Our great celebration of our 250th year of independence will be here before you know it! Our forefathers risked their lives to free us from a King in a land far, far away. They thirsted for liberty and the right to have religious freedom. General Washington, the commander of these brave forces that fought for this freedom, encouraged his soldiers to attend worship services. In a general order, he: “required and expects, of all Officers, and Soldiers, not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attendance on divine Service, to implore the blessings of heaven upon the means used for our safety and defense.” (Thompson, “In the Hands of a Good Providence,” 148 and GW, general orders, July 4, 1775, GW Writings, 3:309.) But here today, 250 years later, do we spoiled Americans really fully understand what liberty and freedom are? Do we really embrace the cost of these rights?
In my childhood I had rules and curfews, but I experienced a sense of freedom when I rolled the window down in the car and let the unrestrained air blow to and fro like a leaf blowing with no agenda, or as I took my hands off of the handle bar of my bike and peddled hard down the pavement, or as I climbed to new heights in a swing and felt the air rush by my ears and then the sensation of falling backwards somewhat unrestrained but connected by a rope or chain. There are limitations to flying and riding a bike and not steering, and there are limitations to our freedom or we too may be enslaved, or at least detained at the doctor’s office.
St. Philaret of Moscow wrote: “Some people by the word freedom understand the ability to do whatever one wants ... People who have the more allowed themselves to come into slavery to sins, passions, and defilements more often than others appear as zealots of external freedom, wanting to broaden the laws as much as possible. But such a man uses external freedom only to more severely burden himself with inner slavery. True freedom is the active ability of a man who is not enslaved to sin, who is not pricked by a condemning conscience, to choose the better in the light of God's truth, and to bring it into actuality with the help of the gracious power of God. This is the freedom of which neither heaven nor earth is restricted.” (St. Philaret of Moscow, Sermon on the Birthday of Emperor Nicholas I, 1851)
Most of us are also oblivious to the choices we make every day, freedom or servant hood, it just becomes routine. The Apostle Paul writes the Christians in Rome in our Epistle this morning and warns them about independently choosing to be enslaved to sin instead of belonging to the Master and receiving everlasting life. (Rom 6:18-23)
St. Justin Popovich explains freedom in this way: “In truth there is only one freedom - the holy freedom of Christ, whereby He freed us from sin, from evil, from the devil. It binds us to God. All other freedoms are illusory, false, that is to say, they are all, in fact, slavery.” (St. Justin Popovich, Ascetical and Theological Chapters, II.36)”
My childhood swing was suspended by a rope or chain which allowed me to experience some freedom. And our Christian life choices must also be connected by a rope or chain to the life and example that Christ gave us when he walked this Earth and taught us all to pray: “Our Father, Who art in the heavens, Hollowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Matt 6:9-13)
“For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. [Rom. 6:23] I pray that we all will independently choose to be dependent on Him.
Fr. Gabriel Weller 6-28-2026
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