Domes - Our Monthly Newsletter
Dunbar UCC
July 1, 2007
Galatians 5:1, 13-14
Freedom
- Wednesday is the 4th of July, the day we celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, when the United States declared independence from Great Britain. It’s a family day as children play and adults sip cool drinks by a backyard bar-b-que. But it’s also a day of confusion because many people think that independence and freedom are the same thing, and they’re not. Our freedom isn’t determined by a document that was signed, or by the wars we have fought. Freedom isn’t determined by the place we live in. We can be free in prison, or we can be a prisoner in our own homes. Freedom, like grace, is always a gift from God -- its not something that anyone earns or is entitled to.
- Jesus said, “IF you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” People who were in the crowd answered back to Jesus, ”We ... have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” And Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”
- To the extent that any of us do not live as Jesus lived -- to the extent that we do not love, or forgive, or serve others as Jesus did, then we are not free. To the extent that we do not love our enemies as much as we love our families, we are not free. So from what I see, we do not live in a free country. Any country that allows the torture of other people isn’t following Jesus, it’s a slave of the devil. Any country that goes to war with another to steal their resources is not free. It’s a slave to the devil. I won’t talk about our oil addiction except to say that even our President, in his State of the Union address, admitted that we are addicted to oil. And an addict isn’t free; he will do ANYTHING to satisfy his craving. He will sell his children for a fix! She will sell her integrity for a fix -- and that’s what our nation has done. This 4th of July should be a day of mourning, not celebration.
- But what does freedom look like? What does it look like to know the truth, and follow Jesus’ teaching -- and be free? This past week I met a family who loved Jesus, and the truth that sets us free. It was the family of Sylvia and Ralph Burnett, the sister and brother-in-law of Teddy Howell. Teddy had just died and they were here from Pittsburgh for her funeral. Ralph and I were talking about freedom, and I’d said how freedom is a condition of the soul and has nothing to do with what country a person is from. Jesus and Paul and the disciples were arrested and imprisoned -- some of them many times -- and they were free, no matter how many chains they were shackled with. And Ralph said he was in prison once. It was in the days when Martin Luther King was alive and fighting for the civil rights of African Americans. It was the days when black people couldn’t eat in “White Only” restaurants. When they had to sit at the back of the bus. They had to use restrooms and water fountains that were just for blacks. Even Teddy Howell, at her high school, had to compete for the one slot that was allotted to a black person to be on the majorettes -- just one person a year. Yes -- and this bigotry and prejudice and hatred was happening in a country that people called “free.” And Ralph Burnett decided that he loved Jesus so much, and he loved his family and his country so much, that he would go to Washington D.C. to protest the bigotry in what was supposed to be a nation “under God” -- and he would protest in the spirit of Jesus Christ -- with love. He told his wife, Sylvia, not to worry about him because he would be arrested. And when he was -- to leave him in prison and not try to bail him out. While Ralph was at this “tent city” that was constructed between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument -- and the Capitol -- Ralph spent his time ministering to the thousands of people who would get impatient, and turn to violence. Gently, he reminded them of the noble cause they were there for, and he brought many violent situations back to peace. And after he was arrested, he did the same in prison. And I want you to hear this story about Ralph because it’s about what freedom really is. Freedom isn’t about that flag, it’s about that cross, and picking up our own cross in this life, like Ralph did, and following Jesus where ever his spirit guides us. It’s the spirit of love for all people -- not just our families. It’s love for the poor and the immigrants. It’s love for our enemies. It’s love for our environment and the animals we share it with. Freedom is walking with Jesus, from the time we wake up in the morning until we shut our eyes at night to sleep. When we do that, we are free.