God’s Will, Our Choices, and Freedom
Liberty has been the prevailing philosophy of America since before the Constitution was written. Many people who settled America did so seeking freedom from monarchs and aristocracy as well as churches who had been tied to their power. Devastating wars had been fought for centuries in Europe due to religious differences and the squabbling of elites who had passively received their wealth and power through inheritance rather than hard work of their own. In a new country, people could apply the thoughts of philosophers like Locke and Rousseau, protecting the liberty of individual people. Religious tolerance would allow people to associate with whichever faith communities they felt best suited them. People would be able to elect and hold their leaders accountable. This was the beginning of a social and political dream. Freedom would be realized at last.
Unfortunately, as much as freedom is a good thing, it came with an unexpected consequence. As the individual became the cornerstone of larger society rather than the community, individuals became free to pick and choose communities. Absolute economic freedom has created space for a few people to hoard absurd proportions of wealth. People can choose to dissociate from their neighborhoods, their churches, even their families, finding their own way and developing their own personality, completely separate from the people around them. Every association is voluntary, which seems like a good thing, but unless one chooses to accept correction and accountability from their community, they can simply leave when they experience criticism or even simple disagreement. The communities that best retain people are the ones that never go beyond simple requests or suggestions to their members. Groups that have high demands and push people hard to conform—though this would have been completely normal in the past—are often considered cult-like now. If anything we associate with tries to push us further than we want, we just stop associating. Liberty gives us the power to do that.
In the early 20th century, English philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead started teaching ideas that would become known as process philosophy. Between him and a few American philosophers, these ideas made the jump into theology. Process theology is appealing to many liberal theologians today, perhaps because it is very obviously liberal in its worldview. Unfortunately, with the influence of modern understandings of liberty, process theology runs into the same problem of radical free association as the rest of society.
One of the fundamental components of process theology is the notion that God doesn’t coerce, but rather persuades people. God’s power isn’t ultimately overpowering. It's simply extremely convincing. A number of influences work on us leading up to the moment of making a decision, but at the actual instant of decision, the individual has absolute freedom. God may try to convince us to do one thing or another, but only we can actually choose to do it. Either way, God still loves us and will continue working on bringing us to do what God wants.
This is a very comforting sentiment. We have freedom to choose good things, and if we do that well, we can celebrate our good choices. We also have freedom to choose bad things, but God will still love us, refusing to give up on us even when we fail. Whether or not we have heard of process theology before, this is probably how many of us see God. I don’t want to suggest that process theology is entirely wrong or useless. It certainly has its merits as do most ways of doing theology, but we need to be clear on one thing. Alfred North Whitehead was born well over 2000 years after Jeremiah was written. It stands to reason then, that Jeremiah wasn’t a process theologian, and that becomes even more clear when you read Jeremiah 20:7-13.
The passage starts with perhaps the best example of using a carrot and stick. Here’s the carrot: “O LORD, you have enticed me, and I was enticed.” Right there, it could almost sound like process theology. God is enticing, convincing, persuasive, not overpowering. But then, here’s the stick: “you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed.” Jeremiah doesn’t really want to be a prophet. He’s doing it at a bad time. As Judah is falling, he has to tell them that they are falling because of their sins. They have broken God’s covenant with them and the consequences are incoming. Of course, the people didn’t want to hear that, and Jeremiah was threatened throughout his life. God’s demand for him to proclaim this message put the prophet’s life in danger. Jeremiah describes his attempt to not speak God’s word by saying it feels like “a burning fire” in his bones. He cannot help but preach God’s message of judgment against the sins of Judah, even if it gets him in trouble, even if the words are bitter in his mouth.
Jeremiah takes refuge in God’s care for him, trusting God to protect him from those people who would harm him. The passage ends with praise for God defending him from evildoers. This is a comfort to us after being confronted with what seems like a disturbing fact today. Jeremiah didn’t have a choice in the matter. He couldn’t avoid working for God. God had selected him and set him on this path. Avoiding proclaiming God’s message was impossible. This isn’t God being persuasive. This is God overpowering him. God’s will is inescapable.
In our world of radical freedom, this is a shock. We can choose where to work, eat, go to school, worship, live, shop, and pretty much everything else. If we don’t like the pastor at church, we can leave. If we don’t like the governor, we can move. If we don’t like our boss, we can quit. In our world, we revel in our freedom to choose with whom and what we associate. Naturally, this isn’t true for everyone. Some people lack the social and financial resources to simply move, but many of us could find a way to change things we don’t like in our lives by simply leaving. At least, that’s the real appeal behind the prevailing philosophy of this country. That is a major part of what freedom means. In almost every way, association is voluntary.
This freedom may have its problems, but it is what we are familiar with. We like the idea of being persuaded rather than commanded. We enjoy our freedom. However, our freedom often fails us. When it comes down to it, we misuse our own freedom more often than God misuses us. As much as we would like God to only control us as much as a very persuasive speaker can, there is a comfort in hoping that God can master our wills and push us down the right path rather than simply entice us. We are stubborn. We are selfish. We are proud. Were it not for God’s command, we might fail entirely to participate in God’s kingdom of love and mercy. Thanks be to God that God can overpower us and prevail. We can only hope, for our sake and for the world, that God will do more than persuade, that God’s Word will burn so hot and bright within us that we will have no choice but to speak and act in accordance with God’s love, mercy, and justice.
