What Price, Freedom?

“You are slaves to that which you submit yourselves to as obedient servants…. To sin and death or righteousness.” Romans 6:16

Revelation 1:5-. “To the one who loves us and has set us free from our sins at the cost of his own blood and has appointed us as a kingdom, as priest serving his God and father – to him be the glory and power for evere and ever! Amen.”

Independence Day, the Fourth of July, is not about picnics, baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and chevrolet. It is not about fireworks exploding and illuminating the night sky. It is not about beer and barbeque on the lake with friends and family. It is not so that government workers, bankers and wall street can have a long three day weekend. While we can all agree that these things are good things they sometimes serve only to cloud the real issue, which is that someone paid the ultmate price for our freedom. It is a day to enjoy Independence, to celebrate through our collective memory the benefits of Liberty and to reafirm our commitment never to submit to tyrants and despots but to willingly take up arms against those who would oppress freemen everywhere.

"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"-Patrick Henry March 23, 1775-

I would like to propose for our consideration that even in death, there is liberty in fact it may be the most liberating of all endeavors for those who give up their life freely for others. True freedom so dear, sweet, unimaginable and great is purchased at such an awful cost. Is a blessing given to us, placed in our hands and requires our eternal vigilance (Jefferson- “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance”) and utmost attention. We stand, as it were, on the shoulders of giants, titans, true heros who have set forth, launched out before us to asail the bastions of tyranny and oppression. It is their blood that nurtures and nourishes the soil in which grows the tree of Liberty. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”-Thomas Jefferson- “Why stand we here idle,” Patrick Henry asks of those in his day. A valid question we should be asking today, during our time it is as relevant as it was then. How will you answer the call, the challenge? What price, freedom.

Why do we cower in the darkness, slink among the shadows, giving lip service to honoring those who have and will pay the ultimate price, all the while so many are unwilling to answer the call to arms, to give their “last full measure,” (as Lincoln says). We live as if there are no consequences to our actions or we fail to act on the behalf of ourselves and others. I support the troops they cry, but don’t ask me or mine to get in line. We desire liberty with out personal cost, which is a far cry from those signing the “Declaration of Independence.” Those whose actions on that fateful day in reality signed their own death warrant with these final words, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” So many hide behind empty words, slither under a rock of prevarication or hide safely in a cave of rhetorical convenience. While like Israel we discovered the wicked carry us away into captivity (Ps. 137) and “demand from us a song…”. I ask you then, What price, freedom?

The opressive iron bands forged for holding the captives in bondage and slavery, cut deeply into the soft tender flesh of our ankles and wrist. The chains hollow rattle, the ring of steel against steel as we haltingly hobble along, barely able to stand, unsteadily placing one foot in front of the other. Our heads bowed and eyes cast down, we shuffle along afraid to raise our gaze, unable or unwilling to force ourselves to meet the haunting lifeless eyes of another human being and never to look into black the eyes of the vile, sadistic taskmaster. We are slaves to that which we have submitted ourselves as slaves the scripture tells us.

We are weighted down by the burdens we carry in the haversacks filled with our failures, short comings and sins. We, not unlike the mythical Sisyphus, are forever rolling our massive stone up hill only to have it come crashing back down as we almost gain the summit, victims of eternal failure and toil with no purpose. That heavy unyielding burden bends our backs and buckles our knees with its unmerciful and oppressive weight. Oppression, slavery, forced servitude, we are branded with the mark of the lord of darkness as we continue to struggle under the burden of the awful price we ourselves are not able to pay. Again I ask, What price, freedom?

We feel the bite, the sting of the lash, our flesh laid bare and shreaded by the harsh taskmasters cruel whip. We awaken from slumber, our self-induced comma of self-indulgance to find that we are tied to the whipping post. We have sold our souls much like the ancient Roman who held as the ultimate credo, “In Vino Veritas,” (“in wine is truth”). The real meaning of which is that wine loosens the tongue and secrets are never kept. They became fat and lazy over endulging in wine and debauchery. They drank deeply from its blood red wine, the cup of corruption only to become addicted to its heady brew. Those noble Romans allowed their empire to crumble, destroyed as much by their own vices as by the Barbarians at their gates only to become salves to those whom they once held as slaves. We now travel the same path to destruction, bondage, forced servitude held in shackles by a cruel unyeilding master. Our bodies stripped and beaten, flesh mangled, ripped and torn apart, beaten to a bloody pulp. Seeking always hoping for release, crying out for death to end the suffering, agony and pain of our own failures, only to hear the laughter of the evil taskmaster as he cracks the whip one more time. This torture is not because we are free but because we have allowed ourselves to be come slaves, we willingly sell our souls far to cheaply. I ask, What price, freedom?

We have been sold into bondage by our own lust and desires. Our incessant cries for more, more and even more. It is the unrelenting, never satisfied obsession, the feeling of entitlement which rings throughout the corridors of time and echo down the dusty empty halls of our pitiful existance. We have sold our heritage so cheap that it brought us even less than a bowl of soup, and yet we believed we are owed more. “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet” that we are willing to sell it for oil, plastic, a new car, home, new spouse or even silver and gold? I think not, and yet here we are enslaved to what we call the “good life,” and call ourselves free when deep down we know that is only a lie we tell ourselves. We pretend because that is what we are suppose to do, it is what everyone does, we play a game of chance with our freedom gambling on the margin we go all in and find ourselves unable to comprehend why we lose. We sell ourselves to so many potential masters: the Nanny State’s protectionism, unbridled capitalism, social, ethical and moral relativism, religious atheism and scienctific or intellectual charlatanism. We cry “Peace, Peace, but there is no peace,” neither within or without only conflict, fear and doubt. Enslaved as we are to those things to which we present ourselves as slaves. I ask, What price, freedom?

I choose Liberty, in life and in death. Those whom the son sets free are free Indeed (John 8:36). We come here today to claim our freedom through the Blood of Jesus Christ (an awful cost). He purchased us with his own blood. He redeemed us by his sacrifice. He restores our soul. He has reconciled us by the blood of his cross. He transformed us from death to life.

I choose Freedom. I choose Life in him. I choose Liberty. I choose Jesus, because (as the song says) he first chose me. He called me out of my bondage and I will call upon him (Acts 2:21 &Joel 2:32). This Jesus whom you (I) crucified, God has made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). What must we do (Acts 2:37)? The answer is simple, the same as it has always been, repent and be baptized…..(Acts 2:38)…Freedom awaits you, this is your Independence Day!!!!

Bob Phillips