Note: this is a slightly revised email sent to our church on July 5, 2024.
Happy 4th!
Let’s talk freedom.
I believe our nation is generally confused about the topic. We think of freedom as an end not a means. We think of ourselves as free from things, but never free to things. Think of the times you’ve heard someone say (with a touch of defiance): “It’s a free country, I can do what I want.”
Freedom doesn’t mean you are free to do whatever you want. If it does, you have just given yourself over to the most oppressive form of enslavement: you have shackled yourself to yourself (your ruthless passions and desires).
Freedom ought to mean you are free to do the right thing.
Let’s consider the Exodus story. This is the great freedom story that hovers in the background of our thinking. (It’s astounding the degree to which this story has shaped those on the left and right, those secular and religious).
Here’s what we get right about the story: God takes an exploited and oppressed people (Israel) and sets them free from their tyranny in Egypt.
Here’s what we forget: Isreal’s freedom from Egypt meant freedom to serve the Lord.
Israel isn’t freed to just do “whatever the heck they want,” they are freed to serve the Lord. In fact, the Hebrew word “abad,” which described their enslavement in Egypt, is the same word used to describe their new task as freed people: “abad” (or enslave themselves to) the Lord (Exodus 8:1).
Freedom from means freedom to.
As I see it, in America, we have the “freedom from” part down, we’ve forgotten the “freedom to” part. We don't want to think of our freedom as demanding (and being sustained by) obligations to our communities, work, families, the next generation, and so on.
This is why, as many have pointed out, liberal societies (like America) need illiberal institutions (like churches, synagogues, mosques, family, service organizations, etc) to sustain them. Why?
Because freedom from always means freedom to something.
These illiberal institutions have been eroding steadily for decades, which begs the question of how much longer this American project can be sustained. Looking at the current political situation (captured well in last week’s presidential debate), it’s easy to be disillusioned. Has our obsession with freedom from combined with no sense of what that freedom is for or to created a perfect storm for the demise of democracy. Time will tell.
I do know this: early Americans (the Founders and others) were nervous about the project they were undertaking and recognized the importance of illiberal institutions (like churches and schools) to be firmly in place as trellis for freedom, which is fragile apart from any supporting trellis.
I don’t want to sound too dire. I love our country! Our church loves our country. I am thankful for the many in our church who serve our nation in some way or form. We pray for you. We are commanded to be good citizens. We pray for our leaders and we are involved in the political process.
However, I want us to avoid placing too much hope in our country or politics. Nations rise and fall, but the Church is unstoppable. Christ is King and he will set things right. Our hope is in him. Our ultimate allegiance is to the Church for which he died.
For those seeking freedom, there is one pathway: Jesus. He’s the Greater Moses who frees the world from its enslavement to sin and empowers humanity to live the most free life possible: a life lived according to the law of the Lord. The freedom from our passions, sin, death that Jesus provides means the freedom to live according to the Law (in the Spirit’s power), which is life abundant.
Freedom from always means freedom to.