freedom – The Raynville Rambler

God of freedom, God of justice

The hymn I chose for 1 May (but blogging briefly about it a day late) was “God of Freedom, God of Justice”, the next in a short series in this theme of justice. The words are by a hymn writer whose name is new to me, Shirley Murray.

Looking at the words, the tune that came to mind as fitting them well is ‘Regent Square’. John in his video went with the tune suggested in the book, ‘Picardy’, better known to the words ‘Let all mortal flesh keep silence’. That hymn’s associations with Advent, and the coming of Christ both as incarnate Jesus and in future as sovereign Lord, necessarily colour the singing of these words, but it’s an appropriate association. In the first half of this hymn we call on this God who is eternal yet suffered pain in his incarnation as a man, to “touch our world of sad oppression with your Spirit’s healing breath”. In effect, as we recite a litany of what is wrong with the world (including here prison and torture), we invoke the Advent refrain of “Come, Lord Jesus!” knowing that he is the only one who can truly right these injustices.

But in the second half of the hymn the focus is on ourselves. We call on the “God who shed both tears and blood” to “move in us the power of pity, restless for the common good”, and in the last verse, ask him to “Make us … quick to hear, to act, to plead”. In Teresa of Avila’s famous words, Christ has no hands or feet on earth but ours, and until Jesus returns in physical form we rely on his Spirit within us to help us get on with the task of righting injustice in his name.

Cry Freedom in the name of God

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is Michael Forster’s “Cry Freedom in the name of God”. The tune written for it, called “Free indeed”, was not easy to sing just from the score, and I’ve not found a version of it online. I note that John used the better known tune ‘Battle hymn of the Republic’, but that sounded a bit too jolly to me for the words here, and I can’t hear it without thinking of the irreverent words sung at school camps many years ago!)

Interestingly though, a search for “cry freedom” mainly brought up references to a 1987 film set in South Africa’s times of apartheid, and it may have been that which inspired Forster to write this hymn, which is obviously influenced by liberation theology (the idea that God is necessarily with those who struggle against injustice).

The first verse sets the scene by referring to the freedom found in Jesus Christ, and that has to be what distinguishes a Christian response to injustice from the equally strong motivation of humanists to respond to the same issues for the sake of its victims. For the Christian, we are not only working for justice in human society but seeking to establish God’s will “on earth as in heaven”.

The second verse highlights two specific injustices that are found in the world today, and not only those in ‘underdeveloped’ countries: unfair responses to natural disasters in which the poor always come off worst (think India’s current Covid pandemic compared with the levels of vaccination in Europe); and the tendency to promote defence spending over relief for the poorest (as our own Government has just launched two vast aircraft carriers while cutting aid budgets).

The third verse focuses on the dictators who ‘hid behind their bodyguards and fear the open mind’. Imprisoned in their own mindset, and in constant fear of uprising or assassination, these men (as they nearly always are) may be vastly wealthy but do not have the peace of heart that comes with living openly for God and for the welfare of others. But it’s not only dictators. We can all be a bit like that, comfortable in our houses (be they palace or bedsit) and saving or spending for our own benefit rather than giving our money away for the aid of others. It takes a true repentance (metanoia, change of heart) for people to start to use whatever wealth and power we have for the “good of humankind”. Jesus said “the truth shall make you free” but as his biographer John put it, “people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”

The fourth verse turns to the Church, where the assertion is that we Christians need to be freed from the way the Church sometimes works: “honest doubts met with fear and vacuum-packed theology”. In other words, we deserve the freedom to explore faith for ourselves and not be condemned where it takes us down a different route from that laid down by church ‘authorities’. This is always a difficult balance: in a world of many religions and philosophies, there has always been a natural concern among Christian teachers to stop people in the pews straying so far from received wisdom that what they believe contradicts the basics of Christian orthodoxy. But it’s all too easy for that to lead to laying down strict wording of creeds, prayers and forms of service that are “required”. What did Jesus actually teach us to do? To break bread together and remember him, to pray in in private and use the Lord’s prayer as a pattern, to let the (Hebrew) scriptures be our guide to God’s will. Nothing more specific than that.

The final verse is about being freed from focussing on ourselves so that we are free to live for the good of others. Putting all these together, we have freedom from unjust structures in society, from living in fear of others because of our own acts of injustice, from being too tied to specific ways of practising Christianity, and from being inward looking. Together they make for the freedom in Christ that allows us to bring God’s freedom to others. To go back to John’s choice of tune, surely we must end with a chorus of “Glory, glory, hallelujah! Cry freedom in God’s name!”

Freed in Christ from death and sin

Please see the introduction if you are new to this project.

Another of the hymns of Christian initiation (principally baptism) is “Freed in Christ from death and sin”. It is probably based on the declarations made by the adult about to be baptised, or by parents on behalf of their child – “I turn to Christ, I submit to Christ, I come to Christ”. These replaced the older promises to “renounce the world, the flesh and the Devil” and assent to the Apostle’s Creed, which people no longer easily relate to.

The first verse – turning to Christ – is about freedom. The symbolism of baptism is most commonly seen as that of repentance from past sin. But it’s also about being set free – “free from death and sin, slaves no more to self within”. In Christian theology, “the Law” (by which is meant the old Jewish system of detailed commandments and regulations”) is seen as rules of life that were intended by God as a way of guiding willing followers to how we should follow him, but had instead become a burden. As rabbis over the centuries added more and more detail to the basic Biblical laws to prescribe in minute detail what was required to live a ‘holy’ life, it became impossible to follow it exactly, and any serious attempt to do so would take away any joy in living.

The second verse – submitting to Christ – is about moving from darkness to light, which is a parallel to that of moving from bondage to freedom. Christ has shed light on how we should live, rather than keeping us in the darkness of trying to keep the detailed law. Although he said that he came to fulfil the Law rather than abolish it (Matthew 5:17), he is seen as embodying the essentials of the law in his character and actions, rather than “laying down the law” in all its rabbinical detail. Following the example of Christ and trusting him, rather than the written Law, as the basis of righteousness before God frees us from the fear that we will attract God’s judgement every time we sin by failing to keep a commandment. Chapters 3 to 5 of Paul’s letter to the Galatians cover this argument in more detail. “What would Jesus do?” isn’t all that can be said about Christian ethics, but it’s a starting point.

The third verse – coming to Christ – is about the coming of the Spirit. The Spirit’s role is to equip us with fruits (good character) and gifts (talents or capabilities) to follow Christ, and the hymn asks that we may “in fruitful lives show we belong to Christ”. The fourth verse with its reference to bread and wine reminds us that the baptised are admitted to Communion, and the final verse praises Christ for “his love outpoured, our lives renewed and hope restored”.

The Bible in a Year – 20 December

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

20 December. John chapters 7-8

Finally Jesus returns to Jerusalem where he knows that the authorities are looking for a reason to have him killed. He does not hide from them but confronts them, and the crowds who are present for a religious festival (presumably the Passover). It seems that he wants to make the maximum impact in the short time left to him, in the hope that a few at least of those who hear his teaching will accept it and continue to spread it after his death and resurrection.

Jesus makes much of his relationship with God (whom he never refers to directly, because of the Jewish taboo against using the name of God) but calls him “the Father” (or “my Father”) or “the one who sent me”. But he comes pretty close to identifying himself as divine in some of the exchanges in chapter 8: “If you knew me, you would know my Father also” (19), “I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world” (23), “I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence” (38), and finally “before Abraham was, I am” (58). This last statement angers them enough to threaten him with stoning, for it amounted to blasphemy: not only did Jesus imply that he existed before the start of the Jewish religion (indeed, before all time), but the very phrase “I am” in a religious context was considered to be one of the unutterable names of God.

The thrust of his argument though, is not to set himself up as Lord over the people, rather to urge everyone to regard themselves as children of God, and to be open to the possibility of eternal life. But it does not work. When they claim to be children of Abraham and following the law of Moses, Jesus points out that neither Moses nor Abraham would condone killing someone for their beliefs. When they criticise Jesus healing someone on a Sabbath (yet again), he makes the reasonable point that they themselves consider it acceptable to perform circumcision on a Sabbath – so if that, why not healing? When he offers “the truth that sets people free” (8:32) they simply say that they are not slaves so what would they need to be freed from? As they say here in Yorkshire, “There’s none so deaf as those who won’t hear”.

To be fair to the Jews of Jesus’ time, though, it has always been the case that when someone comes along as a prophet, revolutionary or radical, the majority of people do not want to believe their message. We all prefer to stick to the understanding of the world that we have either been taught as children, or discovered for ourselves in youth, or which keeps us in a comfortable stability as adults. To be challenged about your religious heritage, or set of moral values, or to be told that you are suffering from some deficiency or addiction that you need to be freed from, is uncomfortable at best, maybe even threatening.

The call of Jesus is always to something better, though it may not seem like it at the time. And the more we understand of it, the more challenging it may be. Few people in his own time stuck with him through the events of Easter, and few will follow now. But the call, and the challenge, are always there. In the words of a seasonal carol, “Where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in”.

The Bible in a Year – 17 October

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

17 October. 2 Corinthians chapters 1-4

There is one theme that St Paul keeps coming back to throughout his letters, expressing it in different ways. That theme is that if you think it is enough to rely on “keeping the law” to be in a right relationship with God, you have missed the point.

In chapter 3 (headed in the New Revised Standard Version as “Ministers of the New Covenant”), he explains that the Kingdom of God is something so counter-cultural, so different from the idea of “keeping the law”, that such people don’t even realise it’s there. It’s as if the very fact that God gave us commandments to keep is like a veil or curtain that stops people seeing the truth behind it, which is that being in a right relationship with God is a matter of loving faith. Or to use an English idiom, they cannot see the wood for the trees. The trees are the individual commandments; the wood is the Kingdom in all its beauty.

But what can remove the veil, if endless study of religious laws and faithful attempts to keep them cannot? “Turning to the Lord”, is Paul’s answer, that is to Jesus Christ. The removing of the veil reminds Christians of Good Friday, when the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom as a sign that the sin and death that separated humanity from God can no longer do so because Christ has removed their power.

We need a new way of living in a post-veil world, and the Holy Spirit is key to that. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (3:17). We will not get far if we treat the ethical teachings of the New Testament like another set of ten commandments, written on stone to bind us to particular actions (or the avoidance of them). Rather they are to be “written on our hearts” as the ways in which the Holy Spirit sets us free to act out the love of Christ to others. In doing so, Paul says, we will be transformed “with ever increasing glory” (3:18. NIV) into the likeness of God. What an amazing thought!

Do you sometimes fail to see beyond the veil because you are concerned about whether all your actions are right? Ask the Holy Spirit to remove the veil from your eyes!

The Bible in a Year – 24 May

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

24 May. Jeremiah chapters 34-37

The book of Jeremiah, as I have noted before, is confusing because it is not in chronological order. For instance chapter 37 records how Zedekiah was installed as a puppet ruler of Judah by the Babylonians, but earlier, chapter 34 opens with Zedekiah already in post. In it, this turncoat king does something extraordinary: he applies one of God’s commandments which the Jewish people had ignored for centuries, that they must not keep any of their fellow men or women as slaves – or at least not for longer than 6 years and only if the servant in question had voluntarily sold themselves into slavery (presumably to pay off a debt).

But no sooner had the slave-owners complied with the law than they tried to recapture the freed slaves. The law of God meant so little to them that even when enforced by the authorities, they tried their best to get round it for their own advantage. God’s response was to ironically tell them that for denying others their freedom, they themselves would be ‘free’ from God’s protection and would be killed. So often people see religious rules as purely restrictive when in fact they represent a form of protection: to follow God’s way is to receive his protection against falling into the sort of sin that rebounds on oneself. The more people in a society who live by faith, the healthier that society will be. And the more who ignore God’s laws, the worse it will be for everyone. It’s a lesson that is forgotten in each generation and has to be re-taught and re-learnt, often the hard way.

In chapter 35 the Recabites are held up as an example. They seem to have been an ascetic tribe within Israel, continuing to live a nomadic and austere lifestyle even when the rest of the people had been living the ‘good life’. They might be compared to Quakers or Amish, for example, or the monastic orders of the Middle Ages. Although to others their self-denial might have seemed pointless, in fact their faithfulness to God was contrasted with the self-seeking of the majority. We need such people in our society today. Where can they be found? There are some small Christian communities who live in this counter-cultural way, but if anything they are to be found more in secular movements and communities where sustainability of food, energy and the environment are more likely to be the aim rather than obedience to God. But why not both? Why are more Christians (or people of other faiths) not living this way? It’s a challenge and one I know I must face myself.

In chapters 36-37 (going back to the previous reign of Jehoiakim), the king calls for the scroll that Jeremiah has had written of all his prophecies to date, and because he will not accept their message he burns it. Burning sacred writings is always a provocative act, yet Jeremiah was a man of peace, and rather than retaliate himself he merely emphasised that the king was provoking God to wrath, and had a second copy of the scroll made for posterity, while he himself was put in prison. It is not easy to walk the way of non-aggression in the face of such opposition. Few people manage it; Jeremiah and Jesus were among those who did.

The Bible in a Year – 8 March

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

8 March. Deuteronomy chapters 28-29

The difference between obeying and breaking the covenant between God and his people is set out in the starkest possible terms. Keep it, and they could expect peace and prosperity. Break it, and they could expect not only poverty and drought but also defeat in war, diseases and plagues of all kind, and starvation to be point of men eating their babies and women the afterbirth. Images no doubt intended to frighten the mass of the people into obedience.

Is this an image of religion that people still have today? That we believe if you don’t keep every rule in the Bible you will be punished for it in this life as well as the next? If so, it is completely wrong. Even in the Old Testament there is much about God’s mercy and patience. And ever since Jesus came to proclaim God’s gift of undeserved grace, the burden of keeping the law has been lifted, and we are free to “serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” (Luke 1:74,75). There will be much more to write about this later in the year when we get there, but for now the message is “do not be afraid” (sometimes said to be the most common phrase in the whole Bible).