Freedom
Zec 9:9-1a; Ps 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14; Rom 8:9, 11-13
This weekend we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of our republic and we are invited to reflect upon the ongoing political experiment that is the United States of America. In spite of its overall remarkable success, we would be naive to deny that at many moments during the past two and a half centuries, the freedom of the people of our republic has been threatened, or outright denied existence, by myriad forces and in countless circumstances.
Our constitution is meant to provide a blueprint for the protection of American political freedoms. But as Christians, we understand that freedom has a more profound guarantor than any constitution.
We firmly hold that freedom is not primarily a political quality but a spiritual one. Human beings are not set free by laws, but by truth — and the ultimate truth is Jesus Christ. Laws can be corrupt or misapplied, but the truth that is Jesus Christ can never be vanquished, and neither can the freedom which it confers.
That’s all well and good, but of what value is the truth of Jesus if one is being persecuted (silenced, imprisoned or killed) by the those in power, and seemingly prevented from proclaiming Christ in the world and working toward a more just society?
Here is precisely where American Christians have a firm responsibility to contribute to the preservation of the freedoms of their republic. In his recent book “Tyranny,” political scientist Timothy Snyder, drawing on lessons from 20th century geopolitics, writes: “Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle.”
We are living in a time in which facts are being abandoned without compunction and without accountability. The flagrant spewing of lies under the guise of truth is nothing new, but today’s social media can produce collective deceptions from the highest levels of governance within the republic on scales heretofore unseen.
Here is where the truth of Christianity — as proclaimed and defended by actual Christians, such as the ones reading this now — has a critical role to play. One of the first Christians to appreciate the political implications of the truth of Jesus Christ was Paul. He recognized that if you were baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, then you were no longer only a citizen of this world but were primarily a citizen of the kingdom of God. “For many … conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. ... Their minds are occupied with earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:18-20).
As he tells the Romans in today’s reading, “You are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”
To have the “Spirit of Christ” means to have the Spirit of Christ’s truth, and that looks like something concrete for every generation. It looks like having the courage to expose lies and avow the truth of the inherent goodness and dignity of all persons (even if those persons perpetrate horrible crimes). It means upholding the unalienable virtues of justice and mercy. It means exercising authority with the compassion and empathy evinced by Jesus in today’s Gospel when he offers solace to all who are burdened with the labors of life.
In another chapter of Snyder’s book, he writes: “Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. … The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.”
Snyder is talking about political action and freedom. How much more emphatically ought Christians to be publicly proclaiming what it means to live like Christ and to thrive in the freedom which flows from his truth.
As an apostle of Jesus, Paul could wield the power to break the spell of the status quo of his day. And so can you.