Following on from yesterday in our Lenten Quotes, Rowan Williams asks, “What if we view this desert time of Lent as not just a time to reflect or to lament or to confess or to fast, but a time where we learn to be free?”
This quote seems to be so counter intuitive to the popular view of Lent as an austere, restrictive and bleak season that needs to be endured. I find it interesting that Williams emphasises the action of “learning to be free.”
It must have been so for those born into slavery and trafficked across the world to finally find themselves emancipated. Yet what is the freedom that Christ offers? According to the Christian worldview, true freedom is not a matter of doing what you want without restraint, but cultivating the right wants and living in obedience to God's will. In other words, freedom results when our wants align with God's will. A train is free only so long as it stays on its tracks; a train that jumps the tracks is "free" of the rails but no longer free in the most important sense of the word. It's a freed wreck that can't go anywhere.
In John 8 we read “Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
So is this the learning that Williams means that we draw life from the word of God. This life is Christ himself, he is the love of the Father. Being a disciple, a listener, is living and abiding in truth, knowing that the Jesus of our prayer comes from God and is with God. Jesus wants to lead us into truth so that we may be free. If we truly desire freedom, weneed to be ready to accept the truth. There is nothing threatening or accusatory here-it is about being known fully and loved deeply.
Gracious God,
you have made all of the peoples of the earth for your glory.
You invite us to serve you in freedom and in peace.
Give to the people of every nation a zeal for justice
and the strength for forbearance,
that we may use our liberty
in accordance with your gracious will.
We ask this in the name of the one
who welcomes all to be free indeed.
Inspire us to live and worship in your freedom. Amen
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