Transcript "The Price of Liberation" Packiam T. Samuel

"The Price of Liberation"
Packiam T. Samuel
"The Price of Liberation"
"If I cast out devils by the finger of God, no doubt the Kingdom of God
hath come upon you." (Luke 11.20)
The Church's lessons for the Lenten season are concerned chiefly with the
fundamental elements of moral living: the casting out of sin, and the acquisition of
virtue. That is most obvious, of course, for instance, about the casting out of evils.
That story tells us that the casting out of sin is not enough: the empty soul the house
swept and garnished the disillusioned soul, unless it be filled with virtue, is vulnerable
to still more grievous sin, so that "the last state of that man is worse than the first.“
The casting out of sin, and the acquisition of virtue is the point of all the traditional
Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The purpose is our liberation:
that we should, be delivered from servitude to sin, into the spiritual freedom of the
children of God. "By the finger of God" our evils are cast out, and God's Kingdom
comes upon us.
The idea of liberation is very popular, and finds expression in all sorts of liberation
movements, even including what is called "liberation theology." In such movements
generally, the idea is-that our freedom as individuals, our freedom to be ourselves, is
painfully and unjustly restricted by traditions and social and institutional forms, both
secular and ecclesiastical. The idea is that if we could only be freed from all those
forms of external oppression, then we could really express our true selves, and fulfil
our potential as human beings. Then life would surely be worth living.
"The Price of Liberation"
Such ideas and attitudes have in recent years penetrated very deeply into the whole
fabric of our society, and have profoundly affected our family life, our educational
theory, our Church life, our political institutions, and soon, for better or worse. I think
that many people now are beginning to wonder how genuine this liberation is. At any
rate, the Christian religion, especially the message of this Lenten season, calls us to
look more deeply at the problem of oppression and liberation. Just what is the nature
of our servitude, and what is our way to freedom?
In Christian language, our servitude is sin, and our liberty is the life of virtue, finally
the life of heaven. We are promised deliverance "from the bondage of corruption, into
the glorious liberty of the children of God." (Romans 8.21) And these are not
fundamentally matters of oppression and deliverance by powers outside of ourselves.
Sin and virtue are not fundamentally matters of environment or luck, or external
forms, though of course they are expressed externally. Fundamentally, they are
matters of the soul.
The virtue of the soul is not a matter of free self-expression: it is a matter of humility
and obedience. We do not become good by the free expression of our fallen nature,
and our natural feelings and inclinations are no sure guides to virtue. More often,
they are our temptations. Nor do we become good simply by education. To be…
"The Price of Liberation"
…informed about the good is rot enough. We become good only by doing good, often
against our feelings and inclinations, often without very much understanding the
sense of it at all. We become good by doing the good, over and over and over, until it
becomes the habit, the very pattern of our lives. That is the whole point of religious
discipline: we do these things not because they seem agreeable, or sensible, or make
us feel good, but we do them in obedience.
So Christian living is all about the casting out of sin, and the acquisition of virtue.
Gospel tells us that it is the "finger of God," the Word of God, that casts out our sins,
and it also tells us that it is the same Word of God, the"bread of heaven," (John 6.41)
which fills our empty souls with virtue. Sin is not what we happen to find
disagreeable, or inconvenient, or disgusting. Sin is what the Word of God forbids.
Virtue is not what we happen to find pleasant, or nice, or pretty. Virtue is what the
Word of God demands. Our liberation lies in our humble obedience to that Word.
We need the grace of humility to see that our likes and dislikes are not the standard
of good and evil. Nor is human calculation any final standard. It is the "finger of
God," it is the Word of God that casts out the devils and liberates the soul. Therefore,
Christian life must be life lived in attentive obedience to that word.
"The Price of Liberation"
Now, perhaps if you were not just politely listening to a preacher in a pulpit, you
would say to me "All that is obvious enough, but easier said than done. In the world
of practical affairs, moral problems are not simple, not black and white, but a
thousand different shades of gray; and how do I know what the Word of God says
about this or that particular situation?"
Well, certainly, I dare not pretend that it is easy. I do not find it so, and I don't
suppose that you do, either. But at the same time, we do know something of what
the Word of God demands of us. Let's start with the little bit that we do know, and
let's not make the complexities of our problems an excuse for doing nothing. Let's
start with the little that we do know, in humility and obedience, and trust God for the
rest.
In the Church's Lenten message, humility and obedience are the keys to liberation,
and that message focuses in the humble obedience of Christ our Saviour, "that we
should follow the example of his great humility." In the ancient garden of man's
innocence and folly, the serpent tempted man and woman, saying, "Ye shall be as
gods, knowing Good and Evil." (Genesis 3.5) In vain ambition, forsaking God's
command, we ate of that forbidden tree, asserting the pride that we can do
everything on our own. Our Lenten journey is the road between that ancient tree of
disobedience, and the tree of Christ's obedience, on Calvary. That is the price of
liberation.