Independence Day 2024

Lectionary: 380

But that you may know that the Son of Man
has authority on earth to forgive sins"–
he then said to the paralytic,
"Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."
He rose and went home.

Today's gospel speaks of freedom as Jesus restores a man's ability to walk, since freedom may also be defined as the ability to do something. I can't play the piano. Although there is one in the chapel and I have free access to it, I cannot play it. Nor can I sing like Plácido Domingo or ride a thoroughbred like Flavien Prat.

A fool would claim freedoms he cannot demonstrate. He might say "I can fly like a bird!" or perhaps, "I have the right to....' although no human being can mimic birdflight. A popular Monty Python skit, recently re-presented to the world via Youtube, enacts the bewilderment of a group of "revolutionaries" when one of the men declares his right to be a woman and have babies. After some discussion, they agree he has the right although most of them admit it's not possible. Their apparent consensus: "If we agree the poor bloke is right, he'll feel better." 

Common sense tells us freedom has nothing to do with the impossible. Even if someone insisted that I should play their piano, I could not do it. Freedom should not be about things that cannot be. 

A second truth about Freedom: It's what we give to one another. At its worst it's what the government allows. We, in turn, give the government certain freedoms. In either case, no one can claim any freedom they're not given. 

Given the worldwide influence of the American way of life, I'd suppose that every national government on Earth uses every resource at its disposal to persuade its citizens that they enjoy enormous freedom. They are indeed the freest people on earth! Regardless of how much they resemble or differ from the American model. The North Koreans seem to enjoy marching by the thousands through the vast underutilized streets of Pyongyang chanting their freedom slogans. And so do we, though our celebrations are at race tracks and football arenas. North Koreans don't mind shopping in the black market anymore than Americans who buy illegal drugs. Government officials and prigs may wring their hands about the way things should be, but freedom demands black markets and they are permitted despite the law. 

However many take liberties and call it freedom. Having power gives them the illusion of freedom. A man with a gun may take many liberties over his neighbors. Adults take liberties over children; big children over smaller, and tiny children over household pets. But taking liberties has nothing to do with freedom. 

Freedom, the Lord has shown us, is the ability to move in the Spirit of God. And the freest man in history, at his freest moment, died on a cross. The saints and martyrs have shown us their freedom -- and its companion, joy -- as they lived and died in the Spirit of God. They proved it as they surrendered their last morsels of food to the hungry and their threadbare clothes to the naked. 

We enjoy our freedom when we fulfill our obligations with energy and generosity. We lose our freedom when we follow the impulses of the flesh, obey our resentments and fears, or cower before the demands of social expectation. 

On this July 4, we do well to ponder the freedom the Lord has given us, and our willingness to exercise it. But, if we do so, we may find ourselves just as welcome in "the land of the free" as the Judahite prophet Amos was in Jeroboam's Israel.