Freedom in our Day                                                              11/16/41

 

Scripture:  Galatians 5: 1, 5, 13-18.

 

Text:  Galatians 5: 1;   “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

 

We approach another day of national thanksgiving with mixed emotions.  Perhaps we would do well to go beyond the customary feast, with grace said before we begin it; beyond even a resolution to go to the church service that morning; beyond, also, the enumeration of some of our blessings for which to give thanks - to a constructive criticism of some of our reasons for gratitude.

 

In our litany this morning, we voiced our thanks to God “for life in a favored land of plenty, still at peace while so much of the earth lies under the dark clouds of war and destruction.”  We would indeed be wretchedly ungrateful if we failed in our gratitude for such well-being.  With what humility should those words pass our lips!

 

And we continued our thanks “for citizenship in this nation, with its rich heritage of liberty, its abundance of opportunities, and its democratic ideals.”  “Heritage of liberty” - that ought to make us pause and think.  The privileges and the freedom which we enjoy under our democratic form of government are something not to be taken for granted.

 

Our freedom is the result of a tremendous amount of struggle, not alone of warfare but of moral concern.  Those who wrought it out knew what the struggle for it had meant to themselves and to their fathers across the sea.  In their veins flowed the blood of those who determined to rise above the vassalage in which tyranny of State and sometimes Church had proposed to keep them.  They sought liberty for themselves, and those who joined them on these shores, because of the God-given conviction that the rights for which they struggled were rights which the Creator had given to all of the creatures “in his own image.”  In the struggle to evolve a good and just form of government, the Ten Commandments, summed up in Christ’s command to love neighbor as well as self, were the foundation and background of their thinking.  We have a duty, under our form of government, to deal justly with our neighbors, because they are men, like ourselves, with the same rights, and desires for life and happiness.

 

The Declaration of Independence from foreign tyranny emphasizes this in the statement that all men are created equal in certain respects: that they are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights: that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  It is the belief of free people that governments do not exist for themselves, but to secure the rights of the people.  This belief is thrown into bold relief by the insistence of some modern governments, elsewhere, that the state is the only entity that matters.

 

The people of the United States, through their chosen representatives, ordained and established a constitution which provides for government - not by class as in the Soviet Union, nor by race as in Nazi practice - but by men whom all the people choose.

 

Under our constitutional freedom we have the right, defined in the first ten amendments, commonly known as the Bill of Rights, to security in persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.  If we are accused, we have the right of recourse to law before being deprived of life, liberty or property and we have a right to have our case submitted to a jury.  Lincoln summed up our political estate as “government of the people, by the people and for the people.”

 

These are some of the considerations that crowd to mind when we think of the liberty for which we give thanks - a liberty that is definitely challenged by tyrannous forms of government which have sprung up in our day.

 

Freedom in our day is not to be taken for granted.  Its preservation will require struggle.  I know of no true freedom that does not require effort and self-discipline for its achievement and preservation.

 

We are committed to the notion of freedom of educational opportunity for every boy and girl of our communities.  A democratic community such as our town, our county, our state and nation, is possible only through intelligent and informed citizenry.  And yet the freedom to acquire knowledge without some moral controls is not necessarily a good thing, by any means.

 

A man can be trained in medicine in order to treat the casualties of gangsters.  He may become expert in the law in order to help crooks past the side doors of justice.  He may use his knowledge of chemistry to blow up a factory, or his acquaintance with economics to ruin another’s livelihood.  Education is a dangerous and evil thing unless its fruit is directed by men and women of character.

 

We are committed, rightly, to the ideal of freedom of religion.  It is my soberest judgment that this does not mean freedom from religious concern, but that it does mean freedom for the positive cultivation and practice of religion.  Protestant religion did not reform ecclesiastical evils in Europe and help in the creation of civil freedom by simply becoming non-Catholic, or nothing.  Protestant religion has stirred men and nations to better living because of its positive efforts.  The freedom of our country and its preservation to the present day has its moral roots in the positive, active religious devotion of its people who laid hold upon a religious faith for which they would spend life itself.  If it is true that the people of our land are attending the churches of their choice in larger numbers these days, attending with greater faithfulness, supporting the gospel ministry of pulpit, class and service with more generosity, that is the greatest hope for the preservation of our freedom that we can conceive.  For it is in our wrestling with and waiting upon, the will of God that we find the moral motive for our efforts to guarantee freedom for ourselves and to bring it to others.

 

The dictators have adopted, with enthusiasm, a policy of utter ruthlessness in their drive toward selfish imperialism.  The best way to defeat that end is surely not by reciprocal ruthlessness, but by resistance growing out of deep moral concerns for what God has eternally ordained to be right for all men.  It would be a pity if all the peoples of the world had to be driven to their God by the miseries and the horror of war.  Is it not better to offer Him our devotion and service as part of the fair, recognized price of freedom?

 

The most distressing thing with which any cause must deal is indifference, apathy, smug complacency.  You can find ways to deal with opposition; but indifference leads to violence or despair.

 

Did you ever think carefully what must be the mental reaction of one of the missionaries of Christ’s Church when some safe and comfortable midwesterner says:  “Aren’t you glad you are out of Greece just now?”  “My, but you must be happy to be away from Japan during these days of tension and danger!”  “It certainly is a good thing that you are not in Korea now!”  I can tell you that most missionaries hate that!  They would rather be spending their lives, risking the danger, among the people they truly love on the fields of their life’s endeavor than to dwell in the houses of safety.  They are usually restrained from returning only by their supporting Boards or by their government’s rulings.  Like all other thinking, active Christians, they refuse to suspend the spirit of Christ for the duration of the war.  They know, as you and I know, that there was never more desperate need for the maintenance of brotherly understanding among all Christians of every land, than there is right now.

 

There is no power but a Christian conscience, guided by God’s answer to the wrestling of prayer, that can surely guide aright in these days.

 

The only true freedom is in His spirit.  Isolation does not bring freedom.  Nor does empire.  The truth about human life and freedom is interdependence, community, cooperation, sharing of resources, ideas, efforts and opportunities.  This kind of intelligent love is the only practical way, because it is the only way that can last.

 

The very difficulties through which we are passing in our world of today are a demonstration of the supremacy of God.  Heaven be thanked that God still lives!  Hatred still breeds hatred; the sword begets the sword; love returns like bread cast upon the waters; His differences between right and wrong are still clear.

 

Let it be the most profound desire of every freedom-loving man, woman and child to find what is eternally right, to know the God-ordained basis of true liberty in the moral order of the universe.  Let our thanks be humble, searching and active.

 

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Dates and places delivered:

 

            Wisconsin Rapids, November 16, 1941