In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul reminds us that we are called to freedom. But this freedom of which we speak is different from the freedom that our society so often celebrates.
            It is tragically ironic that many contemporary Christians embrace our cultural conception of liberty without realizing that it is at the root of many of the problems that our society faces today. In our contemporary conception of freedom, we emphasize what we are free from – we are free from government regulation, we are free from restrictions on our personal behavior, we are free from limits on our self-expression, we are free from any obligation to the society of which we are members. This conception of personal liberty deprives our society of the social cohesion that is required for a diverse population to live in a way that is respectful of the rights of all and that protects the resources of this world so that they are available to future generations.
            In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the emphasis is not on what we are free from, but what we are free for. When God set the Israelites free from slavery in Egypt, God then entered into a covenant with them that outlined for them the way in which they were to live in ordered freedom so that all persons could live in right relationship with God, with each other and with the created world. God set God’s people free so as to allow them to constitute human society in a way that was consistent with God’s intention for the human family at the beginning of creation. And when God’s people failed to fulfill their obligations under the Covenant, God sent Jesus to liberate us from the sin of our failure to live in faithfulness to the Covenant and to enable us to live in that freedom by which we would choose to live in right relationship with God, right relationship with each other, and with the created world. We are set free so that we can use our freedom to help God re-create this world as God first intended it to be – a place in which all live as brother and sister to each other, sharing equitably the good gifts with which God has blessed us all.
            In this election year, always remember the true freedom to which you are called.