To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8: 31, 32)

Last weekend I attended a “Live at the Met” event at our local theatre.  This is a livestreamed production put on by the Metropolitan Opera, and the opera I saw was “Dead Man Walking”.  I love these productions.  For a while I thought about titling our streamed worship on Sunday morning a “Live at Bethel Event”.  But, considering there were only 5 of us in the theatre, and three of us came together, I didn’t think that would actually help attendance with virtual worship. 

Regardless; I loved the opera (and really, I love opera).  I am such a nerd.  And the plot of this show was particularly compelling.  It’s the true story of a nun, Sister Helen Prejean, who is the spiritual advisor to a man on death row (Joe Vaccaro)  who has committed some really heinous crimes; crimes that he maintained his innocence of pretty much until the very end of his life.  He’s portrayed in the opera as not at all likable; arrogant, demanding and never remorseful.  Much of the struggle portrayed in the opera is about the death penalty, what it means to be truthful when the consequences are so dire, what freedom actually is  and what it means to have remorse, ask for forgiveness and live with the consequences of some really terrible decisions. 

One of the wonderful things about the “Live at the Met” events, is that at intermission, (and trust me, we need an intermission, the opera was 3 hours long!), they go back stage and interview the leads, and tell some of the back story of the production.  One of the things that the Metropolitan Opera Company did was take the Opera to Sing Sing Prison in New York State, and performed it with current inmates forming the chorus.  The full show was performed without costumes and props, with the inmates in prison greens, and to an audience of other inmates.  There was footage of this performance, with the Met company performers coaching the inmates, and with all of them in tears at points in the show.  There was an interview with one of the inmate chorus members who spoke about how life transforming the experience was.  He said, with his voice all choked up, “I’m here for a reason.  I’m serving a life sentence.  But I’ve learned that I’m more than my worst decision”. 

At this point I was crying too.  But really, I had cried in the first scene so it may have just been a pretty teary time. 

One of the sung lines throughout the Opera was the scripture sentence taken from John 8 “ the truth will set you free”.  Sister Helen worked constantly to get Joe to confess.  Joe resisted it constantly.  Finally, he relents but its uncertain whether or not he was just confessing to get his sentence commuted to a life sentence.  Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work, and he’s put to death. 

So all of these sub texts with a ton of theological interpretation, eh!  What does it mean to be ‘free’ when you’re incarcerated for life?  Why would you speak truth if you faced such dire consequences?  What actually is ‘truth’ and ‘freedom’ for people who profess a faith in God?  What is forgiveness and justice in a world where truth seems like a moving target?

I’ve been thinking about these ideas all week, and I had an encounter with someone this week that I have always known plays a little on the edges of ‘truth’.  You know the type – the person who probably padded their resume to get a job; not outrageously but just enough to make them look good.  The same person name drops and hints at relationships that would further them, tells people that they’re doing far more than they actually are, and will assume a persona and a presence that isn’t theirs, but makes them look better, or more powerful, or smarter, or more prestigious.  I’ve known this person for a long time and know that calling them out results in nothing – no remorse – no change, nada.  In fact, its hard to tell know where the truth is in their life because its such a moving target.  And they continue as if they are totally in a place of freedom. 

The justice part of me wants people like this to ‘tell the truth’; and one of my friends told me quite frankly that I needed to get over this truth-telling thing because ‘truth’ IS a moving target, because justice is not linked to truth-telling and that maybe there’s justice in hiding ‘truth’.  And Freedom?  Well that seems to be a whole different entity, doesn’t it.  We’ve seen ‘freedom’ being reduced to individualism and autonomous personal decision-making with the whole vaccine debate.  We have ‘freedom of speech’ defined to mean that you can say anything to anyone without consequences.  And I could go on about our whole skewed definition of freedom for as much as I could go on about our skewed understanding of Truth and justice. 

And so where am I coming out here in the end?  Well – I’m not really sure.  I do think that our call to Truth-telling, to Freedom and to Justice are different, but I don’t know that I can tell you where that actually is.  I think that maybe the key to the whole thing is that

Its not about me. 

Or maybe its not even about us. 

Its about God. 

And our need to look up from ourselves and into the face of God every day, and

Ask for forgiveness for messing up.  Ask for help in moving away from evil.  And trying with our ‘heart, soul and minds’ to move to God’s Truth.  Even when we don’t really know where it is. 

And so I wonder if that’s what Freedom is.  I wonder if Freedom is that we know that we get it wrong, but we know that we are trying for better. 

It feels like freedom to me.  It feels like that’s the place where I recognize that I’m fully human.  And God is fully God.

Blessings today my dear Bethel Friends and remember you are Loved. 

Rev. Lynne