The Freedom of a Christian

"A Chrisitan is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all." - Martin Luther


Texts: Psalm 110

Proverbs 1:20-33

James 4:1-10

"These conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from?  Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?"

Ouch.  James' understanding of human nature hits a little too close to home.  Though we have the capacity to be loving, generous, and kind, we also have within us a propensity to allow the things that are at war within us be at war outside us as well.  When we have bad days, it tends to be the people about whom we care most that receive the brunt of our frustration.  

I suppose this is all the more reason that we pray for our leaders: in our churches, in our communities, in our countries, and in our world.  

Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely), James goes on to enlist some of the 10 Commandments and the ways in which breaking them affects our neighbors.  "You want something and you do not have it; so you commit murder.  And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts."  Ouch.  It points us back to Moses' words in Exodus, "So that your days might be long in the land," which is connected to the commandment of honoring father and mother, but I think it nonetheless applies to all of the 10 Commandments.  In honoring our neighbors, in keeping the 10 Commandments (not for our own sake or for the sake of our salvation, but for the well being of our neighbors), we seek to live at peace: not only with our neighbors, but with ourselves as well.

It is when we are at war with ourselves that we tend to seek war with our neighbor.  This, as you can imagine, perpetuates itself.  The angst and tension of being in conflict with those around us fuels our inner conflict, which continues the vicious cycle.

I must confess: I think James has the second part of this passage a bit backward.  "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you," but I believe we are only able to draw near to God because God has drawn near to us.  Christ has purified our hearts and cleansed our hands, and has turned our mourning into laughter and our dejection into joy.  I believe it is a gift that we, at this very time and place, participate in the world God has created.  Whereas I do not know, necessarily, what "friendship" with the world implies, I cannot help but wonder: if God has so loved the world and has put us within it, and moreover has participated in the world since its inception and, most intimately, through Christ, does it not follow that we, too, ought to participate in the world?  Our participation in the world, however, should reflect our identity in Christ; our Christian freedom, as indicated by Martin Luther, makes us at once "free lords/ladies of all, subject to none... and perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all."  We have been made free from all in order that we might see that our identities are bound to the identities of the Other, of the Neighbor, in whom we meet Christ daily.


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