Christians must make time for God

It may feel hard for some people to make time for anything else in their lives, but the Archbishop of Canterbury suggests it will be hard to achieve true freedom without setting aside some quiet time with God each day.

In a sermon broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 ‘s Sunday Worship yesterday morning, Dr Rowan William considered what it means to be free and how we can achieve the true freedom "to be what we most deeply are".

He pointed to the life and teachings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and anti-fascist who was executed by the Nazis in 1945 for his opposition to the regime.

Freedom was a recurring theme in his writings and not only the freedom he longed to see in his homeland and elsewhere in Europe, but the freedom that belongs to every Christian believer, the Archbishop elaborated.

Dr Williams went on to speak about Bonhoeffer’s exploration of the freedom of doing "what you know you have to do" in the face of numerous distractions, and his belief that dedicating a portion of the day to silent meditation on the Bible could help to give people the space they needed to properly consider this freedom.

He quoted a guide for students written by Bonhoeffer in which the theologian explained: "God claims our time for this service. God needed time before he came to us in Christ. He needs time to come into my heart for my salvation."

Expanding upon Bonhoeffer's ideas, the Archbishop encouraged people to invest daily in their spiritual development.

"There is no short cut to freedom, because we have to be changed little by little, and we shan’t be changed unless we give the time we need – time when we put aside out usual priorities and try to silence our frantic thinking and imagining," he said.

“Looking quietly at all the clutter that prevents us from seeing ourselves honestly, looking quietly at the ways in which the world we live in muffles the truth and so frustrates the search for justice and love – this isn’t a luxury.

"This is how the truth makes us free. Not free to do what we fancy at any given moment, but free to be real, to be truthful, to be ‘in the truth’, as the New Testament puts it.

"After all, what other sort of freedom is finally worth having?”

Far from being a "refusal of the world", the Archbishop argued that silent reflection was the means by which Christians could act in the world "so as to change it effectively because we open the way to God's own activity".