Monday, July 4, 2022
The Rev. Rob Stevens
Let Freedom Ring!
A Collect for Peace from The Book of Common Prayer page 99
O God, the author peace and love of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
This prayer always brings me up short. The phrase that catches me unawares each and every time is “to serve you is perfect freedom.” Think about that phrase for a moment and contemplate just how “out of the box” it is. When one really considers this phrase it is no wonder that Jesus was always getting into trouble with the authorities.
Freedom is a lauded and loaded concept in our culture. Freedom is what this country is founded upon, but if we pause for a moment and actually test our assumptions about freedom, the phrase “to serve you is perfect freedom” can seem downright revolutionary. One assumption that I wish to test is that freedom must be defended. It makes sense on the face of it, but where does that fit in the phrase “to serve you is perfect freedom?” I think an important distinction about freedom is that the Gospel explains freedom as a gift to be received and that service of God is the way to experience freedom while our culture explains freedom as a “right” to be protected and defended.
Most people will agree that the opposite of freedom is slavery or bondage and I agree as well, but I do think that in our culture another opposite has emerged. The other opposite of freedom is the obsession with security. Security in and of itself is not a harmful reality, but when it becomes the focus of one’s life freedom becomes elusive. In a sense, the quest for security inflicts a type of bondage upon that person or society. Simply look at the headlines. Those who have chased money as their god have had the Temple of Wall Street unravel and despite all of our military’s efforts to secure our freedom we cannot say with confidence that we are safer.
This is political and theological. My concern is with the apparent misunderstanding that in order to be truly free one must be secure. This is the assumption that I wish to challenge. If we spend our energy protected and defending our “freedom” fear is our ruler, not God. The Gospel is clear that fear and freedom are mutually exclusive. I think this is what the author of the Collect for Peace is hoping we discover.
The great but hard news is that God does not manipulate us by puppet strings. God leaves it to us. We can choose to chase after the illusion of freedom in the pursuit of security or we can experience perfect freedom in the service of God and others…May we choose wisely.