how to obtain freedom

7/30/2019 how to obtain freedom

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“For Freedom” Please Read:A Sermon by the Rev. Dr. R. Scott Herr Galatians 5:1, 13-25First Pres., Fort Collins, CO – July 1, 2007 Luke 9:51-62

Paul writes, “For freedom Christ has set us free…” This is the mostradical claim of the gospel, that in Christ we are set free. As we prepare tocelebrate the “freedom” we enjoy in this country, I would like to invite youto reflect with me on two aspects and implications of Christian freedom.

The first quality of Christian freedom is a FREEDOM FROM. Justafter he asserts that Christ has set us free, Paul goes on to command thechurch to “Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery…” What type of slavery was Paul talking about here? I believe hewas talking about the slavery that comes from legalism and the burden of

justifying oneself, making oneself right before God. The plain truth of the

gospel asserts that there is no way for anyone to make themselves rightbefore God. Our rightness, or righteousness, before God, comes by gracethrough faith .

Grace is something we all struggle with to a lesser or greater extent. Istruggle with it even as I write my sermons. Preachers like to joke, “You’reonly as good as your last sermon.” There are many variations on this theme:You’re only as good as you look. You’re only as good as your education.You’re only as good as your position in the company. You’re only as goodas your investment portfolio… You get the idea… This is living by the law.It’s all about what you do to make yourself OK.

Too many Christians get caught up in this same type of thinking. If Igo to church, if I say my prayers, if I do good deeds, if I don’t swear, thenI’ll be OK... But let’s be clear: That’s human-centered religion, or legalism.Paul also calls this living according to the flesh. Interestingly, it comes in aconservative or liberal form. Living by the flesh means that it’s really all upto you to make yourself righteous. For the conservative, it’s about a certaincode of ethics and morality. As long as you play by the moral majority rules,you’re OK. For the liberal, it’s more about protecting the minority view. It’sabout self-discovery and self-determination. As long as you don’t tell

anyone else what to do, you’re OK. Both conservative and liberals have theirrules. But as soon as you break those rules, you’re bad, you’re wrong, you’renot OK. Do good, and you’ll be good!

Conservatism and liberalism are different political orientations, butthey both have a code for what is right and what is wrong. The dynamic isthe same: it’s about what you do or think… Legalism of any political stripe



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is confining and limiting. And most people think religion is the same: obeythe rules, and God will love you for it.

The gospel, however, is a completely different paradigm. It’s aboutfreedom from finding our ultimate identity and worth in either the left or theright, in finding our meaning in any human-contrived code of conduct orpolitical association. All of that still leads to slavery of some kind. Thegospel is about finding our source of identity and value not in political orreligious rules, but rather in our relationship with Jesus Christ. He said, “thetruth will set you free,” but he also said “I am the way, the truth and thelife.”

The Declaration of Independence adopted by the ContinentalCongress on July 4 th 1776 includes the famous words, “We hold these truthsto be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed bytheir Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,

Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This document, along with the Bill of Rights, tried to make it clear that our republic was to be founded on theprinciple of freedom from tyranny; from too much government control orintervention. As we celebrate our freedom this week, I hope you will thank God for the precious freedom we enjoy in this country. Sometimes wetrivialize freedom, as evidenced by the Supreme Court ruling on the freedomof students to hang a banner printed with the words, “Bong Hits For Jesus!”Only in America can we fight over our freedom of speech, howeverridiculous or nonsensical that speech may be!

I for one do not want to trivialize or take our freedom for granted. Anumber of years ago I lived as a student in the People’s Republic of China,where I spent my first July 4 th celebration abroad in 1982. I’ll never forgetsaying goodbye at the train station. One of my professors told me,“Remember Scott, you can leave, but we never can…” The injustice of totalitarianism hit me hard.

Ten years ago, I was in Cairo at a conference of international churchpastors. Part of the trip included a visit with Rev. Menes Abdul Noor, whoheads Kasr el-Dobara Presbyterian Church, the largest protestantcongregation in the Middle East. As he met us, he was clearly distressed. He

had been informed that one of his students was arrested by the secret police.Rev. Noor told us, “My student, a Muslim, made the mistake of calling thechurch office to say he wanted to be baptized. The phones are tapped, and sothey arrested him immediately. We don’t know when or if we will see himagain.” It is a capital offense to convert from Islam to the Christian faith inmost Islamic states.



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As a pastor in Zurich, I had the privilege of baptizing some Chinesestudents studying at the ETH, the equivalent of MIT in Europe. Havingspent time in China myself, I went to great efforts to warn them about beingbaptized, that in fact it would very probably jeopardize their governmentcareer track in science, or create difficulties for them socially. I tried to pointout that it was easier to be a Christian in Europe than in China… They saidthat whether or not they lived in Europe or Asia, becoming a Christianwould always be subversive to the powers and principalities of this world.The next week I baptized them, and now warn every adult I baptize thatbeing a Christian can be dangerous to going along with status quo inwhatever country or culture we live.

I share these personal stories to remind you what it means to be freefrom various forms of tyranny. We are the land of the free and the home of the brace. It is good to honor the men and women that have given their lives

and still today fight to protect us from tyranny and terror… But what do wedo with our freedom? If we are honest, we can easily abuse our freedom if we limit it to the aspect of FREEDOM FROM external controls. That wouldbe to reduce freedom to merely the absence of restraint…

Which brings me to the second aspect and perhaps more paradoxicalquality of Christian freedom: Christ has given us a FREEDOM FOR newlife. The freedom we have in Christ is not so much about living for morepower and individual choices, but about re-directing our power and choicesso that others may live.

In our gospel lesson, Luke writes that Jesus “set his face to go toJerusalem.” This means Jesus is fixing his gaze on the cross; focusing hisenergy and freedom on the ultimate task of dying for the sins of the world.He is going to Jerusalem to give up his life so that the world might be saved.

On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples are traveling througha Samaritan village, and the Samaritans, historic enemies of the Jews, rejecthim and offer no hospitality. James and John offer to “command fire tocome down from heaven and consume them” But Jesus rebukes them. Theydo not understand the nature and purpose of the liberating power Jesus offersto his disciples. While we are given complete and absolute liberation in

Christ, our freedom is not to overpower or destroy others, but to give themlife. This is a spiritual issue that too many of us Christians don’t seem tounderstand. I invite you to consider how often we, like those misguideddisciples James and John, want to call down fire on our enemies?

In an interesting footnote to verse 56 in your pew Bibles, someancient manuscripts insert Jesus saying to James and John, “You do notknow what spirit you are of, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy the



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lives of human beings but to save them.” While these are probably not wordsthat Jesus actually said, this footnote verse definitely describes the spirit of Jesus’ life and ministry. He gave up his power to save others. He does notbring down his power upon others to destroy them… This is a truth of thegospel that we would do well to contemplate as we celebrate this July 4 th…

Jesus calls us to follow him, to go and proclaim the kingdom of God.You’ve heard the joke, “What do you get when you cross a Jehovah’switness and a Presbyterian? Someone who comes to the door but has nothingto say!” As evangelistically challenged as we Presbyterians may be, toooften we think proclamation is only about leading people to personal faith.Here I think proclamation is about speaking the truth in love, and speakingthe truth to the powers that be even when it is not politically correct orsocially expedient. The question I would ask you to consider is this: Are youusing your freedom to help others – even your enemies - to live more

freely?? Or are you simply interested in calling down fire on them?That’s the old life, you see. That’s living by the flesh, my friends,

living by the old order of quid pro quo; the law. But you are called to live anew life; free from condemnation; free from revenge. Jesus says that no onewho puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”It’s a simple illustration, and any farmer understands what it means. If youstart out plowing a field, you need to fix your gaze ahead. The minute youlook back, you’ll plow crooked; you’ll go off the tracks. Jesus is calling usto follow, and keep our eyes fixed on him and our hearts filled with hisspirit.

Paul puts it bluntly: “The only thing that counts is faith workingthrough love” (Gal. 5:6b), and, “The whole law is summed up in a singlecommandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Loving others isthe litmus test for whether you are living under the slavery of the law, by theflesh, according to your own desires, or living by the Spirit. And the litmustest for love is the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” Paul in another ironictwist says that true Christian freedom means becoming slaves to oneanother! Living by the flesh looks at others according to how you can use

them, how you can get something from them. Living by the Spirit looks atothers according to how you can serve them, how you can offer them newlife.

Leith Anderson tells the true story of Abraham Lincoln, who oncecame across a slave auction. He was particularly drawn to a young womanslave whose eyes radiated hatred and bitterness at the inhumanity of thewhole enterprise. Lincoln entered the auction and emerged victorious as the



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highest bidder for this female slave. Anderson writes: “She asked him whathe was going to do next with her, and he said, ‘I’m going to set you free.’

‘Free?’ she asked. ‘Free for what?’‘Just free,’ Lincoln answered. ‘Completely free.’‘Free to do whatever I want to do?’‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Free to do whatever you want to do.’‘Free to say whatever I want to say?’‘Yes, free to say whatever you want to say.’‘Free to go wherever I want to go?’ she added with skepticism. Lincoln

answered, ‘You are free to go anywhere you want to go.’‘Then I’m going with you!’ she said with a smile.”

Brothers and sisters, Jesus came to set us free... He invites us toexperience that complete freedom with two words, “Follow me.” He offers

to us a deeper kind of freedom, the freedom from the weight of sin, from thetyranny of the law, but also a freedom for giving new life through loving andforgiving others.

As you prepare your hearts to receive from this table, I would inviteyou to pray for our country, and to pray for yourself, because you know thatyou are called to live a new kind of freedom, freedom in the Spirit of Christ.Let us not take our freedom for granted. Do not mistake your freedom as anopportunity for self-indulgence. Rather, hear and heed the call of Christ.Follow him, proclaiming the kingdom of God.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN

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