7-3-20 - Independence or Freedom?

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Tomorrow is America’s Independence Day, which many will celebrate today by being freed from a day at work. Independence means something different in the Christian life than it does politically – the kind of liberty Jesus invites us into is strongly inter-dependent. We are invited to be tethered to God, to one another and to serving the world, not because we are being forced, but freely choosing.

Paul writes in Romans that we have been set free from sin so as to be bound to God – enslaved is the word, loaded as it is – the reward for which is sanctification, being made holy. Would anyone be voluntary enslaved? Perhaps… Our lives are full of ways in which we yield our freedom – on a limited basis – to achieve a goal. We commit ourselves to lifelong relationships; work under the policies and procedures of our employers; pay personal trainers large sums to make us perform painful and arduous exercises; adhere to certain diets.

And we voluntarily take on the yoke Jesus offers, which he says is easy. When we truly trust him, it is. It is only when we pull away that it chafes.

I believe God’s greatest desire for us is freedom, to be free from all that holds us back and makes us less than who we were intended to be, less than who God already knows us to be. That freedom does not make us independent, however – it makes us interdependent.

We are invited to be more dependent on God, to throw all our weight and trust on this One we cannot see but discern in our lives and around us. As we grow in that relationship, we discover ways in which God is depending upon us, to be the vessels by which God’s transforming love and healing power are enacted in the world. As I am fond of saying, “We cannot do it without God; God will not do it without us.” (Listen to Matthew West’s Do Something…)

We are invited to be interdependent with others in our communities of faith, and with those whom we would serve. We will see peace and justice reign when we truly understand that to seek the good for our neighbor will create good and security and plenty for us. Even better will be the day when we don’t think in “us” and “them” terms at all – as U2 sings in Invisible, “There is no them; there’s only you, there’s only me.”

And we are interdependent in service to the world, willing to be served as well as serve. This year more than most we are keenly aware of how inequitably our freedoms are distributed – we are still a long way from the “liberty and justice for all” we so proudly proclaim. As we enjoy a day of freedom and fun today, I pray we will find a pattern of “tethered freedom” in Christ that allows us to be truly free, and ensure the same for everyone with whom we share our country and world.

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