We are not a free nation

We are not a free nation

The philosophy of Ubuntu says – “I am because we are”.

Paul says, “for just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” 12:12 nrsv

Jesus says in Matthew, “For God makes the sun rise on bad and good alike: God’s rain falls on the just and the unjust.” 5:45 msg

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says, “God is not merely interested in the freedom of brown men, yellow men, red men, and black men. He is interested in the freedom of the whole human race.”

Each January we celebrate the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with posts, speeches, quotes, memes, and so on. A great many a leader commemorates the birthday of the pioneer of the modern civil rights movement with words and most times with very little deed.  I say modern because…well we’ll get to that.

Let’s talk about freedom and the movement of the spirit during these days following the national celebrations, keeping in mind the quotes from above.

Howard Thurman can help us transition:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.

After all the quotes, memes, and speeches, after all the posts and pics have worn out only to disappear from the collective conscience, this is when the real work begins to move our nation towards freedom.

We are not a free nation.

We are missing the deeper truth about freedom. We are not free when racism continues to infect the soul of our country. To deny that racism exists and indeed infects the fabric of America is to gaze out into the world with the eyes of privilege. So that when we begin talking about slavery and racism we are talking about the collective soul of this nation.

This is how Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X, Desmond Tutu, and many others understood freedom. We often make the mistake of thinking that freedom is something that we must either fight for or give up. When we lend our ear to the voices of division, loud screaming voices they are, we lose sight of the hard to see deep truth: those who are fighting for their own freedom are teaching us how to be free from the sin of othering as less than human, which is the root sin of racism. This sin has been within the soul of humankind since we took our first breath of collectively organizing into separate groups. This sin landed on the shores of the new America in the form of slavery.

John told us to repent for the forgiveness of sin. We are still hunting that Jordan river to be made clean and we are still haunted by this sin.

We have yet to repent, ask for forgiveness and live freely. If we can bring ourselves to let go and listen, we are being taught what it is to repent. We are just skipping class because we have been convinced by historical brainwashing that freedom is something we must give up so that someone else can be truly free as a fully human person. In the realm of God, in the beloved community, this is folly.

I have searched the Gospel story and I have not been able to find a place where Jesus Christ says that God’s freedom is for us and not them. I have not been able to find a place where Jesus Christ tells his disciples that God’s freedom is for them, as the in crowd, and not for all of creation. Even the disciples struggled with this notion.

Instead, what I hear in the entirety of our sacred text is that creation, all of creation, is where God’s freedom is given to all and to everything under the sun so that everyone and everything can flourish and thrive.  Let us read that again. Creation, all of creation, is where God’s freedom is given to all and to everything under the sun so that everyone and everything can flourish and thrive.

God’s justice, love, and freedom does indeed flow like a river that nourishes all of God’s creation. Down through human history we have, too many times, gone about the business of building a dam so a lake may be built to keep others out. We fail to realize that living on a private lake of freedom, built with oppression, poisons the water for everyone. Freedom from oppression is freedom for both the oppressor and the oppressed. The oppressor fails to realize that building and sustaining a system of oppression is to allow the evil sin of division sicken the collective body and soul.

When white people in this country realize this, we can begin the work of repentance and healing from the sin. When we, the privileged white folks, see others freedom as important as our own, when we admit to our own sin of othering as less than human, we are stepping into the redemptive work of healing. It is in this work that Jesus joins us as modern disciples with Christ. Jesus is our cohort in the work of bringing God’s justice to all.

We are not a free nation.

We continue to be sickened by the sin of racism. We just need to decide if we are going to embark on the difficult task of going up stream to breakdown, deconstruct, dismantle, destroy, blow up the human made dam of oppression so that the river of God’s freedom flows freely, overflows the banks and floods all the earth, as it has always done, as it was always meant to be. Listening to the voices of those we continue to oppress may help us to see that the river of freedom can never be contained. We may be able to slow its flow for a bit, for our own short lived personal gain, but the Levee breaks.

When I say we and white folk I’m talking about and including myself in this conversation. I realized my own ignorance and I have come to see clearly my ancestors who walked and lived in the world of privilege and racism. Although my work is not done, I have seen and felt the calling that the Gospel has put on my heart to lay my privilege on the line, grab the hand of Christ and work to heal what is broken, both within myself and the world. To put it succinctly: I am white folk. Now that I recognize the ignorance with which I was raised and taught, now that I can see the sin, I must join in the ranks of creating a better way for all. The blessing is that we don’t do this work alone. There is a better Way.

In our Christian tradition, Jesus is the Way and the example of the One who puts it all on the line to break the levee open so that God’s freedom may nourish all of creation. Christ Jesus knew that freedom is given freely to all of creation. Christ Jesus also knew that humanity continues to fight with itself and struggle with the sinful concept of who can be free and who has the right to hoard the freedom of others with politics, policy, and violence.

We are not a free nation.

We continue to be yoked to the sin of racism. True freedom within our souls can only come when we realize that freedom is God given. When we work to take away someone else’s ability to realize their own humanity we are truly taking away our own freedom by continuing the sin of oppressing others so that our own power remains.

May we not listen to those who say give me more power.

May we listen to the One who died because humanity could not, would not listen to the voice of Divine Incarnated Love.

May we listen to the yearnings of our true heart.

May we all gaze upon that cross and see our own sins.

May we all look beyond our sin to the Tomb that reminds us that God’s freedom is eternal.  

May we realize the truth of humanity: Our true freedom is tied up and within the freedom of everyone. No one is free until we are all free.

It is at the foot of the Cross that we realize; power kills and God’s freedom rains down from the heavens to freely fall on each of us, to nourish each soul with love and grace.

I am free when you are free!!