You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's epistle reading is here.
Tomorrow is Independence Day for the United States of America, a milestone birthday. Even after 250 years we have yet to achieve liberty and justice for all. Yet independence means something different in the Christian life than it might socio-politically. 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. That is the kind of liberty Jesus calls us into. He invites us to be tethered to God, to one another and to serving the world, not because we are forced, but by our free choice.
Paul writes in Romans that we have been set free from sin so as to be enslaved to God, being made holy (“sanctified”) in the process. Would we voluntary enslave ourselves to anything? Well, yes. Our lives are full of ways in which we yield our freedom – on a limited basis – to achieve a goal. We become employees working under the policies and procedures of our employers; we pay personal trainers large sums to make us perform painful and arduous exercises; we follow certain diets. I even discovered when I was instituted into ministry in the Anglican Church of Canada that I had sworn an oath of fealty to King Charles!
And we voluntarily take on the yoke Jesus offers, which he says is easy. Which it is, when we truly trust him; it is only when we pull away that we find it chafes.
We are asked to become 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 learn the ways that God is depending upon us to be the vessels by which her/his transforming love and healing power are enacted in the world. We cannot do it without God; God will not do it without us.
We are also invited to become interdependent with others in our communities of faith, and with those whom we would serve. And we are interdependent in service to the world, willing to be served as well as to 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.”
I wish all of us a weekend of perfect freedom and fun – with the prayer that, as we celebrate the unfathomable liberties many – though far from all – enjoy as a nation, we find a pattern of “tethered freedom” in Christ that allows us to be truly free.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Showing posts with label Independence Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Independence Day. Show all posts
7-4-24 - Independence Day
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Today Americans celebrate our independence as a nation, two years shy of our 250th birthday. Our union is having growing pains. The dream of America and the reality of America can seem as divergent as the viewpoints of its citizens.
Yet we celebrate. We celebrate the courage of those who fought to liberate themselves from the oppression of a colonial power, even as those same people continued to oppress and even colonize others.
We celebrate the dream of democracy, even as the strength of that democracy is being tested in ways not seen since the Civil War.
We celebrate the impulse toward diversity and inclusion that represents the best of America, even as we reckon with the evils of racism woven into our very foundations as a nation – there would have been no federation of states had not the northern states agreed to abandon efforts to abolish slavery.
We celebrate the generosity that led America to open its doors to immigrants and make sacrifices for the liberty of other nations, even as we struggle with a resurgence of virulent nationalism, some labeled as “Christian,” though I doubt Christ would recognize its rhetoric as having anything to do with his teachings or life.
There is undeniably a role for Christianity in our country: it is one of humility and transformation, not might and oppression. We are to be missionaries coming in love, not thugs preaching division and sedition. Ours is to be an apostolic movement, following the example of the apostles. And what did they do in their first missionary foray? So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
There are many who need to repent of self-absorption and disdain for those with whom they disagree. There are many afflicted with forces we might consider demonic – rage, violence, degradation, prejudice, depression, addiction. People need to be set free, and that includes a spiritual dimension that Christ-followers are equipped to offer. And there are many who are sick, in body, mind and spirit. If all the Church did in the next ten years was focus on healing, we would make a tremendous impact. Jesus did in only three.
Do you feel equipped to be an apostle of Christ in your surroundings? “Apostolic” just means doing whatever Jesus’ apostles did. And they did this: proclaimed God’s reign, invited people to open themselves to God’s love (repentance), and demonstrated that love through curing the sick and casting out evil wherever they encountered it. They did this not on their own, but by God’s power working through them as Jesus gave them authority. That’s all.
We too have been given this gift of Spirit and this authority over evil. All we really need is the power of the Holy Spirit alive and working through us, and the courage to let her flow. That is an Independence Day God will delight in.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Today Americans celebrate our independence as a nation, two years shy of our 250th birthday. Our union is having growing pains. The dream of America and the reality of America can seem as divergent as the viewpoints of its citizens.
Yet we celebrate. We celebrate the courage of those who fought to liberate themselves from the oppression of a colonial power, even as those same people continued to oppress and even colonize others.
We celebrate the dream of democracy, even as the strength of that democracy is being tested in ways not seen since the Civil War.
We celebrate the impulse toward diversity and inclusion that represents the best of America, even as we reckon with the evils of racism woven into our very foundations as a nation – there would have been no federation of states had not the northern states agreed to abandon efforts to abolish slavery.
We celebrate the generosity that led America to open its doors to immigrants and make sacrifices for the liberty of other nations, even as we struggle with a resurgence of virulent nationalism, some labeled as “Christian,” though I doubt Christ would recognize its rhetoric as having anything to do with his teachings or life.
There is undeniably a role for Christianity in our country: it is one of humility and transformation, not might and oppression. We are to be missionaries coming in love, not thugs preaching division and sedition. Ours is to be an apostolic movement, following the example of the apostles. And what did they do in their first missionary foray? So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
There are many who need to repent of self-absorption and disdain for those with whom they disagree. There are many afflicted with forces we might consider demonic – rage, violence, degradation, prejudice, depression, addiction. People need to be set free, and that includes a spiritual dimension that Christ-followers are equipped to offer. And there are many who are sick, in body, mind and spirit. If all the Church did in the next ten years was focus on healing, we would make a tremendous impact. Jesus did in only three.
Do you feel equipped to be an apostle of Christ in your surroundings? “Apostolic” just means doing whatever Jesus’ apostles did. And they did this: proclaimed God’s reign, invited people to open themselves to God’s love (repentance), and demonstrated that love through curing the sick and casting out evil wherever they encountered it. They did this not on their own, but by God’s power working through them as Jesus gave them authority. That’s all.
We too have been given this gift of Spirit and this authority over evil. All we really need is the power of the Holy Spirit alive and working through us, and the courage to let her flow. That is an Independence Day God will delight in.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
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