So, I wrote a blog a while back about The Liberty Bell, but I revised the same core for a new concept. I hope this one makes more sense and is more concise, and more relevant:
“Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the Inhabitants thereof. Lev XXV X”
I stand behind the roped off area, staring at the word “Liberty” and wondering what it means. Why is this word inscribed here, and not “Freedom?” Why not “Democracy?” Why not “Independence?” The light is shining through the huge glass walls, casting shadows on this broken American Icon. From my memory though, the word “liberty” is supposed to be much larger and alone in the center, like the title of a story. I was wrong. Here I stand and I learn for the first time what this story is about. I wait for the crowd to clear a little before I walk a circle around the subject to read the entire quote. I read it slowly. “…all the inhabitants thereof.” I take a few steps back and read again, “Proclaim Liberty…” then read again, “…all the inhabitants thereof.” I finish my walk back to the part that everyone wants to see – the crack. I am in Philadelphia, the Epicenter of the United States of America. I want to reach out and touch the crack - really feel it and experience it. I want it to speak to me, to ring for me.
The Liberty Bell was commissioned to be created far before the Revolution, before the First Continental Congress, and far before the US even conceived the idea to separate from Great Britain. When the bell was first hung, in 1753, a hairline crack was discovered, so John Pass and John Stowe re-cast the bell. However, the crack reappeared. One more time, they re-cast the bell but it failed. History says that the bell’s final ring was at the celebration for George Washington’s birthday, in 1846.
It wasn’t until the abolition movement that the bell began to represent something greater. The quote on the bell began to speak to the nation in a new way. The word Liberty means, “The state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.”. It began with the abolition, but the Liberty bell represented the same idea for the Civil Rights era and the Suffrage movement. It was not only a US icon, but a world-recognized icon from Nelson Mandela to Ghandi. Was it just the inscription that had such an effect, such a loud ring? No, the image of the Liberty Bell is the crack. The bell was re-cast three times before it was settled that it would always be imperfect, and it sat for years before that imperfection turned out to be one of the most powerful images in the world.
What is it about imperfection that we are drawn to in icons and why are we so afraid of that same imperfection in our lives? One of the most recognizable icons in Egypt is the Sphinx, with its broken nose. We love the Coliseum in Rome, because it is tattered and torn from wars. We embrace the Tower of Pisa because it’s so flawed that it’s flippin’ awesome. Yet, the slightest imperfection in our clothes, and we get rid of them. We make a mistake and beat ourselves up for it for years. Even if we burn a meal we are serving to friends, we feel embarrassed even though it’s still perfectly edible.
Isn’t it crazy to think that the people who hung the Liberty bell never would have conceived that a simple bell (they didn’t know it as the Liberty Bell) would mean what it does today. Why? Because it cracked. Today I am struggling with church because the idea of church has been re-written so many times. From the original church of Jesus (not Paul) to the Roman Catholic church, to the evangelical church, to the post-modern church, to the house church, to the now called “Missional” church. Why do we keep re-defining church? Probably because we think we can fix it. We think we can fix the problems of what church is. I am guilty myself of thinking I can fix the church. But maybe it’s not meant to be fixed. The bell was cast three times before it was accepted as something bigger than a bell – before people were allowed to have it mean what they wanted it to mean on an individual basis - abolition, civil rights, suffrage, and equality in today’s struggles. In order for this to happen though, the bell was taken out of the bell tower and put on display; given to the people. The leaders stopped trying to ring it and just allowed it to ring in a new way.
That day is coming for the church. I am seeing it everywhere. Leaders are starting to let go of the grip on the rope that rings the bell, and are accepting the cracks. I noticed this last Sunday that when the sound system began to crackle at church, many people became distracted. Our worship was disturbed by a small technical difficulty. Then, the worship was further disrupted when the issues were pointed out to the congregation as if it was such a problem to have sound issues. Why do we feel we can’t have distractions in our worship? Our concern for perfection, not only in church but in every type of worship, is taking away from the true sacrament of worship – the idea that we can take an intangible God and somehow make Him tangible in our lives through music, discussion, reading, etc.
I take this idea from the Society of Friends (Quakers) who commonly practice silent worship in their weekly meeting (church). Silent worship comes from the belief that God came down as the spirit so that each of us can hear from God in our own lives, and that there is no authority but God, and therefore we don’t need a preacher. In silence however, you can hear every bicycle on the sidewalk, every siren on the street, every baby crying in the building. Listening to these sounds and distractions is a part of worship. They enhance the worship because they remind us that God is big enough to be present through the distraction. Let’s not evict distractions from worship, lets embrace them.
As a parallel, I hope we can think about our lives that way – that God is big enough to be present and is in fact enhanced in our lives through our flaws.
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