The Christian season of Lent starts on Ash Wednesday which this year
falls on 1st March (for Welsh readers, St David's day is
transferred this year to 28th February - see http://hybaldsrector.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/where-has-st-david-gone.html). Lent is a time
of self-examination and repentance and is often associated with the
practice of giving things up. This has recently been joined by, and
increasingly replaced by, a call to take up spiritual or charitable
practices. Now of course these are worthy and admirable things to do,
but I suspect that our preference for 'taking up' rather than 'giving
up' has less to do with our spiritual and moral health and more to do
with our contemporary dislike of self-denial.
For over half a century now our culture has shifted away from
attitudes of respect for and obedience to authority, and has moved
towards an attitude of self-assertion and self-centredness. This
shift is not totally a bad thing, but it is reaching its logical
conclusion in the present attitude that I should be able to have what
I want and it is wrong to
deny me it. This is usually dressed up in the language of being
'free' or having a 'right' to have or do something. The progression
has been from “I do what I am told” to “I do what I like as
long as it doesn't hurt anyone else” to “I can do what I like
whatever effect it has on others (or myself)”.
Jesus, by his death, has set us free the guilt of our sins. But as
Paul reminds us “My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don’t
use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use it as an
opportunity to serve each other with love” (Galatians 5:13
Contemporary English Version) and Peter says “You are free, but
still you are God’s servants, and you must not use your freedom as
an excuse for doing wrong” (1 Peter 2:16 CEV). But in a world
where 'freedom' is the battle-cry, the suggestion that we should try
to live according to God's laws is not popular.
So how can we be free
if we still have to live as God wants us to live? Well, we do not
free a fish by taking it out of a fish tank, we only kill it.
Similarly, we are only truly free if we live in the way we are
intended to live, and the one who tells us what that way is is the
one who created us, God. Freedom from God's rules is not freedom to
live, it is only freedom to die.
The odd thing is that
we know that freedom from constraint is not really freedom because we
see it all around us. Unrestrained eating is unhealthy, excessive
consumption of alcohol has a detrimental effect on health and
society. However, the most shocking example is the 'freedom' of the
sexual revolution that has led to increases in STIs, abortions,
broken relationships, pornography, sexualisation of children and
psychological trauma.
The promises to bring
freedom and happiness cannot be fulfilled by a culture that puts
personal interests above everything else. Jesus said, “I came so
that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest” (John
10:10 CEV). This Lent why not test whether Jesus' promise is true?
