Excerpt #39: the slavery of unfettered freedom

Israel’s God commands. Walter Brueggemann calls command the “defining and characteristic marking” of the true God. The most striking characteristic of communication between God and Israel is that of command-obedience. Because we live in a culture where submission to any authority other than our own egos is considered unduly authoritarian and unfair, command-obedience is difficult for us. We have freed ourselves from all external authority except servitude to the self. This we hail as freedom, though Israel testifies that slavery (particularly slavery as the necessity to do “what I want to do”) comes in many guises.

Sometimes slavery comes from Pharaoh, who ordered, “Go and get straw yourselves, wherever you can find it; but your work will not be lessened in the least” (Exodus 5:11).

Sometimes slavery comes from an economy that says, “Buy a lot of Pepsi, get a lot of stuff.”

So the issue is not if we shall live under some external command, but rather which external command will have its way with us.

Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon, The Truth About God, pages 26-27