June 27, 2004
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“For freedom Christ has set us free.
Stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” (5.1) This the second of three sermons on what it means to be free
in Christ. Last week we considered what it means to be freed by the waters of
baptism next week, we will hear what poets and scripture have to say about
freedom. Today we will think for a few minutes about how we are set free by the
Spirit of God to live the good life. Paul has been talking with the new Christians at Galatia
about what it means to be free in Christ. As we heard last week, freedom for
Paul means respect for the law of Moses, after all it was the faith and law of
Moses that Paul was the faith in which Paul and Jesus and the apostles were
raised. So while freedom for Christ means respect for the law, there is for Paul
something greater. Early in his
letter to them, Paul offers his credentials as one steeped in the tradition of
Moses, who had a life-changing encounter with the risen Christ. He writes to them: “You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier
life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to
destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age,
for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. But when God, who
had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was please
to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles, I did not
confer with any human being, nor did I go to Jerusalem to those who were already
apostles before me”. Paul goes on to talk about his trips to Arabia and
elsewhere then he says, “and I was still unknown by sight to the churches of
Judea that are in Christ, they only heard it said, ‘the one who formerly was
persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy’ (Galatians
1.13-18; 22b-23). Paul brings all of his ego and confidence to his letter to
the Galatians and he is bold to make the declaration that begins this reading
today. “For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not
submit again to the yoke of slavery”. What do we main by freedom? Kris Kristoferson wrote and Janis
Joplin sang “freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose”, but
that is not the kind of non-attachment that concerns us today. We believe
freedom is about having choices: we choose elected officials, we choose what we
read and see, what we think. Freedom is about whether and how we worship God, or
how we chose the work that we do. Freedom is the absence of social, economic or political
oppression. It is the constitutional amendment ratified in 1920 giving American
women the right to vote and so to become full citizens of our country.
It is the civil rights acts of the 1800’s and the 1960’s finally
embracing all of us. It is Polish workers defiantly organizing in the 1980’s
and the Berlin Wall falling at the end of that decade. Freedom is dissolving and healing emotional, psychological,
and spiritual wounds. It is discovering that we have worth, that we will be OK,
that God loves us unconditionally and eternally. Freedom is overcoming our fears and responding to them as
good sense and the Holy Spirit lead us. We need not be foolish, but we do need
to remember that Christ has made us free (Interpretation
series. Galatians. Charles B. Coursar. Louisville: John Knox Press. 1982, pgs.
107-110). Slaves sang, “before I’ll be a slave, I’ll be buried in
my grave, and go home to my Lord to be free.” That is the freedom we seek. It
is internal, it says that someone might control our every waking and sleeping
moment, but what is most important about who we are, is our relationship with
God, our relationships with others, our spirits which are bound to God’s
spirit, those cannot really be touched. So what is Paul saying to the Galatians about freedom? What
is he saying to us? Paul is saying that we are not the agents of our spiritual
freedom; it is a gift that God gives to us. Paul writes to a church that is
unnaturally bound to the law, they did not choose it, it has become a burden
laid on their shoulders like a wet, heavy blanket. He reminds us that we can be
enslaved to rules and regulations that make right procedure more important than
God. Now I know that things in the church need to be done in a correct way. And
I love process, I love all of the steps involved in sharing a vision and then
doing all that I can to see that the vision comes to reality. But we cannot
worship process or rules or regulations and in Galatia the process had become
the object of worship and they were enslaved to it in a way that did not honor
God. Let me state the obvious, slavery to anything is not good. As
we know from part of the history of this nation, and as people know in parts of
the world even now, slaves have no say in what they do, where they live, or
where they will go. They are bound up in another’s life, tied to the good will
or the evil will of another; at worst they are treated like property.
At best, slaves are treated like children no matter how they are, it
seems sometimes that even their spirits are in bondage. The good news today is that we are not property. The bond we
have with God is not about slavery; it is about freedom. And in our Christ given
freedom, we discover that we are heirs of God’s and that there is an
inheritance of grace and hope for us. Then
he declares that followers of Christ, especially Gentile followers who never
observed the law of Moses are not slaves but are the children of God and are
free from enslavement to the law and its exclusion of all who were not already
circumcised. Now they are free from their status as perpetual slaves. Now they
are free to be sons of daughters of God. Being free in Christ does not change who we are. In Paul’s
day there was not freedom from being a Jew or Gentile, there was no equal rights
amendment for women, there was no emancipation proclamation for the men and
women who were slaves. Slavery, even benign slavery was still wrong; women still
had no rights, Gentiles still had an uncertain place if they were the minority
except in the church where barriers were broken down and the old separations
mattered less than they did in the larger society. But there was freedom to live the good life in Christ. The
gift of Jesus Christ is his ability to break down diving walls and to be the
source of peace and hope among us (Ephesians
2). Our gift to the world is to show to the world that the good
life we are set free to live, is a life lived in compassion toward people, and
guided by the Holy Spirit and unyielding faithfulness in God through Jesus
Christ. Who we are in Christ frees us lead the good life. And as we celebrate our freedom, we are called to remember
that “freedom in Christ must not be confused with irresponsible license,
because it is a freedom grounded in Christ and therefore involves obligations to
Christ and to others” (Texts
for Preaching – Year C. Louisville. Westminster/John Knox Press. 1994, p.
401). Paul, full of the spirit of God says to the church, take
care. Use the freedom you have to give life and vision to the community. We are
praying and working here to create a renewed and transformed congregation. That
means some things will have to change. As they do, we will be changed and change
scares us. And when we are scared, we sometimes lash out. Let’s promise to
take care with each other. Let’s not go out of your way to hurt, humiliate,
take from, and destroy each other, no good will come of that. We will not be
transformed and the church will not be transformed if we decide that our freedom
means that we can do whatever we want. Our transformation will not be positive or meaningful if we
do not treat each other with respect. Let’s pledge today to build each other
up, live the good life and let some things go. You heard the list a few minutes
ago, when we were urged to let go of the things of the flesh. Now that is a
strange term. Remember, that in Bible days, “flesh” meant more than the
skin, bone, muscle, and blood of our bodies. Living by the flesh means living so
much inside our own out of control passion that we find ourselves outside a
relationship with God. Let go of fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry,
sorcery, antagonism; strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions,
envy, drunkenness, carousing, and just in case he missed anything, he adds,
“and things like this.” Let them go, these behaviors will not lead us to any
kind of permanent good life, at best their effects are temporary and the
hangover is terrible. Often they are damaging. They break trust with family,
friends, and co-workers. They betray our most intimate relationships, they
disrespect and disregard the harmony and peace God intends for us. Charles Cousar says of such behavior: “Even if inward in
origin, these behaviors inevitably manifest themselves in action open to public
view. Eight of the items included in the list are given in the plural suggesting
visible conduct, for example, outbursts of hostility or strife, occasions of
selfishness, drinking bouts. In case the obvious implications are not otherwise
drawn, Paul issues the dire warning, ‘that those who do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God’ (5.21). There is a fundamental incompatibility
between life determined by the flesh and life in the reign of God. Now, Paul is not saying that “material things are
inherently evil, nor is he implying that human feeling, physical desires, or
sensual pleasures are themselves to be avoided or suppressed. What makes the
flesh so destructive is that it can become the norm by which people’s lives
are lived. There is no openness to God’s activity, to the presence of the
Spirit, to the life of the new age. The sum of things consists of what can be
seen, handled, tasted, or bought” (Galatians,
p.135, 137-138). When we live totally to ourselves, seeking only what makes us
feel good we move away from the God who calls us into this community and away
from family, friends, and faith. Then too many decisions, too many discussions,
too much of what we do becomes about getting my way with little or no thought to
what we can do together to build up our families, our community, our church, or
our relationship with God. When we live in the Spirit, we know the good life of God’s
love and of our love for one another. We
are a people freed by God’s Spirit and the love of God given to us in Jesus
Christ. We are a people in love with all of God’s creation and that leads us
to the good life. Samuel Wells, a columnist for the Christian Century
says that: “The vocation of the church is to celebrate the politics of
love. That may sound curious…most people think of politics as a regrettable
but necessary business. Necessary, because we live in a world of scarce
resources, there are many of us, and our needs, interests and desires conflict.
We need agreements as to the fair distributions of those limited goods, and an
established authority to ensure the policing of those agreements. It is
regrettable, because in the fight over these scarce resources, each of us fears
being revealed as greedy, insecure, envious, and deceitful. “Now imagine a different kind of politics. Consider the
things that really matter in this world. Paul lists them – love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
There is no need for an unseemly scrap over the distribution of these things,
because they are not in short supply. Yet I can have enormous sums of money, as
well as many clothes, houses, cars and university degrees, but if I don’t have
the things Paul is talking about, the other things are no good to me. And if I
have love, joy, peace and the like, it doesn’t matter how much I have of the
other things. Paul’s world still involves politics – but politics of a
different kind. Instead of carving up a limited cake, politics becomes the
shared discernment of the best use of God’s gifts. It is no longer a zero-sum
game. My good no longer requires your loss, because the things we want are
things that everyone can have” (Christian
Century. Samuel Wells. “Living by the Word”, commentary on Galatians 5.1,
13-25, June 15, 2004, p. 19). When we live in love, we live the good life God has called us
to live and we feel the breath of God all around us. As the Spirit of God
breathes and moves in us, we will be joined to each other because the Spirit of
God is more than we can contain all by ourselves. It begs to be shared with
those of us who are here and with those whom we will seek and invite to join us.
Living in the Spirit of God calls out the faithful best in us. We will be
faithful in our relationships, faithful to God, and we will have faith enough in
ourselves to seek the best for ourselves, and then love the world enough to
offer our best to the world. As we offer our best, the world is blessed, and we are
blessed. We are free in Christ Jesus; slavery is not an option. So we
cannot be slaves to ourselves, our whims, our insecurities, or anyone else’s
because our freedom is so deeply ingrained in our Spirits that we are free in
Christ Jesus not matter where we are. When we are free in Christ, we can live free from envy and
from the kind of competition that says ‘I’m better, faster, richer,
smarter’. We are freed to enjoy the kind of competition Renita Weems describes
as “pacing one another toward excellence”. We are free to call out the best
in each other. When we are free in Christ Jesus, we can take some risks to
grow and be transformed. Every asset, from this building to each of us, becomes
an instrument of God to be offered in the service of the One who calls us, frees
us, who loves us enough to take us as we are and to receive us and create in us
the desire to do and be more than we already are so that we can offer ourselves
to God and the world for service to the glory of God. For freedom, Christ has set us free, and in Christ we are
free to live the good life. Praise be to God.
Amen. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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