Freedom (Third Sunday after Pentecost)

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Freedom! It’s a major theme of our upcoming Independence Day celebrations. We celebrate the freedom we won during our Revolutionary War. We celebrate the freedoms we enshrined in our foundational documents. And we celebrate the freedoms we continue to enjoy today.

All of those are great things to do. But often, when we think about what it means to be “free” we focus on the things that we’re free FROM. That is, when we speak of freedom we think of being free from:

  • Being ruled by another country or a government that isn’t ours – after all, this is the basic theme of “Independence Day” – we declared our freedom from Britain and from a Parliament where we didn’t have representation…
  • Slavery and oppression – last week, we gathered together with other congregations from the Route 28 Interfaith Team and celebrated Juneteenth – the celebration of the ending of slavery in the United States. And even though we acknowledge that there are lasting legacies of 300 years of slavery that still need to be dealt with, there is a freedom from the way things were even just a few decades ago…
  • Want and need – it’s sometimes the case that as we gather together on Friday and enjoy bar-b-ques and watch the fireworks that we remember that most Americans – even the poorest among us – are free from lacking the some of the basic necessities that many people in the world still suffer from, and that the fireworks above us are for our entertainment and not the result of missiles being shot at us…

And when we think of “freedom”, it’s good and appropriate that we remember and acknowledge all the things that we’re free from. And yet, there’s more to freedom than being free “from” something. True freedom means that you’re free FOR something. After all, our Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution talk about things like “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and “ensuring domestic tranquility.” Freedom is supposed to be used positively FOR something.

And “freedom” is also the theme of today’s second reading. As Paul writes to the early Christians in Galatia – a part of the world that today is basically central Turkey – he says, “For freedom Christ has set us free … only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.”

So, a bit of context here. The early Christians in Galatia were gentiles, and in the early Christian community there was a great deal of debate about whether gentile converts were bound by the Old Testament rules of Judaism – especially things like Kosher rules and circumcision. And more importantly than that, there was debate about whether keeping laws like that made you acceptable to God. That is, could you simply “follow the law” and not need Jesus at all!

There were clearly a bunch of folks in Galatia who thought that was the way it was. And Paul’s point – here as elsewhere – is that faith in Christ is what makes you free, not how well you’ve kept all the rules. That’s because, first, no matter how hard anybody tries, they can never perfectly do the will of God, even by keeping all the rules. And second, because by focusing on the rules, you miss out entirely on the grace and love of God that have been made known in Jesus.

And so the Galatians are free from worrying about whether they’re good enough for God. They’re free from trying to keep every piece of the law perfectly. And most importantly, they should be free from obsessing about themselves and their own holiness so that they can focus on loving God and other people.

But, that’s clearly not what they’re doing! Instead of being free FOR the purpose of praising God and loving their neighbor, they’re hung up on being free FROM all the laws so that they can do whatever they want – and some of what they want to do is pretty awful!

And so Paul reminds them not simply that they’re free, but that their freedom is FOR something. It’s about being free to fulfill the commandment to love their neighbor as they love themselves.

What Paul is calling the early Christians of Galatia to do – and what Paul is calling us to do – is to consider not just what it means to be free in Christ, but what that freedom is for. For us, too, it’s sometimes easy to get caught up in thinking about freedom as freedom from something. But in one sense, that always means we’re focusing on the oppression we don’t want. Focusing on “freedom for something” can be truly liberating.

I still remember a comment that Dr. Martin Marty made at my Seminary Commencement many years ago. Martin Marty was a well-known Lutheran theologian who taught at the University of Chicago for most of his career. He wrote many significant books, yet somehow we managed to get him to be our commencement speaker.

And as he was addressing our group of soon-to-be pastors, he told us, “Remember that the Gospel doesn’t tell you what you have to do, it tells you what you get to do!” That is, the Gospel of Jesus always reminds us what we’re free FOR.

And that means remembering each day that we’re free FOR:

  • Focusing on the needs of our neighbors instead of ourselves – Paul writes that “if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.” That is, if you’re being guided to love and serve your neighbor, you’ll be focused on things like kindness, generosity and patience. Those are the kinds of things that show Jesus to the world. And that’s what the Gospel is FOR…
  • Forgiving others and moving on with your life – in today’s Gospel reading, the disciples are sent ahead to be the “advance team” preparing for Jesus’ arrival. But when they reach a town in Samaria, they get disinvited. And in response to this affront, they want to call down fireworks from heaven! Jesus rebukes not the Samaritans, but the disciples for this. And then Jesus moves on to another place. Because the Gospel isn’t about being free from offences and insults, but about being so confident of God’s power and purposes that we’re free to demonstrate forgiveness in our daily lives…
  • Following Jesus into the future, even when the future isn’t entirely clear – Jesus over and over again calls people to follow him (as he does in today’s Gospel reading), without explicitly telling them what exactly that entails. And when Paul describes the fruits of the Spirit, they’re very general things that people will have to adapt to a particular situation. The thing is, if freedom is simply “freedom from not having to wonder exactly what’s required of me” then it’s not really freedom. The Gospel, on the other hand, is about being freed to live boldly into the future even when you don’t exactly what’s coming next or what might be required of you…

Martin Luther summed up Christian freedom as a paradox. He wrote:

“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. AND a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”

“For freedom Christ has set us free … only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.”

So as we approach Independence Day this week – whether it’s our national freedom or our Christian freedom – remember that you’re not just free FROM something. You’re free for a mission – the mission of being Jesus’ presence and help in a world that needs not only freedom from bondage but freedom for hope and love and peace.

Amen.