Freedom FROM/Freedom FOR. A sermon for Proper 9/July 4, 2010, by Susan Daughtry
Happy Independence Day! Many of us will celebrate the Fourth of July today, with the traditional grilling of meats and wearing of patriotic colors. We celebrate the independence of our country by blowing up small parts of it in the sky.
As it turns out, the remembering of what made us free is a huge part of Scripture. The very basis for the people of Israel is that God set them free from slavery in Egypt. And every year, according to Scripture, they are to celebrate that with the feast of Passover, where they remember-they tell the story of what happened. Over and over again in the Old Testament, God reminds them, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt." The relationship between the people of Israel and their God always points back to that liberation. And so the identity of the people of Israel is always pointing back to that story of oppression and liberation.
What is it that we remember on Independence Day? What were we freed from?
[The tyranny of English rule! Taxation without representation! The monarchy! Religious oppression! Classism!]
The story of the United States points us back to those roots-immigrants who have come here for a better life, who have had to struggle for survival and have bravely fought for freedom. There's all kinds of religious dialogue wrapped up in there as well, but that's a sermon for another day. We, like the people of Israel, point back to this story of oppression and liberation in our founding narrative.
I wonder, though, how we see that narrative playing out today. How is it that we are people of freedom? What have we been freed from? In this day and age, either personally or as a collective, what have we been freed from? Take a moment and turn to someone near you and talk it out.
[Nazis? Racism? Sexism? Homophobia? Alcoholism? Fear? Destructive relationships? Financial peril? Dishwashing? Children? Guilt? Walking? Responsibility? Tyranny?]
Clearly, as much as we have been freed and as much as we have great things to be thankful for, we still struggle. The story we tell about fighting for freedom from King George is far easier to tell today than it was to live at the time. And the Scriptures we heard today, over and over, are about things that seem far easier said than done. Naaman comes to Elisha to be cured from his leprosy, and Elisha sends him to wash in the river Jordan, as if that will just heal him. And it does. Paul writes to the Galatians about confronting people in love-again, far easier said than done. Jesus sends seventy of his disciples on a short practice mission, but he tells them to go without any bags or extra underwear or cash. The prospect is daunting. And then he tells them that on the off chance they should be treated poorly somewhere, to just shake it off and move on to the next place. All of these things, far easier said than done.
If we are still struggling for freedom from racism and sexism and addiction and anger-if these things still plague us-it may deepen the conversation to talk about what freedom is. So often, our national and political dialogue stops at the part where we are freed from someone else's rules. We think that freedom means that nobody can tell me what to do. But in Christian tradition, freedom is not just the absence of external regulations and oppression. Healing is not just the absence of disease. In Scripture, so often, whenever people are freed from something, they are then free for something else. The people of Israel are freed from Egypt and they get to the other side and God's ready to make them his people. That demands that they pony up to some things. They weren't just freed from slavery; they were freed for the purpose of becoming God's people. And over and over again in stories where Jesus heals people, he doesn't just heal them and slap them on the back and say congratulations. He heals them and then says, "Go and sin no more." "Take up your mat and walk." "Follow me." Freedom from always entails the question, what are we free for? What are we to do with this freedom?
Take another minute and turn to someone near you and ask this question of each other: What are we free for?
[Nationally: Responsibility. Progress. Development. Justice.
Spiritually: love God and love neighbor. Love our lives.]
Paul says it very clearly in his letter to the Galatians. "You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become servants of one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." As people who follow Jesus, if God has made us free, then what we are free for is love and justice.
In her sermon last week, Sue said, "Many times we are willing to trade freedom for passing securities in the hope they will substitute for the real thing. Many times we are willing to trade that freedom for things that seem to make life easier. Many times we are tempted to make choices that feel right for us without consideration of the effects of those choices on our fellow human beings or even our planet."
Indeed, in our celebration of freedom today, I am curious about one last question. Turn to your neighbor and ask this question: Who is it who is not free?
[Undocumented immigrants. Same-sex couples. Palestinians.]
In about ten days I'm going to leave on a pilgrimage to Israel/Palestine. I'll be taking part in a study and prayer and travel course run by some Anglicans there. And amid all the prayer and devotion of that place, you cannot go to Israel without connecting the spiritual questions with the political ones. What have these people been freed from? What are they free for? And who is it that isn't free?
This Independence Day, I invite you to take these questions home. What do you want to be freed from? What do you want to be free for? And who is it around you who isn't free?