Let us be reminded: Freedom’s precious

“… and the government shall be upon his shoulders.”

At Christmastime, we read from the biblical book of the prophet Isaiah about the coming of a prince who will rule the world in peace and judge all people with equity (9:2-4, 6-7). At the Nativity service at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Bangor this year, our deacon read a children’s story told from the perspective of the son of the Bethlehem innkeeper who had no room for Mary and Joseph the night Jesus was born.

The story retold the events described in the Gospel of Luke, but focused on life inside the inn and imagined what a child might have seen that night.

In the story, the child’s father reads to him from Isaiah as part of their evening prayers. This is not an event described in the Gospel nor does it really seem important in the light of the miraculous events taking place in the stable outside. I was struck, however, by what this beautiful Christmas lesson must have meant to people in the ancient world before the coming of Christ.

What would a child have imagined on hearing this prophecy? What would an innkeeper in Bethlehem have dreamed about?

Ancient people lived very different lives from the ones we experience in the modern world. Technology, of course, has changed our lives in many ways, but what has revolutionized the way we live more than anything else is the advent of political freedom.

The economist Milton Friedman wrote: “Because we live in a largely free society, we tend to forget how limited is the span of time and the part of the globe for which there has ever been anything like political freedom: the typical state of mankind is tyranny, servitude, and misery.”

To hear a prophecy about a king who would come to govern the entire world with equity would have been powerful indeed for the innkeeper and his son. Even during times of relative peace and prosperity, people in the ancient world lived under the threat of loss of life or property at the hands of kings and emperors. Even those who were fortunate enough to have wealth or property did not enjoy the types of freedoms we take for granted.

Christians believe Jesus Christ is the king whom Isaiah foretold. We deal, however, with the apparent contradiction that Jesus was never an earthly king. He did not, in his life on earth, establish the government that Isaiah described.

Jesus came and went; tyranny and oppression lived on.

Christians reconcile this in a number of ways. First by saying the kingdom described by Isaiah is not an earthly kingdom but is God’s kingdom of heaven which we will come to know after we pass from this world. We also describe the freedom that Christ brings us as a spiritual freedom, the freedom from sin and the knowledge that we have been born again to eternal life.

While I believe both of these things to be true, this Christmas I also was struck by what political freedom has given us, and what role God has played in its birth.

Friedman’s passage about the rarity of freedom goes on to say that the modern western world stands out as a “striking exception to the general trend of historical development.” The founders of the United States saw God’s providential hand at work in leading us to this land and bringing us together as a nation. When I consider how sudden and how profound a change the world underwent in the 18th century, I cannot help but believe that God is and has always been at work in history.

Take for example one of the most important changes that has occurred since the birth of freedom: the abolition of slavery. Considering that some form of human slavery has been practiced on every continent by every group of people for the entire known history of the world, it is nothing short of a miracle that today slavery is illegal almost everywhere and is only practiced underground or where no law or justice exists.

The abolition of slavery has been a part of a more profound cultural epiphany that was immortalized by the words of Thomas Jefferson: “All men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.”

The full humanity of all people was revealed by God in his laws to the ancient Hebrews, and again was proclaimed through the gift of his son, Jesus Christ. God revealed this principle over and over again, yet until very recently it was not put into practice. For Americans, the drive toward the full humanity of all has become the arc of our history.

Our nation is far from perfect, but today because of the vigilance and sacrifice of so many who have come before us, more human beings than ever before enjoy the freedom that is their birthright as children of God.

If you did any traveling during this holiday season, think about how important the simple act of getting on a plane or taking a car to visit your loved ones really is. The Soviet Union was able to put the first manmade object and the first man into orbit around the Earth, but the people living under its rule were not free to travel. It may seem that we have technology to thank for our mobility, but the freedom to travel is much more important than the means.

One of my favorite Christmas hymns describes the birth of Christ as a rose blooming in the dead of winter. Friedman describes the birth of freedom in much the same way. The beauty of the rose is made even more so by the bleakness all around it. Freedom, like God’s grace, is a delicate flower that has sprung up against all odds under the harshest conditions.

We as Christians remember each year how God came to Earth in the form of a child to set us free and restore us to full humanity. During the Christmas season and at all times of the year, we as Americans should be aware of how precious a gift freedom is and do everything in our power to nurture and defend it.

Maxwell Coolidge worships at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Bangor. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, and sons Matthew and Thomas in Orland.