Freedom. It is at the heart of what we celebrated as a community last Saturday and will continue to celebrate this week, especially on the Fourth. Freedom. We cherish it. Freedom. We have fought for it. Freedom. It has been the defining characteristic of our country.
Over the last several weeks, most of us have watched and listened as news from Iran filled our televisions. We are told that many in Iran are standing up for freedom in the face of the tyranny of the Mullahs and President Ahmadinejad. And our initial reaction as freedom loving people is to cheer for those seeking freedom. After all, we love freedom and feel an instant connection to anyone who shares our passion.
However, those who have a citizenship in heaven which is even more precious to us that the one exercised under the good old red, white, and blue, we perhaps ask a few more questions of the freedom seekers before announcing our solidarity with them. And the main question we must ask is this, “What freedom do you desire?†While lately almost all communication from Iran has been cut off, I did early on hear several interviews from some of those, mostly young people, who gathered in the streets to protest. And as I listened to them, I could not help but think that the answer they gave to that question was that they wanted freedom from any religious constraints or rules of morality. They said they wanted women to be able to dress like western women. They said they wanted to be able to listen to the types of music Americans listen to. And I must admit the more I heard them speak, the farther from them I felt. Oh, I still sympathized with their desire to be out from under oppression of tyrants and felt sorry for them that for so long they have been governed by the laws of a false religion. But at the same time, I was saddened that they seemed to believe that the greatest things freedom could offer to them were things like provocative clothing for their women and smut filled songs for their ipods.
It that really what our soldiers have died for? Is that what you are celebrating the weekend? Is that really the freedom we love? Unfortunately it seems that all too many in our own country would answer “yes†to this question. For even in our own country, freedom has simply become an excuse to practice all sorts of immorality and vice. I have to think that most of the founders of our country would shudder at what things are celebrated as the greatest achievements of freedom in our country by average citizens. I cannot believe that the founders thought that their great battles for freedom would be used as excuse for such licentious behavior.
Those of us who are citizens in the kingdom of God value our freedom, or at least should, because it offers us the freedom to exercise our faith freely. We value that it gives us the freedom to worship God not because it gives us freedom to run from Him. I do hope that the people of Iran will eventually be free of the oppressive rulers that seek only to benefit their own desires and fortunes. I hope also that they will be freed from the bonds of a false religion. But I do not rejoice in the fact that many of the young people in Iran simply want to join the west in its least laudable ways. I cannot light any fireworks in honor of that pursuit.
Ultimately my hope for them is that these Iranians would find true freedom. For there is a freedom much more important that even the one we seek to celebrate this week in our country. I hope that regardless of what government eventually takes hold in Iran that the people of Iran would come to know the One who stands over all human powers and is ultimately the judge of their actions. I pray that they might come to know the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I pray that the Spirit might work faith in their hearts through the Word and through God’s means of grace. I pray that they might come to know the Son, and therefore the Father. For then and only then will they know the greatest freedom that exists, freedom from sin and the guilt it causes and freedom to serve the one true God for the rest of their lives. For that is true freedom. Amen.
