The readings are (to read them, go HERE):
2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
Psalm 48
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13
“O God, the author of peace and lover of concord,
to know you is eternal life,
and to serve you is perfect freedom…”
You might recognise these words. They are from a prayer in our Morning Prayer service, a collect that has been prayed for hundreds of years. The prayer is called the Collect for Peace, and it comes from St. Augustine of Hippo, who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries.
I remember when a line of this prayer suddenly jumped out at me, that line “to serve you is perfect freedom.” I thought what an interesting combination of words: to serve you (meaning God) is perfect freedom. This doesn’t fit with the way we usually think of freedom. To serve somebody — anybody — is freedom?
It is. But it is a different kind of freedom from the way we normally think of it. It is spiritual freedom, freedom of the soul, [freedom from the constraints and cares of the world].
Freedom was on my mind recently because of the day that is in it — at least in the United States. This is the Fourth of July, the American Independence Day. It is not the date that the new country actually gained independence — a war was fought first — but instead the date that the leaders of the fledgling nation declared independence. But still, this is the day that 245 years later, the United States still celebrates independence.
Ireland also has fought its own battles to declare and to gain independence. I am not going to get into this, as it is far more political than I wish to be and than I should be here.
But to deal first with a basic definition: To be independent means free from outside control, not to be connected with another, not depending on something else for strength or effectiveness.[1]
And then we hear the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians about hearing God say to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
Paul has been praying to God to remove from him a “thorn in the flesh.” We do not know what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was — biblical scholars like to make guesses — some physical disability, perhaps, or some inclination or personality trait. Whatever it was, it was painful enough to Paul that he prayed repeatedly that God would remove it from him. But the answer came back: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” And Paul accepts the answer and writes, “So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
This does not sound like the definition of independence we just heard: to be free from outside control, not to be connected with another, not to depend on something or someone else for strength. In fact, what Paul says is the complete opposite. He gains strength in his struggle with this thorn in the flesh by depending completely and utterly on Christ.
The Gospel reading also has a struggle in it. Jesus has been tramping through the countryside of Galilee, teaching and healing, and he has attracted lots of attention. Crowds follow him and beg him to heal the sick. But then Jesus goes to his hometown of Nazareth and teaches in the synagogue. And people take offence. They know his mother and brothers and sisters; they probably knew Jesus as a child; they think Jesus is getting uppity. “Where did this man get all this?” they say. And we hear that Jesus can do no deed of power there in Nazareth because of their unbelief. The people’s lack of faith, their lack of willingness to believe, their arrogance really, blocks the ways of God from operating in their midst.
Now according to our definitions of independence, we might say that those people in Nazareth are independent. Nothing is going to sway them, they might say. They aren’t going to be taken in by some hometown boy who can do a few special things, they might say. It sounds like boasts of freedom that one might hear these days, such as from my native country: “Nothing is going to get in the way of my freedom. I’m going to think what I want, go where I want, do what I want.” Freedom is reduced to some personal desire that cuts one off from anyone else — and also from the ways of God.
Instead, there is another kind of freedom. It also shows up in our readings. You might call it spiritual freedom. One illustration is what Paul writes to the Corinthians: “So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” Most of us in this world concerned with freedom and independence and doing what I want to do, do not realise the power and the depth of what Paul is saying. Think about it. God is immense and powerful and knows all things; by comparison, any of us are — sorry! — just measly, small human beings. Why would I think that I could accomplish more on my own, without the help of God Almighty? It would be so much better and more effective to say, “God [or Christ, or Holy Spirit], you know what is good here, you can do so much more than I can. Help me, I pray.”
The other example of spiritual freedom in our readings is in the Gospel, when Jesus sends out the twelve disciples and gives them authority to do his work among the people. They go out two by two (note that they are not independent workers; they are not on their own), and he gives them instructions.
First, they take nothing with them except a staff for walking. There is real freedom in that. They are not weighed down with a bunch of stuff — stuff completely unnecessary for the work they are going to do. They have what is essential: a command and a commission from Christ Jesus and his power working through them.
Second, Jesus tells them that if they are not received well, to shake off the dust from their feet as they leave the place. That instruction seems strange; it seems, well, not very nice. But what are they supposed to do: hang around and try to convince people that God’s power is working in them? That would tie them spiritually to people who have cut themselves off from the ways of God. They would be caring what those people thought and getting mired in the people’s unbelief.
Instead, as it turns out, the disciples go out, two by two. They proclaim that all should repent — which means to turn and go in a new direction. And they are able to cast out evil spirits and cure the sick. God’s power is working in them.
They do not have independence, for they are completely and utterly dependent on God — on the authority that Christ gave to them, on the power of God working in them to preach and to heal. But they do have freedom: freedom from the constraints and expectations of this world, a world that does not know or follow the ways of God, unless any individual chooses to do that [and is given the grace to do it by the power of God giving them strength, as Paul said].
So as my native land celebrates its Independence Day, I offer that all of us might consider the concept of freedom. Political independence is one thing, and I won’t get into it. But freedom is something else. To be truly free is not to be able to do whatever one wants to do. To be truly free is to serve God: as Augustine prayed, “To serve you is perfect freedom.” To have one’s eyes and heart and mind fixed on God, to give oneself up to being guided by God’s ways, to let go of a desire to conform to the world’s expectations, is to be set free.
[1] Definitions from dictionary on my computer.