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. Show all posts
Showing posts with label independence. Show all posts
7-4-22 - Independence - and Inter-dependence
You can listen to this reflection here.
This coming Sunday we get one of the most famous of all of Jesus’ parables, the one he tells in response to the lawyer who asks, “Who is my neighbor?” We’ll examine it in greater depth and in more personal terms in coming days. Today, as we celebrate America’s independence as a nation – and enjoy a day of rest and cook-outs – I will keep it short and more global. Let’s consider this story in light of our past, present and future as a nation “under God, with liberty and justice for all.”
In particular, let’s jump to the end of Jesus’ story, when he asks the lawyer, “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy,”’ Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
We live in a world in which whole communities, even countries can fall into the hands of robbers. We share a history in which too often we have been the robbers. We also share a legacy of mercy and providing help to those who are injured.
How might we as a nation, and as individuals, more fully live into the character of this outsider who put himself at risk to reclaim, restore and renew the one fallen by the wayside? After all, that is what God has done for us. Might we “go and do likewise?”
At the heart of it lies the truth that until we are all free and equal in opportunity, security, and peace, none of us is free. Until we are willing to “respect the dignity of every human being,” as our baptismal covenant asks us to promise, we will let discord and mistrust rule us rather than the Law of Love. Just like all three of the passersby in Jesus’ story, each one of us has the choice when we see someone in pain – or a community or nation in the grip of tyranny – to stop or walk on, engage or condemn, bring healing or leave someone to die. How will we exercise the choices we do have?
Freedom is God's desire for us - and for all creation. Sometimes we have to be willing to be the outsider to set someone else free to thrive; to embrace our inter-dependence in order to celebrate our independence. Happy Independence Day.
This coming Sunday we get one of the most famous of all of Jesus’ parables, the one he tells in response to the lawyer who asks, “Who is my neighbor?” We’ll examine it in greater depth and in more personal terms in coming days. Today, as we celebrate America’s independence as a nation – and enjoy a day of rest and cook-outs – I will keep it short and more global. Let’s consider this story in light of our past, present and future as a nation “under God, with liberty and justice for all.”
In particular, let’s jump to the end of Jesus’ story, when he asks the lawyer, “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy,”’ Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
We live in a world in which whole communities, even countries can fall into the hands of robbers. We share a history in which too often we have been the robbers. We also share a legacy of mercy and providing help to those who are injured.
How might we as a nation, and as individuals, more fully live into the character of this outsider who put himself at risk to reclaim, restore and renew the one fallen by the wayside? After all, that is what God has done for us. Might we “go and do likewise?”
At the heart of it lies the truth that until we are all free and equal in opportunity, security, and peace, none of us is free. Until we are willing to “respect the dignity of every human being,” as our baptismal covenant asks us to promise, we will let discord and mistrust rule us rather than the Law of Love. Just like all three of the passersby in Jesus’ story, each one of us has the choice when we see someone in pain – or a community or nation in the grip of tyranny – to stop or walk on, engage or condemn, bring healing or leave someone to die. How will we exercise the choices we do have?
Freedom is God's desire for us - and for all creation. Sometimes we have to be willing to be the outsider to set someone else free to thrive; to embrace our inter-dependence in order to celebrate our independence. Happy Independence Day.
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