Religion
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Martin Sullivan
There is a sense in which the teaching of Christ about freedom turns all His followers into rebels. He set Himself decidedly against the tradition of the elders whenever it came into conflict with humility, or charity or sincerity. He deliberately placed Himself in the prophetic succession appearing before His contemporaries as the 'prophet of Nazareth in Galilee '. He was a lay teacher whose credentials were those of personal inspiration. "The Spirit of God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings." He read this passage one Sabbath in his local synagogue, and added the bold words, "This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears." The congregation threw Him out. Small country towns, dominated by the censorious, are less free . than a totalitarian state as all those whose tastes are unconventional soon discover. In Christ, the locals saw what they were up against and had no intention of allowing a man's inward monitor, the still small voice of the Spirit, to be heard. This is a typical example of .the effects of a clash between authority and freedom, and shows how far authority will go in self-defence. It is always driven to persecute, and religious persecution is simply a form of martial law. Tyranny must stop every loophole through which rebellion might creep in. Although savagery in the village parish church did not seem to worry Jesus unduly, it was a different matter when the hierarchy with all its authority conspired with the state and executed Him. An institution when firmly established first strangles the living idea it was founded to preserve. The spirit is grieved, then quenched and finally blasphemed, the last and unforgiveable sin.
Christ was always on the side of freedom. He called Himself the Truth, not tradition, as Tertullian has reminded us. We must follow Him now in upholding the rights of pure and enlightened conscience against all consecrated tradition and casuistry whether it be religious or secular, and particularly against that form of it which tries to shelter under His name, or tinder some allegedly humanistic banner. St Paul saw this clearly. He understood what the Gospel meant. "Stand fast," he wrote, " in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free." But Christian freedom, like all Christian duties and virtues, contains a paradox. One of our ancient collects, in Cranmer's brilliant paraphrase, puts it succinctly, "0 God who art the author of peace and lover of concord, whose service is perfect freedom." Outward liberty demands inner self-control, and self-development without selfsacrifice spells disintegration. Man is unable to rule himself and because he knows this in his heart, he is willing to accept an external -yoke. He cannot and he ought not to take it upon himself, if it is simply the dogma of a church or even the law of the land. His Christian freedom may demand
change.
Butrejection but total
But if Christ promised to make us free, He did not offer to make us independent. Love God and love your neighbour require that we shall lean upon both. When St Augustine suggested that we should love God and do as we like, he was not denying this principle. It is a bold, almost reckless assertion of it, and it challenges Christian and non-Christian alike. The perfect law, the law of liberty, is not tolerant of lawless living. Indeed freedom begins with being able not to sin; it is consummated in not being able to sin, and for the best of us this is an unrealised ideal. Meantime we can begin the pursuit and the pilgrimage. The author of the Fourth Gospel puts into the mouth of Christ words which will serve as a clue: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
Mausricin Sullivan is Dean of St pa
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