Freedom Prayer

The following is a prayer/meditation I offered last night during the Opening Worship service of our Pacific Southwest District Assembly of Unitarian Universalist congregations following a wonderful keynote by the Rev. Dr. Mark Morrison-Reed.

Great Spirit, Source of all Life,

We get lost sometimes, in the space between freedom from and freedom for, freedom to.
We imagine freedom as a single note sometimes, and indeed sometimes that note is stillingly, thrillingly clear – but freedom is not a single note, but a chord – and freedom itself lies not in the notes themselves but in the spaces between them.

Because we are all in bondage of one sort or another we often focus one the first step of freedom – freedom from:

Freedom from dogma, from authority, conformity from oppression and sometimes even restraint of every kind. We’ve even been known to invade other countries to bring our sisters and brothers the precious gift of “freedom.”

Oh beating heart, it is complicated! Freedom is not like opening a door.

To be free of emptiness does not automatically fill us up,
To be free of dogma does not automatically make us spiritually rich,
To be free of want does not automatically still our wanting.

To be free from bondage of any kind is only the beginning, not the end, of freedom’s journey. To be free from is only the first big step, setting the stage, clearing space for us to go further.

After we are free from, then we must decide what it is we are free for – what do we do with our hard won freedom.

Are we free for, free to: consume, to gratify ourselves in the endless marketplace that surrounds us?

Are we free to do what we want, to build castles around ourselves, regardless of its effect on the great web that enmeshes us?

Great Spirit, help us use our freedom wisely. Help us go deep to discover what our freedom is for.

May we be free to love, to dream, to pray, to serve, to touch, to reach, to kneel.

May we be messengers of freedom, inward and outward, freedom from all the shackles that bind our people under the sun and the stars so that we may one day walk together in the orchard of freedom – living wholly and holy lives.

Amen