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One of the most unforgettable movies of the 1990’s in my opinion was Braveheart, Mel Gibson’s portrayal of the War of Scottish Independence and its leader, the legendary William Wallace. For me, the movie has two unforgettable moments. The first when the small, ragtag, army of Scots with faces painted blue mooned the English army which grossly outnumbered and out-dressed them at the Battle of Stirling and then the Scots whipped them silly. Moral of that story, go to war only by moonlight. The second moment was the execution of William Wallace. Gibson’s directorial reputation for making a big, bloody mess of big, bloody messes certainly showed true here with Wallace, played by Gibson, being dragged through city streets behind a horse, then hanged almost to death, and then drawn and quartered while still alive and watching. Gibson’s Wallace endures all of that all the while screaming, “Freedom” for everybody to hear until they finally chopped his head off.
Freedom, that’s an important word in human history. Wallace fought and died for the freedom of the Scots to rule themselves, political freedom. There have been many wars for religious freedom. One of the major reasons behind the American Civil War was freedom from human enslavement. Many people talk about economic freedom, freedom from debt. What do we mean by freedom?
I remember as an adolescent saying, “It’s a free country. I can do what I want.” Is adolescent anarchy what we mean by freedom? Most national constitutions written since the French Revolution will say that humans have an inborn right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness which basically means that to be human is to have the freedom to pursue one’s own happiness; i.e., to be able to do what you want to do. Yet, we also acknowledge the need for order and so there are laws to prevent anarchy because we can’t just go and do what makes me happy. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness must be held accountable to the pursuit of a more perfect union, better society. Freedom isn’t just freedom to do what I want. It is freedom to pursue a more perfect society in which life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness can thrive otherwise revolution will rise up.
For a better definition of freedom maybe we should just keep it simple and consult a dictionary. The dictionary says freedom is the state of not being imprisoned, enslaved, or otherwise constrained. When someone is set free it means that what bound a person and kept that person from rightful participation in human community for the betterment of society has been removed and they are now free to participate in human community for its betterment. It does not mean that we are free to do whatever we want to do if it makes us happy. It means we are free to pursue a more perfect union amongst human beings. True freedom only exists within the confines of human community not apart from it.
Freedom is also big topic in the New Testament. Jesus said in regard to discipleship in John’s gospel 8:31-32: "If you abide in my word, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." True human freedom is thus found in discipleship, in following Jesus in learning how to abide in God’s live-giving, creative ordering of the creation. After saying that Jesus then explains that his truth sets us free from our enslavement to sin. Basically, we are slaves to sin. In Western culture we don’t like the word “slave” because of our past association with that evil institution. But, brace yourselves, anywhere in the New Testament you see the word servant, the word in Greek is likely going to be the word they used for a slave. Paul’s preferred way of addressing himself was “Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ.” Slave is even how John introduces himself at the beginning of the Book of Revelation.
Part of the Truth Jesus wants us to know that will set us free is that human beings are slaves not servants to sin. Humanity is bound, restrained by sin from keeping its created purpose of glorifying and enjoying God. Sin isn’t just that we like doing bad things. That’s only the symptom. Sin is the alienation we experience in our relationship with God. Sin is that we are unable to know God and therefore we fend for ourselves and this fending only drives us further away from him and one another so that we become a virus to God’s creation rather than its worship leaders. We are enslaved, under compulsion to serve this twisted state of alienation that we exist in. If I had to describe life under sin, it would be a lot like adolescent anarchy: “It’s a free world, I can do what I want.”
So how are we freed? What is the “Truth” that sets us free. Jesus, God the Son become human, is the Trinity’s self-revelation to us. The Holy Spirit opens our eyes that have been scaled or cataracted over by sin to see Jesus and enables us to be his disciples. The presence and work of the Holy Spirit who is freely given to us to be in us and among us is the proof that the shed blood of Jesus has freed us from sin, freed us from our alienation from God. We are now reconciled to God, bound to God through union with Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. Thus, we know, we experience the Truth that sets us free; the Truth that God so loves us that he gives his life not only for us as Jesus did, but also to us by the presence of the Holy Spirit living in and among us.
We are free from sin, free from that alienation from God, but…not free to do what we want. We are now free to carry out our created purpose to which we are bound by our created nature, which is glorifying and enjoying God as the priests of creation. We are the part of God’s very good creation that gives voice to the worship the Creation gives to God and that relates to God on behalf of the Creation.
John writes there in Revelation an ascription of praise to Jesus, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Jesus has freed us and made us a kingdom. As a Jesus’ Kingdom, we are the domain, the realm in which Jesus reigns blatantly as Lord. The disciples of Jesus are a visible public union that covers the planet. Yet, the nature of Jesus’ Kingdom is not to be an empire and rule as the church has attempted to do in the past to disastrous consequence. We are a kingdom of priests who give worship to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Jesus, by his blood, has freed us from our slavery to sin to be the priests who everywhere on this earth bring worship to God. Being priests is a special vocation. God has specially marked us with himself (the gift of the Holy Spirit) and set us aside to do special work. In the Old Testament, God was always with the Hebrew people, but it was only the priests who had immediate access to God. Only the priests went in and out before his presence in the temple. So also, we are those in the world today who live in the presence of God. We are his temple. We are where God is. Through us God is personally addressing all people.
In the Old Testament, priests proclaimed the forgiveness of sin. We, therefore do so also. We have the responsibility of proclaiming to the world that all has been forgiven so live accordingly. Jesus has annihilated everything that could separate anybody from the love of God in Christ. So, we proclaim this forgiveness and call people to turn and come to him, to abide in his word that they might know the Truth and be set free to live in it.
Priests also intercede for people. Therefore, God has set us aside to be those who pray for people. The work of prayer is something we should train ourselves to be continual about. I’ve often tried and failed miserably at praying for everyone I see, the things I hear about in the news, and for when people just come to mind. Prayer is hard work. It requires a complete retraining of the mind from thinking what me, myself, and I think about all the time to praying. And, like the disciples who went with Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane; we fall asleep at the task. Our minds wander. We start thinking about lesser things than the needs of our neighbours whom Jesus calls to love as we love ourselves. Imagine, training your minds to be as preoccupied with the needs of others as much we are preoccupied with our own.
Finally, priests lead worship. We give voice to Creation’s praise and adoration of its maker. If you’ve ever looked at the sunset and felt you were looking at the glory of God, what you were sensing wasn’t God’s glory. That’s yet to come. You were sensing the Creation’s worship of its maker. We are those who God has made able to give voice to that praise. By the gift of himself for and to us, we are those whom God has lifted forth into an eternal song of praise that everywhere surrounds us. We are also those who know that there is definite reason to give thanks. We are those who know the steadfast love and faithfulness of God.
We are freed from the darkness and destruction of lives in alienation to God, freed to praise God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Worshipfully serving God, giving voice to Creation’s praise of God is where we find true life, liberty, and happiness.
We’ll be looking at a few passages from the Book of Revelation in the coming weeks and one thing that stands out in the Book is that behind everything there is worship going on. Another thing we’ll notice is that if we want this Creation and what happens in it to make sense then we need to look at in light of Jesus, the one who was, who is, and who is to come. Want to know freedom? Put Jesus and worship at the top of your list. Amen.
