Yesterday, we celebrated the 248th year of American independence and the freedoms that came with it. It’s during times like these that I am reminded of Ron Swanson’s summary of our freedom: “The whole point of this country is if you want to eat garbage, balloon up to 600 pounds, and die of a heart attack at 43, you can! You are free to do so. To me, that’s beautiful.” But is that all that our freedom is for? Is our freedom simply the allowance to do whatever we want to do?
There is something paradoxical about freedom, which we can see in the Declaration of Independence. After declaring the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. After decreeing to the crown that they were, and of right ought to be, free and independent, the writers close out this historic document, saying, “We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” They declare that they are free to do whatever they want, yet they use this freedom to pledge themselves to each other.
The Apostle Paul solves the paradox for the Christian in Galatians 5:13, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” In Paul’s letter, freedom is not about self-gratification but about the capacity to love and serve others. It’s about being able to turn away from our own interests and acting for the good of others. This is the essence of independence for Christians- choosing to love and serve someone else.
We make this choice because someone chose to love and serve us. Jesus, after washing the disciple’s feet, instructs them to love each other in the same way that he had loved them, in self-giving service (John 13:34-35). It’s only when we experience Jesus’s love and service of us that we can, in turn, embrace our freedom and do so for others.
May we be a church that doesn’t just celebrate our freedom on the 4th but lives out our freedom in Christ every day of the year?
