Topic: Freedom

Christ’s example of willing obedience, as extolled here in the hymn of Christ - is the ultimate demonstration of God’s divine love. True love cannot be separated from the freedom of our will.

Recently I watched the movie “The Truman Show” for the first time. For those unfamiliar, the “The Truman Show” is a movie from 1998 starring Jim Carrey. Going in, I was surprised to find out it was more of a psychological thriller than comedy. I was also surprised by how stunningly it criticized our present day, some 25 years later.

Do you ever grow tired of hearing the noise of the world around you? Our world has been saturated with evil since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. For the Christian, it is easy to be discouraged by the many voices that speak out against the Gospel. Even greater is the temptation to give in to them. Here, the Rev. Galloway shares God’s reminder for us to be still, and trust in Christ.

Can you really be a Christian when you don’t pray every day? A recent Pew survey indicates that roughly half of all professing Christians do not pray every day. Without daily prayer, we cannot be truly happy. And when we pray, we should pray like the tax collector, begging for God’s mercy. We need to be people of real prayer.

What is commonly understood and fought for as liberty today is in fact libertinism. A “libertine” is “a person devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which are seen as unnecessary or undesirable, especially someone who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behavior sanctified by the larger society.” Saint Paul gives us a different definition of liberty. In his letter to Galatians, he writes, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).

American Christians are no doubt incredibly disheartened by the myriad moral shortcomings of their political leaders and the march of the authoritarian state against individual and religious freedoms. But we can take heart, for as the Rector reminds us, earthly leaders will always fall short, but God in Christ will never fail us or let us down.

Our nation drifts further and further from God each and every day. Just as we receive a new birth of freedom when we repent and trust in Christ Jesus, so too does our nation need a new birth and a renewal of faith in God, if true freedom is to be preserved for future generations.