• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • Contact
  • Staff Portal
  • Search

Lutheran Education Victoria, Tasmania & New South Wales

Inspired students for life

MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • Our Team
    • Strategic Plan
    • History
    • Our Statement on Mission and Ministry
    • Who We Are
  • Learning
    • Valuing Safe Communities
    • Christian Studies
    • Spiritual Development
    • Parenting and schools: A learning partnership
    • Learning in a Lutheran School
    • What is a Lutheran Education?
  • Find a School/ELC
    • School/ELC website links
    • Find a School/ELC by Name or Location
  • News
  • Careers
    • Enterprise Agreements
    • Current Vacancies
    • Working in Lutheran Schools/ELCs
  • Policies
  • Contact

Devotion

2021-11-25

Freedom!

From the end of Britney Spears’ 13 year’s conservatorship to the so-called ‘freedom rallies’ in our major cities, freedom is certainly on the front page! So what does freedom look like to you? Is it the chance to have family or friends over to your home again or to go to dinner at your favourite restaurant? Is it to finally make plans to travel interstate or even internationally? Does freedom mean to go for a walk, or to sing in church mask free? As we savour the sweet taste of freedoms denied us over the past 18 months, we are perhaps led to reflect on the nature of true freedom and to realise just how precious and fragile is that gift.

God of course is in the freedom business. In his homecoming sermon in Nazareth, Jesus announces that he fulfils Isaiah’s prophecy, of the Spirit-filled Messiah who has come to proclaim good news to the poor, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. (Is 61:1) This is a freedom not won by politics, mandates or restrictions. Rather, it is through the One who in ‘becoming flesh’ (Jn 1:14), breaches the social and spiritual distance between us and God. On the cross, Jesus takes the virus of sin into himself, suffering the full effects of its impact so that he might share his life-giving ‘vaccine’ of forgiveness. And because the Son sets us free, we are free indeed! (Jn 8:36)

‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Gal. 5:1). Freedom from is also freedom for. In his ground-breaking treatise ‘On the Freedom of a Christian (1520)’, Martin Luther begins with the paradoxical statement;

A Christian is an utterly free person, lord of all, subject to none.

A Christian is an utterly dutiful person, servant of all, subject to all.

This paradox is resolved in Jesus, who is both Lord and Servant, and lived out in practical ways as we live out his gift of freedom in the world. As Luther goes on to say; “Christian individuals do not live in themselves but in Christ and their neighbour, or else they are not Christian. They live in Christ through faith and in the neighbour through love.” This is a freedom with no thought for individual ‘rights’, but only faith active in love.

And so we begin our Advent journey with a hope-filled longing for freedom and pray:

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Pr David Spike

Learning Leader: Formation

Find a Lutheran School or Early Learning Centre near you

Search now

Footer

HEAD OFFICE

Level 1 755 Station Street
Box Hill VIC 3128
T (03) 9236 1250
E schools@levnt.edu.au

About LEVNT

  • Who We Are
  • History
  • Strategic Plan
  • Our Team

Learning

  • What is a Lutheran Education?
  • Learning in a Lutheran School
  • Parenting and schools: A learning partnership
  • Spiritual Development
  • Christian Studies
  • Valuing Safe Communities

Find A School

  • Find a School/ELC by Name or Location
  • School/ELC website links

News

  • Latest News

Careers

  • Working in Lutheran Schools/ELCs
  • Current Vacancies
  • Enterprise Agreements

Policies

  • Policies

Contact

  • General Enquiries

Copyright © 2023 · Genesis Child Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

  • Home
  • About
    ▼
    • Who We Are
    • History
    • Strategic Plan
    • Our Team
  • Learning
    ▼
    • What is a Lutheran Education?
    • Learning in a Lutheran School
    • Parenting and schools: A learning partnership
    • Spiritual Development
    • Christian Studies
    • Valuing Safe Communities
  • Find A School/ELC
    ▼
    • Find a School/ELC by Name or Location
    • School/ELC website links
  • Latest News
  • Careers
    ▼
    • Working in Lutheran Schools/ELCs
    • Current Vacancies
    • Enterprise Agreements
  • Policies
  • Contact