CALLED TO FREEDOM

(Preached on Sunday, July 4, 2004)

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.                                                        -Galatians 5:13

 

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall), approved the Declaration of Independence.

Its purpose was to set forth the principles upon which the Congress had acted two days earlier when it voted in favor of Richard Henry Lee’s motion to declare the freedom and independence of the 13 American colonies from England.

The declaration was designed to influence public opinion and gain support both among the new states and abroad — especially in France, from which the new “United States” sought military assistance.

 

So, today is a day of national celebration.

It is a day to celebrate the great principles upon which this nation was founded, including the principle of God-given freedom.

But what does “freedom” mean?

Thomas Jefferson thought it meant having certain inalienable rights (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness).

Henri IV thought it should include a guaranteed standard of living (a chicken in every pot).

Kris Kristofferson said, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”

Pinocchio thought it meant having no strings; the Isley Brothers said it was “doing your own thing.”

What does it mean to be free?

 

We live in a world convinced that security is the most reliable context for freedom.

The bitter irony of this conviction is that the havens of security we create are unable to provide the freedom we seek.

The quest for national, economic, or personal security too often generates compulsive patterns of life at the expense of genuine freedom.

We have become like the man who went to visit Hans the tailor.  Hans had a marvelous reputation for tailor-made suits and this very influential man decided he just had to have one.

But when he came to pick up his suit, he found that one sleeve twisted that way and the other this way; one shoulder bulged out and the other caved in. 

He pulled and struggled and finally, wrenched and contorted, he managed to make his body fit.

As he returned home on the bus, another passenger noticed his odd appearance and asked if Hans the tailor had made the suit.  Receiving an affirmative reply, the man remarked, “Amazing!  I knew that Hans was a good tailor, but I had no idea he could make a suit fit so perfectly someone whose body was as twisted and misshapen as yours.”

 

We get ourselves wrapped up in such misshapen suits because we do not truly understand freedom.

We live with the myth of the individual.

This myth suggests that I can truly determine who I am, what I am, what I want to do, what makes me happy, my self-worth, all on my own.

I have free-will and I can choose my life.

There is some truth to this thinking, every myth has some truth behind it, but not much.

True freedom is more than choice and more than permission.

The alcoholic may choose what to drink and when and where to drink it, but does the right of choice make such a person free?

Nor are we as free to choose as we think, because we all make choices based on what we think will bring us security, popularity, prestige, success, acceptance, affirmation, love.

In fact, our choices become governed by the opinions and actions of others so that in truth we do not choose freely.

So what is “freedom?”

 

Paul offers a radical understanding of “freedom.”

“For freedom Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

Very few people in Paul’s world were truly free.

Many, many people were slaves.  Many more people were not slaves, but they were so poor that in essence they were economic “slaves.”

Even those who were free, either free-born or freed slaves, lived under the system of patronage; so that almost everyone always owed someone else a favor, and had others who owed them favors, (which could be called in at any time) so that no one was really free.

On top of this, the religions of the Mediterranean world all worshiped and served gods who had very particular expectations in order to receive their favor.

 

Into this world comes Paul proclaiming “For freedom Christ has set us free.”

His understanding of this freedom is so radical because it is totally based on grace.

In Galatians 2:16 Paul declares, “We have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.”

In other words, Paul understands that we do not have a leg to stand on when we come before God.

There is nothing we can ever do that will put us right with God and in God’s favor.

But he also understands that Jesus has shown us that we don’t need to worry about that — we don’t need a leg to stand on for God has already accepted us.

God has declared us righteous and just, beloved children.

The really radical nature of this understanding is that Paul declares that there is no longer any distinction among peoples in God’s eyes.

There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female.

Paul understands that what God was doing in Jesus was calling all people into God’s family in such a way that there were no longer any advantages of rank or position, including religious rank.

Thus, slavery was no handicap, in one’s relationship to God, and being free no advantage; being uncircumcised was no handicap, and being circumcised no advantage; marriage was no handicap, and celibacy no advantage; not speaking in tongues was no handicap, and speaking in tongues no advantage.

They all were radically relativized by God’s call.

 

The truth is nobody has special status with God.

Are you a Christian?  Are you a Jew?  Are you Gay?  Are you straight?  Are you black or white or brown?  Are you Cuban?  Are you Haitian?  Are you German?  Are you English?  Are you American?  Are you Republican?  Are you Democrat?  Are you Born-Again?  Are you unitarian?  Are you a universalist?  Are you conservative?  Are you liberal?  Are you male?  Are you female?  Are you transgendered?  Are you rich? Are you poor?  Are you a professional?  Are you a laborer?  Are you a technician?  Are you retired?  Are you a child?  Are you elderly?  Are you a teen?  Are you middle-aged?  Are you physically challenged?  Are you physically fit?  Are you alcoholic?  Are you recovering?

None of that matters with God.

God does not love you one bit more or one bit less depending on whether you said yes or no to any of those labels or categories.

That is what Paul means by freedom!

There is nothing we should do, there is nothing we need to do, there is nothing we can do to measure up to God.

God loves us just the way we are.

 

Yuri Sharapova is the father of the new Queen of Wimbledon.  His 17-year-old daughter, Maria, is the Ladies Champion of the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament.

He was asked if he was proud of his daughter and he said:

“Yes, sure, I am proud of her.  Do you think I am proud of her because she won a tennis match?  No, I am proud of her because she is my daughter.”

That is grace.

That is love.

That is what God says over each and every one of us.

 

That is true freedom.

Because of that freedom we are called to live free.

We are called away from a world that divides and conquers.

We are called into a community where marks of race, clan, or class are never supposed to matter.

We are called away from a world of domination and oppression, into a world of mutual acceptance and care for one and all.  

As contradictory as it sounds, Paul proclaims that our call to freedom is a call to slavery; that is, the self-imposed bearing of one another’s burdens, out of love for one another.

After all, if there is no longer any distinction between slave and free, then we are free to bear the burdens of one another.

That’s what slaves did — they carried the burdens of those who owned them.

But Christ liberates us from all social, cultural, and religious constraints that create any kind of bondage or inequality; Christ liberates us from all the “have-to’s.”

Once freed, though, we are free to serve one another.

 

Our freedom is a call into community, a community meant to demonstrate a kind of unity that welcomes everyone to know and experience the grace of God in Christ.

So what is your approach to this freedom?

Are you here today because someone made you come?

Are you here because you think God will like you better if you show up today?

All of that is okay, because none of it really matters.

What matters is that you are here.

What matters is that God loves you.

What matters is that our freedom in Christ gives us the freedom to be who we are, who God created us to be, loving and caring persons who respond to God’s love by loving and caring for all of God’s creation.

That begins with those people seated all around you.

But it doesn’t stop there.