2013-06-30 Celebrate Your Freedom
Scripture
Galatians 5:1, 13-16
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 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. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself. If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.
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The Fourth of July is coming up Thursday. Do you have a celebration picked out? No pressure. But Thursday's coming so you really need to focus. Will it be backyard grills and men in aprons with beef and beer? Will it be a symphony concert at World's Fair Park? Maybe a midnight parade in Gatlinburg? Baseball at Smokies Stadium? Boating and laking and swimming? Fireworks? Lots and lots of fireworks? How are you going to celebrate? We've got so much freedom to choose.
Probably a lot more freedom than the Founding Fathers could have dreamed on July 4, 1776, as they signed a document amounting to treason against the superpower of their day, the British Empire. But from their act of rebellion we Americans inherited an enduring taste for freedom - big and juicy, not always fully cooked, a little dangerous.
Now, it's hard enough to know precisely what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they talked of freedom. It's even harder to grasp what the Apostle Paul meant when he talked about it. "For freedom, Christ has set us free." What in the world did he mean?
Paul could never have dreamed of a nation on the other side of a round earth that an Italian working for Spain would think was India. He almost certainly did NOT have in mind a representative democracy with amber waves of grain where you can carry a gun and drink Big Gulps larger than the size of the human stomach.
Paul lived in a different world. Paul lived under the boot of the Roman Empire, the superpower of his day. In Roman occupation, freedom of choice meant more like picking whether you wanted to be crucified head up or head down. If you even thought the word, "freedom," you were being political.
Paul was also talking about religious freedoms. Paul was writing to Gentiles who were thinking they might want to become followers of Jesus, except that Jesus was Jewish, and they weren't sure how that was going to work. There were all those dietary restrictions and certain physical requirements that for men, at least, were downright painful.
So, when Paul says, "Freedom," he's really sticking his neck out. He's juggling the political and the religious, and on top of that, personal, spiritual freedom, none of which had been worked out in any formal declaration.
And in a way, I think that's good, because it lets us focus on the essentials. What did freedom mean before the church started writing all its restrictions? What did freedom in Christ mean? In the beginning?
It's one thing to celebrate freedom as Americans. And we all should. We should celebrate and be thankful for those who delivered us this glorious land of liberty, all the way back to our Founding Fathers.
It's one thing to celebrate freedom as Americans. And if you're not sure how to do it, there are plenty of choices and plenty of celebratory people out on Thursday to help you exercise your liberties. Please exercise responsibly.
It's one thing to celebrate freedom as Americans. But as followers of Jesus, as followers not tied to any one nation, or any one race, or any one time, or any one way of being -- as people set free in Christ, how do we celebrate and exercise the freedom for which Christ has set us free? What does that really mean at its core? How do we celebrate the freedom of Christ responsibly?
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We have so many freedoms, and so many liberties. We take them for granted, don't we? Just the freedom to assemble here, and to worship here, without the fear of someone listening in. Although, we are broadcasting on the Internet. If someone from the NSA is listening in, thank you; send us a pledge. Let's help each other.
So much freedom, so little time. It can be a burden. Just ordering a burger, or a cup of coffee involves so many decisions. And then you've got all those people in line behind you, younger and cooler than you, who are judging you, silently, whose minds grasp concepts like Skinny Orange Mocha Frappuccino.
And even if you don't have money, you can still enjoy freedoms. On TV the other night, I saw repeated ads for the Chase Freedom credit card. "Chase Freedom." With a credit card. It would take too long to dissect the irony.
But we do chase freedom, don't we? We have it. We're used to it. We feel entitled to it. But we want more. We always want more. Because exercised or flabby, they're still our freedoms. Our liberties. Our choices. You can have your freedoms, but don't you dare mess with mine.
Seriously?
People for whom Christ died, do you seriously believe this is what Jesus dreamed of? This self-centered, addictive, indebted, bloat of binge? Is this the freedom for which Christ has set us free? Is this the freedom Paul preached to the outcasts of Rome? Is this the freedom of the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of the teeming shore? Seriously?
Freedom, in the Bible; freedom in Christ, at its core, boils down to one choice, and one choice alone: The choice to love.
Paul says, "For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
One choice. One freedom. One act of will. One choice to embrace liberty, not for yourself, but to bring it, to share it, to bless it upon someone else. Someone who needs freedom. Someone who needs freedom of heart and mind and soul at least as much as you do, if not more.
At its core, freedom, in Christ -- freedom in God -- means freedom shared in an act of love.
Love God; love your neighbor; and love yourself, too. Because everything we have, every breath, every heartbeat, is a gift -- a priceless gift that we've been loaned for just a little while. A gift is something given. Without the giving, it ceases to be a gift. Its meaning is stripped from it.
The love of Christ has been set free within you. But the harder you try to squeeze hold of it, the faster it slips away. Better to give it away, to share it, to choose to give it as a blessing and in so doing, to double it.
The freedom for which Christ has set us free is the freedom to love. No more, and certainly no less. To act in compassion. To make ourselves vulnerable to feeling someone else's pain. This is biblical love, the pure and true love of Christ Jesus, at its scarred and broken, and beautiful core.
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"For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 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. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.""
Why wait until Thursday to celebrate the freedom for which Christ has set you free? You can start right now. It takes only one, simple choice. To love.
Maybe that means thinking about the person in the pew two rows over. Maybe that means reaching out to someone who's not here. Maybe that means sacrificing how right you are for how forgiven someone could be, maybe someone right next to you.
It's your choice. But it's Christ's freedom.
However you choose to celebrate your freedom on Thursday, be loving on Sunday. And on Monday. And on the 5th, 6th, and 7th. Do not wait. Do not take your freedom in Christ for granted.
Start celebrating, right now.
