True Freedom

There’s been a lot of talk about freedom, particularly the “freedom convoy” that has now been in Ottawa for nearly a week. I had chosen well before this to write my sermon for this week about Luke 4:14-30 when Jesus returns to Nazareth, His hometown, after a successful preaching and healing tour around Capernaum. He reads words from Isaiah in the synagogue about being anointed to bring good news to the poor, release to captives, sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed, and announces that He fulfills this scripture.

I couldn’t help but think about the convoy in Ottawa and the mob mentality generated that is so similar to the crowd’s fickle response in Luke 4 to the return of their hometown boy. Jesus knows they will struggle to see Him for who He is - the Messiah - and refuses to do miracles for a group who are testing Him and wanting proof. They turn on a dime, going from happy to angry at His teaching, and want to throw Him off a cliff. God enables Him to slip away through the bloodthirsty throng and avoid a premature death.

At first I didn’t want to couple this reading with the lectionary’s suggestion of 1 Corinthians 13, but then I saw the connection between offering freedom to the oppressed, the poor, the blind and the bound, and the expression of selfless love. Because any of the people Jesus was proclaiming release to were probably not the easiest or first choice of who to help. Leveling the playing field and helping the least and lost requires sacrificial love and seemingly little payback. But Paul’s description of love is not about us receiving but about serving the other.

So I have a problem with so-called “freedom fighters” who are knowingly keeping local residents awake all night and afraid to leave their homes, who are demanding the food that is for the homeless, who are preventing people getting to work and working safely, and stopping emergency vehicles from saving those in distress. I have a problem with rude and hate-filled behaviour and trying to draw a parallel between the star of David and the sacrifices mandated due to the pandemic and seeking to protect human life.

True freedom is about taking care of each other, promoting peace and being willing to forego our own personal wishes and freedoms for our neighbour and the good of society as a whole. True freedom results when we take responsibility for our actions and step out to protect the vulnerable. True freedom comes when we embrace the nature of Jesus, serving as His hands and feet and becoming part of the movement of sharing good news and freeing others, as well as claiming His kind of freedom for ourselves - acknowledging our chains and blindness and poverty and pain that need healing.

I pray that we can step back and look at these events and how differently they are handled from Indigenous protests to protect natural resources. I pray that we can look at what is happening in Ottawa and elsewhere through the lens of what freedom means in Luke 4. I pray that we can fight for freedom that loves and protects all of society, and particularly the vulnerable and oppressed and even those we disagree with.

“So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed” (John 8:36)