Slavery and Freedom

Preached at Solihull School Chapel, 25th March 2007, 6.30pm (evensong)
Fifth Sunday in Lent – Year C
Readings: Isaiah 43:16-21, John 12:1-8

As I am sure you can’t help but have noticed, today is the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. This important anniversary has been marked in many different ways. For example, there is the new film Amazing Grace, which follows the years of struggle by William Wilberforce, John Newton and the many other abolitionists leading up to the passing of the Abolition Act in parliament. I have not seen the film, but it appears to convey a sense of thanksgiving for the progress that humanity has made in recognising that God created all people equal and realising that Christian morality could not sanction the cruel and debilitating domination of one race by another.
Beyond thanksgiving, the archbishops of Canterbury and York have emphasised a need for repentance. The slave trade may have been abolished 200 years ago but in many ways our society still benefits from the wealth created by that trade. Similarly the legacy of the slave trade can still be felt in Afro-Caribbean communities that often remain under-educated and under privileged to this day. The archbishops also draw attention to present day practices like the trafficking of sex workers which have exploitative and dehumanising characteristics comparable with the slave trade of old. In repentance we are called to acknowledge past wrongs. We are called to recognise the equal dignity of all peoples. We are called to commit ourselves anew to the service of others rather than the domination of others.
In his sermon at St Alphege this morning, Fr Tim Pilkington drew attention to another form of slavery that is alive and well in our society today. He was talking about our own slavery to consumer expectations; and certainly I felt he made an important point. We all see dozens of advertisements every day. These build in us the desire to have a bigger house, a better car, a smarter kitchen, a more exotic holiday and so on. Over time these desires turn into needs, real needs. We really need a flashier mobile phone or people will think we are out of touch. We really need some designer clothes to feel good about ourselves. We really need a holiday home so that we can escape from all the stress in our lives. We really need a bigger salary in order to feel valued. Over time we find we find that we focus more and more of our time and energy on our financial and material well being and we lose sight of other factors which are in fact much more important to our long term happiness. Spending time with our families, serving our communities and developing the spiritual aspect of lives would almost certainly contribute far more to our long term happiness than an extension to the conservatory, and yet we find it almost impossible to make that kind of choice. Somehow the conservatory is much more tangible and real. It is more visible, it gives more to show for our efforts. Its financial value can be quantified. It can be explained to the neighbours.
Perhaps we feel like a slave to the mortgage, or the school fees! Perhaps we feel like a slave to our employer. Perhaps we feel like a slave to the expectations of others. I don’t know if your saw the film The Devil Wears Prada. In it a young woman gets a top job with a fashion magazine. She struggles hard to live an authentic life in a very competitive environment, where everything is about outward show, and inward realities count for nothing. The job makes extreme demands on her. She always says “yes” to these demands, explaining the high cost to others by saying, “I have no choice!” Eventually she realises that she does not want the life that that particular career maps out for her. She realises that she does have a choice and she quits the job. She is older and wiser, but by this time some real damage has already been done. She has betrayed her colleague and destroyed her relationship with her long-term boyfriend.
Hopefully we have already learnt to protect the things that really matter from the endless demands of the consumer society. Hopefully we have learnt to see the limitations of what we can achieve with money. Hopefully we have not forgotten to value the things that money cannot buy. Hopefully we have learnt to build our identity through service to other people, and are not dependent on consumer branding to tell us who we are.
I have been interested to watch a TV programme called The Trap – What Happened to Our Dreams of Freedom. You can catch the third and final part on BBC2 at 9pm tonight. In it, Adam Curtis argues that human freedom and fulfilment are being destroyed by a view of human beings as self interested robots responding to market forces. I think he makes some important points. Certainly I notice that my children have far, far less freedom than I enjoyed as a child thirty odd years ago.
In my opinion we have also been tricked by some very mistaken views about what freedom is. Some people seem to think that “Freedom means I can do what I like”. This is not right. This idea of freedom gives me licence to drop litter, to tell lies, to be rude and selfish, to damage myself through drugs or frivolous sexual relationships. In the extreme it allows me to dominate and exploit other people, to enslave them even. This is not really freedom at all. It leads to a world in which we damage the lives of other people, and ultimately damage ourselves. It is much more like the slavery to sin that St Paul talks about in Romans chapter 7.
So what is freedom? Freedom is the ability to become the person God created you to be. When we think of freedom we might think of the birds of the air, or the fish of the sea. A bird is free to be a bird, but it is not free to be a fish. A fish is free to be a fish, but it cannot fly and behave like a bird. Freedom therefore involves being true to what God created us to be. God, in his great love has created us in his own image and likeness and wants our good. He has prepared for us a place in heaven where we shall live in perfect harmony with the people around us. He calls us to be filled with his divine spirit and to share in his divine life. This is true freedom; responding to God’s love for us and following God’s plans for us. This is what makes us whole. This is what fulfils all our potential. Our own dreams for ourselves are empty delusions by comparison.
So as we think about the abolition of slavery let’s commit ourselves anew to freedom. Let’s seek to be the people God wants us to be. Let’s believe in God’s plan for us, and let’s follow that plan. Above all let’s believe in God’s great love for us, and let’s share that love with the people around us. By growing in his love and growing in obedience to God we can become agents of freedom, both for ourselves and for the people around us.
I would like to finish by quoting John Sentamu, Archbishop of York. He says,
“For me, Faith is the spiritual engine of change. … We need to rediscover a new faith-based movement for social and economic justice, which has hope, rather than anger, at its core. I believe that movement is the Church and it is my hope that as we commemorate the achievements of the abolitionists over the coming months we might also re-dedicate ourselves to being that change which we want to see in the world.”