept in the Christian tradition. Martin Luther wrote: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. [and at the same time] A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” Both perfectly free, subject to none and perfectly dutiful, servant of all? Yes.
Let’s look closer at this passage from Galatians. Some context – the church in Galatia is troubled. Factions are fighting over this and that, but the main question seems to be this: do the Gentiles, the non-Jews, who have come to believe in Jesus Christ, do these Gentiles have to become Jews to follow God…or can they just be Jesus-believing Gentiles? If they had to become Jews, then they would have to be circumcised and follow all the Jewish laws and practices.
Paul is pretty clear about his position: Gentiles do not need to submit themselves to more rules and regulations, he says. By Christ you are made free. Don’t be a slave to the law. By Christ you are called to freedom! (Was this a purely theological position for Paul? Or did Paul, the guru of church growth, realize pretty quickly that requiring circumcision for adult male converts would not exactly be an enticement to join the church?)
Paul goes on to describe the nature of this freedom in Christ that he proclaims. Sometimes when we think of freedom we think of no limits whatsoever, a blank slate where anything goes. “I am free to do anything I want to do.” I read this week about man whose parents followed the advice of an psychologist who advocated that the best way to raise children was to give them complete freedom. You were to never tell your child “no.” You could explain why a decision might not be a smart one — “Timmy, I don’t think you would like touching that stove right now because it is very hot and the nerves in your skin would cause a painful feeling if you touched the hot stove” — but this parenting philosophy said you could never say “no” to your child. Your children were to have complete freedom in their decisions.
The man who was reflecting what it had been like to be raised in this way, seemed amazingly well-adjusted given his parents’ philosophy. He said his parents were almost completely consistent and supportive of the philosophy until the day his brother made some cardboard wings and climbed up on the roof ready to fly. His mother couldn’t say he wasn’t allowed to try to fly by jumping off roof. He had the freedom to attempt it. But, after a very short flight, and on the way to the hospital, his mother started really doubting this completely free approach to parenting.
The freedom Paul proclaims is not a no-holds-barred, open-ended freedom, but one grounded in love. “Don’t use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,” Paul writes, “but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
The freedom of which Paul speaks isn’t really about personal freedom. Freedom in Christ is always about how we live in community, how we love one another, how we act peacefully with self-control towards each other. Reinhold Niebuhr put it this way, “Basically love means…being responsible, responsible to our family, toward our civilization, and now by the pressures of history, toward the universe of humankind.”
We’re beginning to see what Martin Luther meant when he said we are both perfectly free, subject to none and perfectly dutiful, servant of all. Christian freedom doesn’t let us off the hook. It is freedom for love, service, the glory of God.
The same general concept is true, I think, of our freedom as American citizens. Some of our greatest rights and privileges in this powerful nation is our freedom to act, to organize, to keep making our country a better place to live and work — not just for us as individuals, but for the whole community. We squander that freedom when we rest on our laurels because our lives are easy enough, or our freedoms are safe enough.
We always ought to be working, as Christians and as Americans, for a country that is concerned for the least of these, caring for each and every one of our neighbors; fruitful not only for the rich and powerful, but for the poor and lowly.
We’ve heard preachers who talk about America as a “chosen people,” but isn’t it a higher ideal to think of ourselves as a servant people, bringing good news to the oppressed, modeling justice, proclaiming liberty to the captives?
A servant people — both free, and slave to all. A servant people — both grateful for what has been given to us, and deeply aware that our nation is nowhere close to perfection. A servant people — free to serve, free to live for one another, free to love God and neighbor with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Free to be Christ’s servant, now and forever. Amen.
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