Across the Pastor’s Desk by Don Rose

 

With the celebration of the Fourth of July this week there has been lots of talk about freedom. Typically, such talk at this time is about personal freedom and particularly personal freedom from things that would hold a person in some form of captivity or bondage. Thus freedom is spoken of as freedom from oppression, freedom from rules that hinder or confine.

Freedom then becomes synonymous with the freedom to do whatever the individual desires, though in practice that freedom may not so easily be extended to others to enjoy as they might desire. Freedom in this use becomes very much focused upon the wants and desires of each individual without any sense of connectedness to a greater community. As important and reassuring as such freedoms may be in the civic arena, they are not the freedoms to which God has called and continues to call God’s people throughout the ages.

When the scriptures speak of freedom, they do one the one hand speak of freedom from. However, in this case it is ultimately freedom from oneself. One is free in God’s love to recognize one’s sin and brokenness and as a result be free to receive God’s gifts of forgiveness, love and grace. One is freed from self-centeredness, self-preservation and denial to recognize one’s inability to satisfy the longings of one’s heart. Such freedom makes the individual available to the promise of God. When one realizes that one cannot on one’s own obtain fulfillment, that person then is open to what God can do.

At the same time, the freedom of which the scriptures speak is freedom for. Having been freed from self, the individual is now free for service to the neighbor. No longer needing to only think of self, the person is free to see the need that others have and the ways in which such needs can be addressed. The understanding of neighbor in this context is anyone who is in need. It is not defined by proximity in time or space nor by similar views and opinions. One’s neighbor is the person in need to whom help and assistance can be given.

As important as the talk of civic freedom is, it is even more important to be regularly reminded of the freedom to which God’s children are called. This is a freedom that extends to all and transcends the barriers of culture and society. This is the ultimate freedom and it is totally a gift from God.

Don Rose is the pastor of Mansfield Lutheran Church in Alden and United Lutheran Church in Walters.