• "The American Ideal of Freedom"
• Sermon for Independence Day
• July 4, 2004
• The Reverend Stephen C. Scarlett

One might assume that the Fourth of July was always a popular celebration in the church. It is not so. The 1928 Prayer Book is the first prayer book to provide proper lessons for the day. Many colonial Anglicans were not in favor of the Revolutionary War. And, remember, when people talk about the pilgrims coming to America to seek religious freedom, the freedom they were seeking was freedom from the tyranny of our church.

The Fourth is still a difficult day to preach about. The difficulty results not from a nostalgic desire for a return to British rule or to re-subject all American Christians to Anglican faith and practice-as beneficial as such a subjection might be! The difficulty is that it is not easy to give the specifically Christian take on the current state of the American enterprise.

One thing we can profitably reflect upon on Independence or Freedom Day is the ideal of freedom and how that ideal has changed since American first became the land of the free. The original American ideal of freedom was freedom from religious oppression and political tyranny. It was the freedom to be a Baptist or a Presbyterian or-God forbid-a Unitarian if one so chose. It was freedom to have a representative government and express personal convictions in the public sphere.

But the original notion of freedom was not amoral. One can debate the extent to which America was distinctly Christian. But most of the major players acknowledged the existence of God and the binding validity of the Ten Commandments.

This original ideal of freedom has gradually developed into the notion that freedom means the license to do whatever one wants to do. Freedom of religious belief and practice has come to mean freedom from the moral constraints of religion. A moral outlook governed by the Ten Commandments and Natural Law has become a moral outlook governed by the personal preferences of each individual.

Thus, the very freedom that enables us to meet and worship God as we choose also enables doctors to get paid for the killing of unborn children. These are but two of many polar opposite examples. There is freedom to honor God and freedom to do evil.

This is, to some degree, the nature of the creation God has made. God put two trees in the garden and gave the first people freedom to eat of both the life-giving tree and the one that was forbidden. We cannot force people to do the will of God. That God does not force people to do his will seems, at root, to be the major complaint against his omnipotence. Why does God not simply stop evil in its tracks? God allows people to willfully do what is evil because he is looking for people who will do his will from the heart. This requires freedom of will to make decisions and suffer consequences.

That Americans are too free to do what is evil seems to be the major complaint of our militant Islamic adversaries. They would impose the will of Allah by force. We fight for freedom, which enables us to do either good or evil in some measure. Nonetheless, if, as the Bible teaches, wrong behavior brings about the judgment of God it is difficult for a Christian to have a simple "live and let live" attitude towards the idea that freedom means the license to do whatever one wants to do.

The biblical ideal of freedom differs from the notion that freedom means license. The Bible teaches that we are born as slaves to sin. The disordered desires of our fallen natures rule over us and there is nothing we can do to free ourselves from this tyranny. As Jesus said in John 8:34, "Whoever practices sin is a slave of sin." Thus, freedom to do what is evil is, paradoxically, freedom to be a slave. As 2 Peter says, "They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved" (2:19, RSV).

True freedom in the Bible is the freedom to do the will of God. We receive this freedom in Christ through the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. As God said through Ezekiel, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses... And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes" (36:27).

Jesus Christ heals our disordered desires and redirects them towards their God-honoring ends. In Christ we are free from sin. We are free to be what God created us to be. As Galatians says, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (5:1 KJV).

There is a poem on the Statue of Liberty that says, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." If the promised freedom is merely license; if it is not undergirded by genuine faith in God and a moral compass that understands every person to be made in God's image; then the promised freedom is but another route to slavery-and the goddess of freedom is an idol.

The Christian ideal of freedom-freedom to do the will of God-is America's better nature. The freedom America promises can only be fulfilled by him who said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). As Jesus said, "If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).

As Christians offer the world genuine freedom, we must distinguish between America the temporal nation and the eternal Kingdom of God. In the Christian tradition in American, there has at times been too great an association of the fate of the church with the fate of the state. We must remember that the kingdom of God predates America and it will endure long past the time when American is no more.

If our treasure and heart are in heaven, we may well be able to contribute some good to America on earth. But if our eternal hope is too closely tied with America's temporal fate, we may find our faith challenged in unnecessary ways.

We should be very thankful to live in this country for the freedom of worship and opportunity it provides. We should be very grateful for those who have given their lives to gain and preserve our freedom. We should continue the fight for true freedom. But we should always remember, in the words of St. Paul, "Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Philippians 3:20).

The New Colossus:
"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door." - Emma Lazarus