Sermon Title: - “If the Son Makes You Free, You Shall be Free Indeed ” - Pastor John
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I'm really frightened by the "C" word. No I'?m not talking about cancer or communism. I'm talking about change. Life always seems to be changing around me. I mean for my whole life I've had nine planets around my sun. Now, out of the clear blue sky, Pluto, one of my favorites, has been demoted. Doesn't that beat all? I was reading in the Smithsonian magazine about planets, and astronomers around the world are in a race to see who can discover the first planet outside our solar system which like our earth is at the right distance from its sun to be able to produce life. There are billions of stars. Someday soon we will know that the science fiction writers were right all the time.
If you think you hate change, imagine being in Israel in the 5th century B.C. They thought the earth was the center of the universe, and that God lived on top a mountain. Truth as we know it, as in "give me the facts and nothing but the facts", is subject to change. Truth, and the facts, prove not to be carved in stone, but relative so often to the latest available information. In stark contrast to the relativity of how many planets we have, we hear Jesus say in today's gospel lesson: "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free."
If there is anything we want to be sure about it is our ultimate destiny and our ultimate destination. "Is this life all there is?" or do we get another life with the God who created us and all things. What we believe to be the"truth" in answering that question affects how we live very much. Everyone from the alcoholic bag person living on skid row to Donald Trump in Trump Towers has to wrestle with the question. Everyone throughout time struggles with it too. Martin Luther, the founder of our denomination and father of the Reformation which we celebrate today had an astounding insight which changed the world. He, after careful study of scripture and years of personal torment believing that he could never please God or satisfy the righteous God's demand for his obedience, came to understand that God was loving and forgiving. Further, this God knew we could never keep his law or live a life free of sin. We would always be sinful from our first day to our last. Since we can't save ourselves through our obedience and faithfulness, another means had to be developed. So, here's how we get to the truth which sets us free.
The truth is this: God has taken away the whole world's sin, the sin of everyone, who has ever lived or whoever will live. God takes sin onto himself in Jesus, so we are assured that God will take us to himself when we die. God does what we cannot do. Our freedom is a fact. We just have to believe it.
This is shocking news in many ways. It seems too good to be true. Ever since Jesus saved it, and told us, people have been trying to domesticate this freedom and love, and make it easier to understand.
I've been listening to a series of lectures that I borrowed from the Fallston Library on Dante's Divine Comedy. If you don't remember it, this long poem was written in the 14th century about 100 years before Luther wrote. Dante took an imaginary trip to Hell, Purgatory and Heaven in this fictional work. Hell, the "Inferno" in Italian had levels. The worst level was for Satan and each level was populated by wretched hopeless sinners. Dante masterfully created visual images of punishments that fit the sin. Gluttons for example gorged on food and had perpetual stomach aches. Purgatory was equally interesting - because it was there you worked off the effects of sin. Dante's work was a real hit in the late medieval period because this was the picture of the afterlife that everyone shared. Bad people were punished, good people were rewarded. It was a cause and effect world that made sense, and it even had room for God's grace.
Yet, as St. Paul writes for us in today's lesson from Romans, no one can escape sin. All sin. All. St. Paul puts it this way "for there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith." Paul says our justification which is another way of saying salvation, our forgiveness, is a gift. A gift is a gift. It is freely given. Gifts are given out of love.
The truth is that it is simply God's nature to love us so passionately that God finds it unbearable to think there could be a cosmos with no "us" in it. Like a mother or a father, God is the source of our origin. God made us, and is deeply invested in all of us. Each of us is like God's "piece de resistance?", God's major "opus". We are like the crown jewels to God. I saw the British Monarch's crown jewels once. They are in the Tower of London in a bullet-proof glass case. Everything about them suggests ultimate value, irreplaceableness. We all are treasures to God. God could no more treat us as disposable, like so many plastic forks or styrofoam cups than the British could shabbily treat the crown jewels. We are each precious. Each treasured, valued and loved. God simply can't give us up.
That's the God's honest truth.
It is a truth that will set you free from worry, dread, fear, apprehension and concern about your future. All who belong to Christ, belong to God and they do so forever.
This is the truth that frees.
I got the HBO series "Rome" out of the DVD rental place. It was British made and fascinating. Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony with British accents. The producers took great care to make the show historically accurate. It was a violent world, a world based on conquest and domination. The Romans conquered everyone around them, stole their wealth, and enslaved everyone of value that they could cart off. 70% of Roman society was enslaved. You could kill your slave if you wanted. In one scene, a Roman soldier has fallen in love with his female slave. She is beautiful and good. She complies to his every demand; she has no choice. But he comes to love her. You cannot enslave what you love. Your beloved must be free in order to return your love and stay with you because of being loved. To free someone is terribly risky because they just might say "Thank You" and leave forever.
The scene was beautifully acted. The slave girl, Erene by name, is astonished at the news she has been made free. She cannot read but when given her manumission papers she falls to her knees and kisses the soldier?s dirty feet. She cries, she laughs. Her face reveals absolute amazement and astonishment but also joy and relief. New life rushed into her like sweet air filling her lungs.
Even more so, the Son has freed us.
Honor your freedom. Serve not as a slave, but as a being graced. Serve in gratitude.
In Jesus' name
Amen.
Who We Are