Freedom and where to find it.
Sermon by Revd Dr Brutus Green
Readings: Proper 8: 1 Kings 19.15-16,19-end; Psalm 16; Galatians 5.1,13-25; Luke 9.51-end
“Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery, for you were called to freedom” INFSHSA.
About 10 years ago, now, I went to an unusual wedding of a friend. The bride at the tender age of 23 was marrying for the second time, while the groom, only a few years older, had just served two years in her majesty’s penitentiary. The highlight of the reception was the happy couple, who were both good singers, duetting Stephen Sondheim’s “The Madam Song”, also known by its frequent refrain “I never do anything twice”.
Without wishing to offend any of our esteemed espoused, there is a popular sense in which both marriage and prison are seen as imposing limits on our natural God-given freedom. The “old ball and chain” we would be ill-advised to say.
And if you have had the curiosity to peruse the enormous volume of literature on finding and keeping a man: notable tomes such as The Rules, and He’s just not that into you, you will have come to realize that freedom is something that you need to convince your partner that he has, in order to maintain his interest, while you slowly, subtly steal it away.
You may have also read The Game, which tells a man how to play a woman who is playing The Rules, that is to say how to keep his freedom and still achieve his goal.
[If my reading on dating seems – well dated – that’s because my freedom was stolen a long time ago and now I find myself at the bottom of the food chain, somewhere between the dog and the hydrangeas.]
So for some freedom is the independence to pursue one’s own ends outside the burden of social ties. Live and let live – It is FREEDOM FROM. Freedom from constraint.
Jesus in today’s Gospel is almost like a beat poet out on the road: ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ As Paul Young sang – Wherever I lay my hat – that’s my home.
So is this Christian freedom?
Leaving behind employment (Elisha’s plough, which Jesus mentions in the Gospel), family and material possessions; taking up the boho lifestyle, like a Gen-Z child, travelling to India with nothing but a pair of Ray-bans, a mobile phone and your credit card. This aversion to social ties chimes with freedom today. Fewer people belong to political parties, churches, social clubs; rates of marriage have been in rapid decline since 1973, we do have an increasing obsession with individual self-promotion, from reality television to the obsessive twitter of social media. Freedom has become a by-word for self-assertion.
But Jesus was not a beatnik in search of experience, still less looking for his 15 minutes of fame – although the miracles should at least have gotten him through the preliminaries of Britain’s Got Talent. But in today’s Gospel we heard that expression that Jesus’ “face was set towards Jerusalem.” This is Jesus’ freedom.
Not in shrugging off relationships, all those gossipy myths about Mary Mags – Or Challenging the Law and Jewish authorities. It’s not a freedom from. Nor is it having 2.4 billion followers – as he does today – Or wealth to do as he pleases, for experiences or self-gratification. It’s not a freedom to. It’s the freedom in being himself. Jesus is not free from anything. At no point does he cut himself off. He doesn’t say to hell with you. He won’t let you down, he will not give you up. He just really loves to stick around. Sorry, that’s George Michael, not the Gospel.
But nor is he free to do anything. He doesn’t take up Satan with those temptations. Actually, quite specifically, he says not my will but thine. His freedom is simply in being the person he is meant to be; in following his call; In staying truthful to himself no matter what the world places on him. His face is always set towards Jerusalem. So throughout his career he is kind, he teaches and works tirelessly, he lives for others but is undistracted from the person he knows himself to be, he bypasses the Samaritans because Jerusalem is his destiny; he is true to himself. He has freedom in himself. So what does this say about our freedom? I read a story the other day about a policeman – he was American so he was in fact a “law-enforcer” – who was describing his work in confronting drug runners and people-traffickers. When he first began he had a principle that the shotgun always goes in first. You’re dealing with violent unpredictable people so you need to be armed and show them you mean business.
At some point in his career, though, he changed his mindset, and instead of entering with guns blazing, he went in with the mindset of ‘going to a funeral’, with perfect calm. What he discovered was that when he entered people would remain calm and fully co-operate with him.
This follows the same principle as Jesus.
There’s no element of compromise in the personality or job of the officer but he enters the situation of conflict with the mindset that the goal is already achieved – “in my mind”, he says, “the fight’s already won. You begin where you want it to end. That’s most of the battle.” Still I’m sure it would help if there were fewer guns in America. Some rights, it seems, are inalienable. Jesus begins at the end. His face is set towards Jerusalem. He knows what he is about. So if we begin at the end, with where we want to be, we may find the strength to transform our lives as we choose rather than simply reacting to the world as it is forced upon us.
Or to look at it another way: Think about where you are now – whether you’re 29, 50 or 91. You had to explain to your 8-year-old self what their life is going to look like, would it inspire them? Would you be proud to tell them?
Or if you had to meet your 92-year-old self would they tell you now to change your ways, to stop wasting your precious time?
Or let’s take an even greater challenge. If we can have a little faith and imagine our ultimate end is with God, Then are we acting as if that’s the case? Does our belief that God is love, produce in us the work of love? Do we act as though we and our neighbours are made in the image of God? Is our face set to Jerusalem? Or are we just bobbing about, washed this way and that, by the changing patterns of this world and the people around us? There is probably nothing more difficult in this world than being yourself. It takes courage – [and good Godparents.]
But [Bertie,] I just want you to believe that there’s a little bit more glory in this world, than viruses, slippery politicians, and the fickle temerity of the England batting line-up.
So freedom. I recently rewatched an episode of Ally McBeal. You might remember the male lead Billy, who spent most of the show staring into mirrors, the television method for demonstrating a character being introspective. I often find myself staring into mirrors – particular when I have major decisions – but the trick is to be able to look beyond the mirror and see not the person you are; but the person you want to become.
That is freedom and freedom is a Christian virtue. It’s not confined by the people around us, even by marriage or prison! That freedom can be much more limited by our unencumbered ‘freedoms from’; And our entitled ‘freedoms to’.
Freedom lies in being ourselves. Which means seeing ourselves as we are and imagining who we might be.
Who we want to be.
It means starting from the end, “setting our face towards Jerusalem”, in not being overwhelmed by circumstance, pushed and pulled by the pressures of modern life; but taking the time to choose who we are and who we will be.
So let’s hope the England team is currently visualising themselves as victors, and let us pursue our own victories, with Christ, setting our faces towards Jerusalem. Amen.