INDEPENDENCE DAY

Tuesday, July 4th, 2023

Christ Episcopal Church, Woodbury, N. J.

 

 

On Independence Day, we give thanks for the political freedom that we enjoy in this country. But—what is freedom? And what, in particular, does Scripture teach us about the freedom that we celebrate today?

 

A helpful way of approaching the question is by means of a distinction between a negative sense and a positive sense of the word, namely “freedom from,” and “freedom for.”

 

People today mostly use the word in the negative sense: “freedom from.” This means the opposite of bondage, imprisonment, slavery, servitude, or subjection. By this definition, the free person is someone who’s able to do whatever he or she wants to do, without being constrained by external authorities, whether in the form of parents, teachers, bosses, police, or governments. When I was a teenager, I waged my own personal war of independence for more and more freedom from my parents’ restrictions on where I could go and how late I could stay out at night.

 

Many people seem to identify this negative ideal, “freedom from,” as what we celebrate on the Fourth of July: freedom from foreign rule and political oppression. In 1776, the Thirteen Colonies decided that they no longer wanted a Parliament in London telling them what to do, so they declared independence and fought a revolutionary war to win their freedom from British rule.

 

And we can’t read very far in the Bible without encountering a similar theme: God sets his people free from their oppressors. The decisive event in Old Testament history is the Exodus, when God leads the Hebrews out of bondage in Egypt.

 

So, one side of freedom is freedom from having to do what we’re told by those who would take control of our life and make our decisions for us.  The other side, however, is “freedom for.” Once cast off our chains, we inescapably face the question: what have we been freed for? How do we become truly free?

 

The modern world and traditional Christianity give two completely different answers to this question. Modern secularism makes freedom an end in itself. It equates freedom with personal autonomy: the ability to take control of our life, decide our destiny, and pursue self-defined meaning and fulfillment on nobody’s terms but our own.

 

The classical Christian view is very different. Christianity teaches that true freedom consists of the ability to live according to our God-given nature, to achieve God’s purposes for our life, and to become fully the people that God has created us to be. 

 

To return to our Old Testament example, after the Exodus from Egypt, the Children of Israel come to Mount Sinai. At the Red Sea, they’ve received freedom in the negative sense, freedom from servitude and slavery in Egypt. But at Sinai God gives them his Law, the Torah, which bestows freedom in the positive sense, the freedom to fulfill their God-given purpose by living as God’s chosen people and thus becoming his light to the nations.

 

Or, to take an analogy from the natural world, God created fish to swim in the sea. So, a fish is most truly free when it’s able to do just that: swim around unhindered by fishing nets, oil spills, or other obstacles, feeding, breeding, and doing whatever else fish do. 

 

But suppose a fish decides to do something contrary to its nature as a fish: for example, by jumping out of the water and trying to walk around on the land like an amphibian, reptile, or mammal. In the absence of some evolutionary breakthrough making this new action possible, the fish attempting this feat becomes not more but less free. Unless it can get back into the water it will suffocate and die.

 

We human beings are much more complex creatures than fish, but the same principle holds. we’re most truly free when we’re able to live according to our nature and fulfill our God-given purposes. Conversely, when we act contrary to our God-given nature, by disobeying God’s laws, or by pursuing goals that go against God’s will for us, then we become not more but rather less free. And like the fish that jumps out of the water and tries to walk around on the land, we risk destroying ourselves in the process.

 

So, in order to attain true freedom, it’s absolutely crucial to understand what we are by nature, and the purposes for which God has created us. Very briefly, the Christian answer to this question is that by nature we’re made in God’s image; and our purpose is to know, love, and serve God in this life, so that we may enjoy him forever in the next.

 

Both the biblical witness and our experience of being fallen creatures teach us that we simply cannot fulfill this purpose by own efforts, no matter how hard we try. We find ourselves enslaved by innumerable addictions and destructive behavior patterns that rob us of our dignity and freedom. But the good news of the Christian Gospel is that by his death and resurrection Christ sets us free. The cross and empty tomb constitute our declaration of independence from sin and death. Christians are people who’ve discovered the sure path to true freedom in following Jesus Christ as Lord.

 

On this day, then, we celebrate and give thanks for our nation’s declaration of independence from a foreign king and parliament. But, at the same time, we must never declare independence from Jesus! For he’s the true king of the whole universe—the sovereign to whom we owe ultimate and absolute allegiance above all earthly powers. And in his service, we find perfect freedom.