Grace and peace to you from God and from Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
It’s soon going to be the 4th of July and everyone’s thoughts are turning to freedom and what it means to be free. Being free to choose what you want to do is a central value in every human life. It is significant that one of a child’s first words is “No!” We all like to be free to decide for ourselves what is best for us. Freedom and independence are closely linked.
But freedom is never absolute, nor can it be. We all live in a community – a social network. What we do affects the life of everyone around us. One of our favorite table games is Jenja – a game from India - it shows vividly how every move we make affects the whole pile of us. Just this week the Supreme Court decided that there are limits to freedom of speech on a college campus – you can not misuse your freedom to encourage others to do something illegal – even if you do so in the name of religion.
It’s an argument – that is “what are the limits of freedom?” – that goes on eternally. Can I do or say anything? What I do impacts all those who are around me. As much as we would like simple answers or absolute truths, few are to be found.
There is freedom to do things, and there is freedom from things. St. Paul in our lesson from Galatians tells us how to measure our freedom and how to assess it. As in all Christian discussions, love is the measure of everything. We are freed from the law, the commandments that continuously condemn and accuse us, that make us feel perpetually guilty. We are free to “love our neighbor as ourselves.”
Martin Luther said it this way “The Christian is an absolutely free subject to no one.” and its contradictory corollary “The Christian is a servant to all.” These statements seem to negate one another, but as Luther explains them, they make sense.
It all begins in God’s forgiving love poured out in Christ. God makes us one complete human being but we have several sides. One side, Paul calls the “flesh” another side is our spiritual side. The “flesh” is the side of us that lives in utter fear of death and our mortality. The flesh is the side of us that is self protective. It wants to hoard money and is always seeking security.
Because the “flesh” is terrified of death, and lives in fear that we won’t have enough, the flesh is totally “ego-centric”. It is “me first” all the time. It obsesses about power and prestige because they help this fleshly self get what it wants and needs. The flesh always suspects that there is no God and is suspicious. This being so it cannot trust. The flesh addicts us to our ego, our self.
In contrast, the Spiritual side of us is linked to faith. It is fed by the Word of God and its preaching because the Spirit does not fear death because it believes God when God says “I will love you forever and never let you go”. The Sprit believes God when he says “I will feed you, cloth you, give you a job, provide for you in retirement, fill your life with love. The Spirit fills us and is constantly re-assuring us that there will always be enough. Enough food, enough money, enough love, and an eternity of time.
Notice that St. Paul says that the Sprit and the flesh are opposed to each other. That could not be more obvious. They are in perpetual conflict in each one of us from the moment we are born to the moment we die. Notice the list of emotions and results of the influence of the flesh. All of them are ego absorbed – they all seek physical pleasure and power. Interestingly all these thing enslave us. Alcohol if used to excess results in addiction and becomes your master. Anger enslaves. I was reading that Miami has the highest incidence of events of road rage, although we have plenty here too, and road rage is on the rise. At its heart, road age is all about power and “perceived rights.” When these rights are violated, people feel annihilated and give into murderous rages doing what they would never do if they were not enslaved to the flesh.
But the Spirit liberates us. The Spirit gives us freedom to serve our neighbor in love. Notice the list: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Wouldn’t you like to live in a world where these qualities were the most operative? Wouldn’t it be great if your family, your workplace, your church was gentle, joyful, generous and self-controlled? God’s spirit ensures that theses qualities abide with us. The Spirit makes us free to serve cheerfully.
I know of a man who lived alone for most of is adult life. Then, in his mid 40’s he met his soul mate. They were both ballroom dancers and loved to dance. They danced every weekend together and in a few months they were married.
Several years later she contracted RDS a mysterious nerve disease. In a short time she lost her ability to walk. She spent the next six year confined to a bed. He waited on her, looked after her, they never danced again.
When she died members from his church and friends told him how much they respected him, admired him for his years of service to his wife. He said “Those were the happiest and most wonderful years God gave me. I had lived by myself so long, no one ever needed me. She needed me and loved me, I needed that. I received much more than I was able to give.”
He embodied the wisdom of Galatians 5:14, the summation of the whole law: in loving others, we love ourselves best.
In Jesus’ name
Pastor
Who We Are