Too Much Independence?

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
July 6, 2008

Too Much Independence?
Deuteronomy 30:11-20
Luke 9:57-62

Who doesn’t enjoy celebrating the Fourth of July?
Independence Day, a day of picnics and parades,
firecrackers and family.
A day to relax and enjoy the sounds and smells of summer,
and a day, of course, to look back on
the proud history of our nation.

It’s been 232 years since those bold men gathered
to sign their names to the Declaration of Independence,
to stand up to the tyranny of the British king
and the wealthy aristocrats
who tried to impose their will on the colonists.
Two hundred thirty-two years
since we took that first courageous step
of what Abraham Lincoln would later call so simply
and yet so elegantly,
“government of the people,
by the people,
for the people”.
(Gettysburg Address)

We Presbyterians should take special pride in Independence Day,
since many of the men who created our nation
were Presbyterians.
Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence
was the Reverend John Witherspoon,
a Presbyterian clergyman who
was also president of a Presbyterian college in New Jersey
that would be later be known as Princeton University.
One of his brightest students
was a young Virginian named James Madison,
a Presbyterian would serve as the principal drafter
of the Constitution of the United States.

The very foundation of our democratic government,
with its system of checks and balances,
and the power residing ultimately in the people,
with the people,
and for the people,
borrowed liberally from the Presbyterian form of government.

For the influence the Presbyterians had though,
it was a wonderfully ecumenical group who established this nation:
Presbyterians working together with Anglicans, Catholics,
Quakers, Congregationalists, Baptists,
and others, all focused on forging a new nation.

It was their ecumenism that assured us
of one of our foundational rights,
the right to practice freely any religion.
Thomas Jefferson laid the groundwork for that freedom
right here in Virginia when he authored
the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom in 1779.
It held that,
“…all men shall be free to profess,
and by argument to maintain,
their opinions in matters of religion,
and that the same shall in no wise diminish,
enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”
(Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom,
drafted in 1779 and adopted in 1786)

We have freedom and independence in this nation,
including the freedom and independence to pursue our faith,
whatever faith we feel called to,
including the many denominations of Christianity,
as well as Judaism or Islam, or other faiths,
or, if we choose,
the freedom and independence to pursue no faith.

This is truly a God-given freedom,
for it was God who gave us free will:
the ability to make decisions
and make choices for ourselves.
God could have created us differently,
without the ability to make decisions,
or make choices,
creatures that focused on little more than survival.
God could have imposed his will on us,
drawing us by fear to worship and praise him.

But God did not do that, of course.
God graced us with free will,
the ability to make decisions,
and the ability to make choices,
hoping that we would always choose him,
always choose his way,
always choose his love.

But of course, as soon as we learned that
we had the ability to make choices,
we also learned that we had the ability to make bad choices,
choices that would turn us away from God.
Adam and Eve had a choice:
either to listen to God and obey him,
or listen to the serpent,
and in the process exercise their free will,
and disobey God.
And in choosing to disobey God,
Adam and Eve chose to declare their independence from God.

From there as we read through the Bible,
it was like a snowball rolling downhill:
Example after example
of God’s children making bad choices
as they declared their independence from God,
choosing to pursue their own will
and their own way,
rather than following God’s will and God’s way.

More than 3,000 years ago,
as the children of Israel camped on the banks
of the east side of the Jordan River,
waiting to cross over and enter the promised land,
Moses spoke to them and warned them
that the greatest danger that lay before them
would come once they were settled on the land,
secure, prosperous, and content.
Then they would feel more willing
to declare their independence from God,
and pursue their own will, their own way,
whenever that path seemed easier than following the Lord God.
Moses put what lay before them in stark terms:
that they could choose either God or independence,
either life or death.

For the next thousand years
few of God’s children saw their choices as that clear.
It seemed to most that they could easily follow God at times,
and at other times, choose their own will and their own way.
But Jesus clarified that misunderstanding time and time again:
reminding us that it is an either/or choice for us:
either we choose God or we choose independence:
we can’t have it both ways.
Either we declare our independence
and turn away from God,
or we declare our faithfulness,
putting our trust completely to God.

And yet we still think we can customize our faith
to suit our own needs,
our own situations, our own desires:
faithfulness and submission some of the time,
and the path of independence
whenever that path looks a little more exciting,
a little brighter and inviting,
or even when we simply feel the need
to stretch our legs a little.

I just finished reading the book, “The Shack”
by William Young.
You may have heard about the book –
it’s become quite popular.
It’s a moving and poignant story
that focuses on a man named Mack
who spends a weekend in a shack in the backwoods
of a national park out in the Pacific Northwest
in the company of the Triune God:
Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Lord God.
The conversations the take place throughout the weekend
are insightful and thought-provoking,
especially when the author has God speak
with great frustration of humanity’s
stubborn independent streak.
That quality helped make us a nation 232 years ago,
but it gets us into trouble when we exercise it toward God.
Moses and Jesus teach us very clearly:
Even a little independence from God
is too much independence.

Now there’s no question that we don’t like the idea
of being “dependent” on anyone or anything.
The very word “dependent” suggest weakness,
an inability to stand our own two feet,
and we are proud of our independence.

What we have to remember is that dependence on God
does not make us weak;
On the contrary, it makes us stronger.
When we depend upon God
we turn to God, look to God,
put our faith in God, our trust in God,
our hope in God,
and in the process we become stronger,
our feet on firmer ground.
God is our partner,
Jesus walking with us,
the Spirit sustaining us.

We realize that God created us to be in relationship with him
and with one another;
not to be alone, independent.
There is a reason, a God-given reason,
why the Bible teaches us,
“two are better than one”
(Ecclesiastes 4:9)
It is independence from God
that makes us weaker.

It is hard step to take,
to turn from independence and
and fully embrace reliance and dependence.
It requires discipline,
and will,
desire and trust.
It requires deep faith.
it also requires another quality that we don’t readily embrace:
it requires humility, humbleness.

As you come to the Lord’s Table this morning
I invite you to bring your independence,
your fierce, proud, well-crafted independence,
and leave it on the Table.
I invite you to come to this table with your head bowed
humble,
not in weakness
but in reliance, complete reliance,
your trust completely in the Lord God.

Leave your independence here at the Table
and don’t be at all surprised as you walk away
if you should feel a whole new sense of freedom,
deeper freedom,
freedom you never knew.
For when you leave your independence here at this table,
you will be freeing yourself of the fetters and chains
we humans bind ourselves with:
worries, the anxieties,
our need to control the future,
our constant search for success, power,
prestige, money, security.

Leave your independence here on this Table,
and you will be set free to be fully immersed
in the grace and love that is all yours,
grace and love so freely given to you by God
through his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who made a choice: a choice for each of us.
Leave your independence
and give all honor and glory
to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit:
our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.
AMEN