True Freedom

Devotion for Being Apart -
June 28

This summer, I will share new devotions from time to time,
and invite you to browse through previous devotions that have been shared on this blog.

Romans 6:15-23
What then? Should we act disconnected from God and each other because we are not under the law but under grace?  Absolutely not! Don’t you know that you are either ruled over by division and brokenness that leads to death, or by living the way you were made to live, which leads to connection to God and each other?
Thanks be to God, we who were once ruled over by division have become obedient from the heart to the message of true freedom that is now ours to share.  Having been set free from isolation and disconnection we are now ruled by our true connection with God and each other.
Where once we found ourselves trapped in cycles of hostility, and greater and greater division and contempt, now we can be ruled by belonging to God and each other, for greater and greater connection and wholeness.
When we were slaves of destruction and division, we didn’t have to worry about being in right relationship to anyone.  So what did that gain us other than shame and regret?  Those actions lead only to deadness.  But now that we’ve been freed from division and brought under the power and leadership of God, what we gain is deeper and deeper belonging.  The end result is lasting connection, freedom and life.  What we pay for division and contempt is death, but God freely gives us life filled with belonging and wholeness in Christ Jesus.
(paraphrased by Kara Root)

Last week I took my son to the barber.  The sign on the door said masks were required.  Inside with us were two barbers, and one other client, all wearing masks. Then there was one barber without a client and without a mask. In this small space, he talked and talked and talked, loudly, and I imagined his aerosols billowing through the air surrounding us all.  I sat rigid; rage roiling inside me.  How could he be breaking the rule posted on the door?  Didn’t he care about anyone else?  What arrogance! What selfishness!

For a half hour, I wrestled with my anger, and tried to get to through my fierce judgment to some empathy for myself and for him.  I stoked my courage and practiced my words, and when Owen’s haircut was finished I told him to wait in the car.  Heart pounding, I was about to say something when the man stood, put on a mask, and welcomed in his next masked client.

I was shaking when I paid our barber, and I weakly told him I had been really uncomfortable that the other barber had not been wearing a mask.

Oh friends. This is just one of my many mighty Mask Moments.  I almost never say something in real life to the actual person, but I have spent more hours than I care to acknowledge having those conversations in my head– even going so far as to mentally design a card I might keep a stack of in my purse to somehow pass to the offending person while staying six feet away from them informing them of the importance of mask wearing. I don’t have a lot of energy for much else in life right now, but wow, can I find energy for this.

There are two views of freedom.  Philosopher Isaiah Berlin calls them “negative liberty” and “positive liberty.” Negative liberty says freedom comes when we take away constraints. “It’s a free country; I can do what I want.”  Positive liberty says freedom is when everyone has what they need to live full lives. By this definition, this has never been a free country.

In our scripture today, Paul says, You can live in your negative liberty, not bound by anything or anyone. But all that gets you is more isolation and deadness.  To pretend we are not connected violates our very being, and dehumanizes others.

To be free, then, as Paul describes it, is to let our lives be ruled by being children of God who belong to each other.  By that token, wearing a mask is a simple way to live in positive liberty and real freedom.  We don’t wear it for ourselves; we wear it to protect each other. We wear it to contribute to well-being for each other, for all.

Luther and Bonhoeffer talk about it as false freedom that is free from, and true freedom that is free for.  We are free for each other, free for God, free for life.

Except here’s the thing. In the moment when I am dutifully wearing my mask and someone near me is not, I do not feel free. I feel trapped in anger and despair. And I don't even want to be for them! I want to be free from them!  Free from their selfishness, from the risk they are creating, free from the consequences of their actions in our society – the extension of this virus.  In fact, I want so badly to be free from this pandemic, that anyone working against that goal feels like an enemy.

And besides, if I wear a mask, I get to show that I am on the right side of things. I get to show that I care about others, where, clearly, they do not.

And suddenly this action that should be about belonging to each other becomes about judgment and self-justification, and it contributes to greater division and contempt.  And now Paul would lump me right into his definition of sin, and say I am living under the law and not under grace.

So what would it look like to actually be free?

In the first century something happened to the Christian church that exploded its numbers, and took it from a small obscure sect, to something big enough to eventually be noticed by Constantine and made into the official religion of the Roman Empire.  That something was an epidemic.
When a plague came to Rome, everyone with any means fled-  even the doctors left the city – and went to the Italian countryside to protect themselves and keep themselves alive. They exercised their liberty, their freedom, and got themselves out of harm’s way.
Except the poor and the sick could not leave; they were forced to stay.  So the Christians stayed too, and cared for them.  Christian women, in particular, nursed the sick.  Two things resulted – the first is that compassion was revealed as central to the message of this new religion. Compassion became a calling, nursing the sick a mark of the Christian church – which, in part, is why Christianity is responsible for the creation of more hospitals than any other institution.
But second, mysteriously, many of these Christians didn’t die.  It seemed to the rest of the society that they were mysteriously and supernaturally protected from death.  That may be. It’s also likely that they developed immunity, which allowed them to keep nursing the weak.  And these women could trust that if they were to fall ill, they too would be nursed.

They did not care for the vulnerable because they thought the plague was fake, or that God would protect them and not others, or because they wanted to prove they were better than other people. They put themselves at risk to care for the vulnerable because the only way we are truly alive, truly free, is to live free for our neighbor, free for the most vulnerable and weakest among us. Plague or no plague - we belong to God and each other.  And they were so intriguing to the greater populace because they seemed to be without fear.  Weren’t they afraid of dying?

This is the deepest mark of the Christian.  According to Paul, we have already died with Christ, and been risen to new life.  In life and in death, we belong to God.  No matter what, our true life is found in connection to God and each other, and we are free to live it without fear – even of death.

True freedom extends deep and wide. Whatever the behavior of others or the circumstances around us, we can still be free.
We are free to love, and serve, and care for one another.
We are free to face our complicity in racism and look at our history with unflinching gaze and grief that could open us up to a new way.
We are free to receive criticism from others without dread that it will destroy us.
We are free to speak out when we see harm being done to another person, and free to repent and ask forgiveness when our words or actions have harmed another person.
We are free to honor our limitations as human beings, free to rest when we are tired, free to say so when we need help and free to receive support from others.
We are free to have our prejudices dismantled and to be surprised by each other’s and humanity. There are no sides in the Kingdom of God.  There is just broken and beloved humanity, all of us, belonging always to a steadfast and faithful God.

When we try to live free from God and others, we end up ruled over by the need to earn or prove something, or bound to act out of obligation and duty, or dominated by anger or contempt.  But when we surrender to our weakness and stuckness, and let what we thought was liberty be exposed as chains, we find our true freedom not in what we do for ourselves or in what others do or don’t do, but in what Christ has done for us all. We die to sin and are made alive to our true humanity in Christ, set free to live toward each other and toward God.

A half hour after leaving the barber shop, I got a text from an unknown number.  “Hi, is this Kara? This is Chris, the owner of the barber shop. I want to apologize for not wearing my mask after my appointment today when you were in the shop. I completely understand and sincerely apologize. I had gotten into the habit of pulling my mask down between appointments and feel awful if I made you uncomfortable while you were in today. I hope you can accept my apology and know that I do sincerely apologize.” 

I was surprised and flooded with gratitude.  I could have been free from him–In negative liberty, I was “free” to leave there and never go back. Good riddance!  But I had struggled so hard to find my humanity and his in the midst of that, and saying something to our barber was the closest I could get. I mostly still felt trapped in anger, stuck in judgment and anxiety.

Barbershop Chris had his negative liberty too; he could have been free from me. He could have written me off and never given me a second thought.  But instead he was free for me. He acted from our belonging to each other, and when he was free for me he helped me be free too.

I texted back my gratitude and we wished each other well. And I took a deep breath and thanked God for way Christ had met me in Chris.

Life is messy and being human is hard.
May we continue to be ruled by freedom, to be with and for each other, and there find our life.  Amen.

---

CONNECTING RITUAL:

Perhaps tonight before bed, whatever time that is in each of our homes, we can pray in this way, and so join our souls with each other and the people of the whole earth:

O Lord, release me from false freedom this night,
and bring me to wholeness and life in the new day.

Release me from judgment and fear,
make me free for curiosity and compassion.

Release me from anger and despair,
make me free for mourning and trust.

Release me from comparison and striving,
make me free for generosity and ease.

Release me from isolation and self-preservation,
make me free for connection and belonging.

May I seek your face in the faces of others.
May I find my place here among all others.
Lead me through death to new life again, O God.

Rest me in you this night.
Awaken me in you in the new day.
Amen.