America at 250: Rights Bestowed by God: Liberty

Exodus 6:5-7, 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? - Micah 6:8b

​“There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending… we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us! Gentlemen may cry, ‘Peace! Peace!’ but there is no peace! The war is actually begun!

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.”—Patrick Henry, Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775.

Powerful. No one more than Patrick Henry has so persuasively articulated our need for freedom. This came in the midst of an age in which, throughout Europe and in the colonies, debates raged over the role of the church and the state. Subjects in certain kingdoms had to swear a loyalty for life and limb to their king, relinquishing their freedom. One such common English formula was: “I become your man, and I will bear you faith for life and limb.”

The coercion of both the state and the church in Europe led particularly Presbyterians to be extremely wary of an established religion more than Anglicans or even Congregationalists. We were among the strongest defenders of disestablishment, for example supporting abolishing mandatory religious taxes in Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and New Jersey.

We believed in the separation of church and state—but not in a secular society. The church has spiritual authority; the state has civil authority. They should not dominate or interfere with one another, but both are under God.

Thus, the freedom to worship as one sees fit became foundational to this country. In fact, in 1790 George Washington, in a letter to a Hebrew congregation in Newport, promised that America would give bigotry no sanction and to persecution no assistance.

Again, as in weeks past, we read of lofty aspirations which we could not quibble with today, but also the sad inability to live into it. For our country, at one time or another, has persecuted dozens of religions, races, and ethnic groups.

There is, of course, a biblical foundation to freedom. It was bestowed by God at the dawn of creation: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Genesis 2:16b–17).

Uniquely, amidst all the rest of creation, God gave us freedom. God believed this gift was so profoundly important that we even had the power to defy God and sever the harmony of creation. We know the terrible things that we have all done with it: war, treachery, greed. And yet, and yet, God gives it to us anyway.

And Patrick Henry and others throughout history were willing to give up the gift of life for the gift of freedom.

Can we conceive of anything more valuable, knowing what God put at risk?Knowing that eventually, on this very week, it would lead to the crucifixion of the Son?!

We are the Jerusalem crowd; we use our freedom to welcome Jesus with lofty praise and then condemn Him with shouts of “crucify Him.” We have a very hard time with this freedom. Nowhere is this more acutely seen than in the tragic truth revealed so recently about Cesar Chavez. He did so much for day laborers in California—the farm workers movement; his image is enshrined all over California for the great work, but they are busily scrubbing his visage and name all across the state because now it appears there was an evil that festered inside of him as well.

But even so, God believed freedom was essential, and as many cases of evil as there are, I believe there are a hundredfold more examples of beauty.

… Maxwell’s equations that harmonized electricity and magnetism,

… Shakespeare’s eighteenth sonnet, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day,”

… Mozart’s Requiem, and its heartbreaking Lacrimosa,

… the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, The Hand of God at Creation,

… Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird; Atticus Finch!

These works show what true freedom can create.

Yet, as lofty as these accomplishments are, the greater creative power of the human spirit is found when freedom is threatened:

… the courage of Harriet Tubman,

… the grit of Rigoberta Menchú,

… the soul of Mahatma Gandhi,

… the brazen tenacity of Moses,

… the spirit of Anne Frank,

… and the nameless people throughout history who harbored the Jews during World War II, who protected people in the killing fields of Cambodia, and the dissidents who spoke against totalitarian Russia.

Freedom is the greatest gift God has granted; for it is only through being truly free that we can truly love. Otherwise, obedience is compulsion and devotion is fear.

So when people are robbed of this freedom, they are robbed of their dignity, and the beauty of the human spirit becomes clouded and opaque, even to the individuals themselves.

And so we are challenged as a society to protect the freedom and dignity of all individuals, no matter who they are, no matter what they have done or failed to do. Last week we spoke of the dignity that is owed to every human creature by virtue of their created nature—created by God. And this week we see that each person is given the gift of freedom so that they may realize the fullness of their lofty nature.

What, then, are the implications for a society that believes in freedom as a God-given right?There is one way to measure it—to see the extent to which a society truly values dignity and freedom.

Fyodor Dostoevsky has a theory: “The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” —Fyodor Dostoevsky, The House of the Dead

There are times when people need to be incarcerated for the protection of society and themselves. But once they are there, the manner in which we treat them discloses the extent to which we actually believe in these foundational God-given rights. And sadly, all too often throughout the history of the world, societies with high-minded values have abandoned them once people have broken the law.

The early 20th-century French philosopher, mystic, and activist Simone Weil has a compelling, confusing, and penetrating analysis. As a mystic she drew from several religious traditions, but at that one moment she felt like she was taken over by the presence of Jesus and fell on her knees and describes it as a fusion of love and suffering. She had a deep understanding of the power of the human spirit to find its true center through contemplation, humility, and openness. Her soul was acutely aware of the nature of human degradation. “There is one thing and only one thing in modern society more hideous than crime,” she writes, “namely repressive justice.”

She was not categorically against punishment nor imprisonment, but rather its implementation—not because of who they are or what they have done, for better or for worse, but because of the God who created them.

The entire Bible might be summed up thusly: God’s plan to restore humanity to its intended glory. Furthermore, the Bible makes it clear that Jesus died for every single person; God does not give up.

And this means that when freedom is curtailed through punishment, it must always have a restorative intent, to match God’s intent. It is like that cloisonné lamp I spoke of last week that my mother painstakingly restored. I failed to mention that it was infested with insects and had been painted over many times. It was hard work that took years for her to restore that lamp—and now it is a thing of beauty.

Can we, in any good conscience, say that a human life is worth less effort?

Clearly, Jesus did not think so. At the beginning of His ministry, He unfurls the scroll of Isaiah: “I have come to release prisoners.” But His intention was not to open the doors of jails but the prison of our minds and souls.

There is a prison in South Korea—Somang Prison—founded by MyungsungPresbyterian Church, the only private and Christian-run penitentiary in Asia, that takes command from Jesus, “to visit those in prison,” with utmost seriousness and miraculous results.

Christianity Today tells the story of a prototypical inmate, Somang Cho. Cho saw how God’s grace had sustained him even when he wasn’t seeking God.

“I came to prison as a wounded avenger, full of rage and bitterness,” Cho said. “God’s grace is transforming me into a wounded healer—someone whose scars can bring hope to others.”

Somang seeks the restoration of its inmates based on the belief that Jesus can bring real change, according to warden Kim Young-sik. The prison encourages reconciliation first with God, then with their families, and finally with the wider community.

“Punishment may restrain behavior temporarily, but restoration asks something much harder—whether a person is willing to take responsibility, confront the harm they’ve caused, and begin repairing broken relationships.”

Prison guards call prisoners by their names—or “brother”—rather than by their identification numbers. Kim, the warden, said the practice reflects a Christian understanding of human dignity. Calling inmates by name affirms that they are people before they are offenders. He often returns to Psalm 22:22—“I will declare Your name to My brethren” (NKJV)—as a reminder of how he understands his role: serving men who temporarily wear prison uniforms but whom he regards as brothers in Christ.

The recidivism rate is around 6%, compared to 21% for the rest of the prisons in South Korea. So even though the inmates’ bodies are not free, this prison strives to ensure that their minds and souls are.

This prison reminds me of Jesus’ words on liberty: “When the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.”

Thanks be to God for the freedom that he gave me, for the freedom that he gave you. May each of us devote ourselves, in our homes and in our lives, to bringing God’s freedom to the hearts of all.