"Who Will Rescue Me from this Body of Death?"
Independence Day, 2010
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62
Today, for the 234th time, we celebrate our national independence. In the language of our
National Anthem, the United States is "the land of the free and the home of the brave." We
are usually able to speak, think, believe, assemble, print and do pretty much as we please.
This, the conventional wisdom proclaims, is what it means to be free. And most
Americans thank God for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" in what is often
called, "this fair land."
But freedom is never to be taken for granted, and in this morning of the 21st century, we
are once again concerned about losing our freedom... this time to an enemy we cannot
clearly identify. Many among us are afraid that we will lose it because we are only too
willing to surrender our freedom for the sake of security. In 2002 the Colonial
Williamsburg Foundation announced that in a survey of 1,000 Americans, half were
willing to give up their constitutional freedoms for the sake of safety. It seems that for
many people overcoming anxiety is more important than being free. The terrorist threat
makes us anxious... forces us to face the anxiety of ancient inner terrors. Hatred for others,
whether in Gary or Baghdad, brings us face to face with our hatred for ourselves. The evil
that seems to lurk in the face of every stranger is but a horrible reflection of our own sin.
From that sin and its guilt we are anxious to be free.
For the majority of the world's people, freedom means "being free to do what one wants."
But doing what I want, I discover, does not make me free. The Christian needs to face
the issue of freedom from a different perspective: "As a son of God...a daughter of God...
what is it that I want to do?"
". . . 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."
1
"What is it that I want to do?" The answer can terrify. How can I be free if I am a slave to
another?" Any loss of self-control. .. any submission to another leaves me in terror. Trying
to decide what to do with our lives. .. how we ought to speak,... how we ought to act in a
given situation reveals that there is a wide gulf between what God calls us to do. .. what
we confess that we want to do... and what we actually do. Our quest for self-focused
freedom actually enslaves us to ourselves.
Who can deliver us from this slavery?
Between what we, the baptized children of God, want to do and what we actually do, there
is a great chasm. The discrepancy between God's will and our will leaves us enslaved. If
we define "freedom" as doing what we want to do, and if what we want to do is what God
wills us to do, and we then don't do it, how free are we?
Every year literally hundreds of thousands of people immigrate to this country. This day
over 12% of the citizens of the United States are first generation immigrants. Originally
some of these came to study, to work, to manage businesses. Most promised they would
return to their native land, but that does not always happen. Many have now become
citizens and have promised to renounce all foreign allegiances and uphold the U.S.
Constitution, but that is sometimes not the case. The question of loyalty could, of course,
be asked of many who are born here. The people of this world are increasingly without
loyalties to anything... they may, often in desperation, do whatever it takes to get what
they need or want. Integrity maybe sacrificed to expediency.
Why will we so easily say one thing and do another? Is it because we are devious... that
we are liars? I don't think any of us set out with that in mind. Often we become faithless
because we have excluded any possibility of being otherwise. We say we want to do,
"what is right," but only within the parameters of self-indulgence.
What I want is limited by my experience, by my notions of what is possible and
permissible. To say with the foolish pride of one of Frank Sinatra's greatest hits, "I did it
2
my way," is to beg the question of whether I have really considered alternative ways of
acting and living.
The freedom of "doing what you want" is not freedom. How can we know that our loud lip
service to freedom is anything more than the rattling of our chains? "Doing what you
want" allows you to be self-indulgent, to breathlessly fulfill your every desire, chasing
after this and that, consuming, indulging, accumulating. If you are presented with the need
to surrender some of that kind of freedom for the sake of security ... of course you will opt
for security. Why not exchange one set of chains for another? An exaggerated freedom of
choice allows us to pursue the happiness of getting what we want, but gives us little
guidance in wanting that which is worth having.
Who will rescue us from this slavery to selfish wants? The apostle Paul exclaims: "Live by
the Spirit, I say, and do not satisfy the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is
opposed to the Spirit and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are
opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want." And in his letter to the
Romans: "You did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit testifies with
our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of
God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may
also share in his glory." That is freedom!
Who will deliver me from the slavery of freedom to do what I want so that I am enslaved
anew to myself? Jesus! "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give
you rest." Then he immediately asks us to take upon ourselves his yoke. This seems
paradoxical. Jesus identifies his yoke as light and his burden easy, but a burden is a burden
and a yoke is a yoke. Isn't the purpose of freedom to avoid all yokes, all burdens so that
we can do what we want?
There is at the heart of the Gospel the paradoxical claim that only as our lives are linked to
Christ, only as our lives are bent to his will, only as we become servants of God and our
3
neighbor are we free. St. Augustine discovered that when he was a young man. He lived a
rather carefree and sometimes profligate life, had even fathered a child out of wedlock.
Then his life got caught up in Christ's freedom to surrender his life for others. Augustine
was changed. Afterwards he noted that freedom means to be free not to do what you want,
but rather to be free to be who God intends you to be. You are free not to do the things
that you are free to do.
President Bush and now President Obama tell us that we cannot live in fear of terrorists...
that we need to live our lives as usual... to go out and spend money as we always have...
it’s good for the economy and it shows terrorists we will not be intimidated. That's not
good enough for the baptized. We are not free when we merely seek to indulge our
desires. Great freedom is to find our lives caught up in the plans and purposes of God. In
bearing a burden other than our own selfish desire we become free to be who God created
us to be... servants and lovers of others... even those who would wish us harm.
It is by taking up the servanthood of Jesus, by placing the yoke of love around our necks
that we are free. It is a very great freedom to know who owns you, to whom you owe
loyalty, and to whom you are accountable.
Donald H. Williams
Valparaiso, Indiana
July 4, 2010
4