“Most merciful God, we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves,” I say aloud with my worshiping community. Some weeks I slip back into the old wording I remember from childhood: “we are in bondage to sin.” We can’t pick this lock. Our freedom comes with a Christ-shaped key.
God’s love and justice free us, giving us room and permission to delight in the gifts of vulnerability, authenticity, service and God’s unconditional love.
I’m reminded of Martin Luther’s famous line from The Freedom of a Christian: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” Does it sound like a contradiction? Not really. We know from the life of Christ that grace-filled freedom and loving service go hand-in-hand.
Thanks be to God for the holy wisdom of corporate confession. Something unlocks inside me, destroying all pretense, as we say: “Forgive us, renew us and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name. Amen.”
This message is excerpted from “Just freedom” by Elizabeth Hunter in the June 2021 Gather magazine. Today is Independence Day in the United States.
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