A Fourth Church Sermon by Joanna M. Adams

June 30, 2002 | 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.

The Predicament of Freedom

Joanna M. Adams
Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Psalm 24
Isaiah 42:1–4
Galatians 5:13–14

“For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become servants to one another.”

Galatians 5:13

Gracious God, we thank you for our creation and for our humanity. We thank you for our world and for our nation and for the privilege of worshiping you freely and openly. Help us to hunger and thirst for all that is good, until your kingdom comes on earth as in heaven. All glory and power to you, mighty God, now and forever. Amen.

“I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death” (Patrick Henry at the Virginia Convention, 1775).

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights—that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (The Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1776).

“Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” (Abraham Lincoln, at Gettysburg, 1863).

“One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” (The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, 2002).

Whatever century, these stirring words all give voice to the core idea of freedom. The idea of freedom lies at the heart of the democratic experience that was launched 226 years ago, as the Continental Congress declared the separation of the thirteen American colonies from Great Britain. The idea of freedom did not originate with our forefathers, of course. In every age and in every place, human beings yearn “to breathe free.” (1) Three thousand years before Thomas Jefferson took up his pen and drafted the Declaration of Independence, an enslaved people had cried out to God for help, for freedom, and God sent a man named Moses in answer to their cry. Two thousand three hundred years before John Hancock and his compatriots affixed their signatures to the Declaration of Independence, the prophet Isaiah had described the mission of the servant people of God as that of setting the oppressed free (Isaiah 61:1). Jesus of Nazareth, many hundreds of years later, stood in the synagogue and announced that he had been anointed with the Holy Spirit in order “to proclaim release to the captives and freedom to those who were in bondage” (Luke 3:18).

In his treatise on freedom in the letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul argues for a certain kind of freedom. He urges his friends to remember that it was “for freedom that Christ has set them free.” The initiative of God, at work in human events and most supremely in the event of Christ, has liberated them from bondage to sin, from all powers that would enslave or oppress. But, Paul admonishes, never use your freedom “as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves, servants of one another, for the whole law is summed up in this single commandment—You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:13–14).

How strange these words of the Apostle Paul sound in the summer of the year 2002, as each day brings news of fresh revelations of corporate self-indulgence. WorldCom, the nation’s second largest long distance carrier, is the latest in a long line of American corporations that have been rocked by scandal and about which revelations of fraud have been forthcoming. Clinton, Mississippi, is the headquarters of the WorldCom corporation. The whole city is reeling in disbelief. Last week a local resident, in speaking of Bernard Ebbers, the WorldCom departing CEO, told a reporter, “We thought that Mr. Ebbers was going to lead us [like Moses] to the promised land, but instead he has wiped away our futures. . . . It is unthinkable that greed could go so far.” (2)

This whole concept of mutual responsibility has in far too many quarters in America been replaced by the unrelenting drive for “more, more, and more” for one’s self. The free market system, it seems, is not inherently imbued with a spirit of self-regulation, and so it is essential that there be an overlay of morality and democratic principles, lest untrammeled greed take over our future. “Be careful that you do not devour one another,” Paul wrote, indicating that excessive self-love will eat you and everyone else alive. It has always been so, and so it is true even now.

In the year 410, Rome was invaded by barbarians. Some said that Rome had become soft because of Christianity. Christianity, with its values of mutuality and self-sacrifice, its call to gentleness and kindness had led to the ruination of Rome. “It was in response to that charge that St. Augustine wrote his famous treatise The City of God, in which he argued that Rome itself, and not Christianity, was responsible for its own destruction. Though Augustine paid due respect to the nobility of many of Rome’s leaders, he laid the responsibility for the fall of the mighty city squarely at their feet. It was the desire for self-glory, for self-recognition that had come to characterize Rome’s civic order, to the neglect of God and neighbor, and that was their ruin.” (3)

We remember this weekend before Independence Day that freedom is a God-given gift. We do not have to be slaves to our instincts and baser desires. We do not have to be puppets, with God pulling the strings either, as the story of Adam and Eve makes abundantly clear. God shows us the good, but we are at liberty not to choose it. Freedom creates the possibility that we may choose to act selfishly and destructively and to serve purposes other than those of God.

Genuine freedom always has disaster as a possible outcome. Witness the terrorist attacks on our nation last fall. Now that our country is in the midst on a war on terrorism, we would do well to remember that while freedom is a gift, it is genuine and comes with its own predicament. Ben Franklin said in 1755, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” As we work toward homeland security, we need also to be vigilant that the basic American principles of due process of law and respect for individuals as guaranteed by the Constitution do not themselves become victims on the war on terrorism. The United States, as one commentator has recently reminded us, is different from other tyrannical societies. “[Our] government is not permitted to hustle its citizens into prison without offering legally sound reasons for their incarceration and without giving the accused an opportunity to challenge their loss of liberty.” (4) This has always been the American way.

I recall so clearly how it was after 9/11 that I felt as if I could not go on with the life I had lived before the terrorist attacks. I found myself in grief and governed more by fear than I wanted to admit. I was able to turn the corner for several reasons. One, I had the opportunity to grieve and remember those who were gone. I had a renewed sense of thanksgiving for our brave and giving nation. But what finally made the difference was a strong resolve in my heart that I would not allow the terrorists a single other triumph—they were not going to take away my outlook on my life. Now, we cannot offer the terrorists any other victories. We cannot give them our core principles, which include equal protection under the law. This we do for democratic reasons, and, I would add, for religious reasons as well. Think of the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, “In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12). The predicament of freedom is that we cannot protect our own freedom without being committed to the freedom of others. True liberty is a function of justice for all.

It is true that spiritual freedom and political freedom are not interchangeable, but they converge, I believe, in crucially important ways. Neither kind of freedom can survive without the attendant elements of responsibility and mutuality. I would add a third, making it a trinity: mutuality, responsibility, and humility.

To illustrate this point, I turn to the great American pastime, baseball. In George F. Will’s essay in the book What Baseball Means to Me: A Celebration of Our National Pastime, he writes, “What is so important about baseball is not its written rules, but its unofficial code of conduct.” He says, “Remember Mickey Mantle, running all the bases after a home run. What strikes you in your mind’s eye? Isn’t it that Mantle always kept his head down, showing restraint and respect for others.” Will goes on to say that in all his years of studying baseball and its players, the most surprising thing has been that never, not once, has he heard a big league baseball player brag. (5) Is this not the American way?

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he reminds his readers that while they have been given freedom by God, they are not to abuse it. They are to live according to the Spirit and thus bear the fruits of the Spirit, which are kindness, joy, gentleness, and self-control, not self-indulgence. “Let us not be conceited,” Paul writes, “competing against one another or being envious of one another” (Galatians 5:22, 26). The whole law is summed up in these words: you love your neighbors as yourself.

One of America’s greatest gifts to the world is the notion of religious liberty. The state cannot impose religion on others, and all our citizens are free to exercise religion or not, according to their own wishes. The government cannot not impose Christianity or another religion on anyone, but that does not mean that Christians do not have a crucially important civic role to play. People of faith ought to be working every day to create an American society that is marked by concern for the common good. We ought to be challenging corporate America to clean up its act. We ought to be speaking out against excessive self-indulgence. We ought to be asking not only what is best for America, we should be asking what is best for the world of which we are a part. (6)

Last week’s ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court in California has raised quite a storm here in the United States. There is little doubt that higher courts will overturn that court’s ruling to remove the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. In the meantime, we have been offered an important opportunity to engage in a new conversation about the role of religion in America, about the moral development of children, and about the issues involved in the separation of church and state. I am personally in favor of retaining the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, but I am dismayed that the father who brought the claim that his daughter was injured when she was made to or invited to say the pledge including the words “under God” has received death threats. That ought to be a reminder to us all that the spirit of liberty is a fragile gift that requires constant care.

I close with the words of Learned Hand, one of our nation’s most outstanding jurists.

What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, nearly two thousand years ago, taught humanity that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten: that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, may our pledge of allegiance today be to the kingdom of Christ here on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

Notes
1. Inscription on the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor.
2. From a Chicago Tribune story, 27 June, 2002.
3. From a sermon by Eugene C. Bay, The Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, Bryn Mawr, Penn., entitled “The Vocation of Citizenship,” 28 May, 2000. Dr. Bay references Philip Wogeman’s Speaking the Truth in Love (Louisville, KY.: Westminster /John Knox Press, 1998), 22-23.
4. Bob Herbert, “Is Democracy Worth It?” New York Times, 17 March 2002.
5. Curt Smith, ed., What Baseball Means to Me: A Celebration of Our National Pastime (Warner Books: 2002).
6. Bay.