Year C, Pentecost 3
Galatians 5:1,13-25
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of
Happiness.” We all recognize these words.
It comes from the prologue of our Declaration of Independence which we
celebrate on July 4th.
Normally when we think of July 4th, we think of freedom. That is what we are celebrating, right?
Freedom? Interestingly, the word freedom never appears in the Declaration of
Independence. But there is liberty,
which is just like freedom. Its right
there—listed as one of our unalienable rights.
Given
this celebration of the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, Paul’s words about
freedom seem appropriate. We might even assume
that the people who created the lectionary picked this reading purposefully. However, as we have learned, the lectionary
is on a three year cycle and doesn’t coincide with the dates in our national
calendar and it never takes into account national holidays like July 4th. Regardless, Paul’s understanding of freedom
and the popular perception of freedom we have in this country have little to do
with one another.
Paul
wrote, “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.” The dictionary defines freedom as: “the power
or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or
restraint.” That was definitely not what
Paul was describing. Paul didn’t believe that our freedom meant we could live a
life without restraint. He believed that
we are free, but only if we find freedom in Christ. Living in the Spirit of Christ gives us
freedom, but it also requires that we become servants to God and even servants
to one another. In being free, we are
bound to serve God. If you are a little
confused right now, that is ok, Paul can often be a little confusing.
One of
the fascinating things about the New Testament and Jesus’ message was that
everything we once considered true was turned upside down. It wasn’t that
things we considered true were suddenly untrue, it was just different. For
instance, Jesus said that the first should be last and the last should be
first. Jesus was a king, but his crown was made of thorns and his throne was
the cross. Death was not a defeat for Jesus, because he was victorious over
death. It was a paradigm shift. Jesus
taught, a completely different way of thinking and being. One of those things
he taught was the importance of being a servant, no matter how important you
may be. He said that the way we treat the least of these is the way we treat
God.
For
the Jewish people, being slaves was something that was very much a part of
their story. God had led them out of
bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land.
That was and is a big part of their narrative. And the Gentiles would
have known and understood slavery as well.
That practice was alive and well at the time. Therefore when Paul spoke
about slavery--that was not a foreign concept to the people he was talking to.
Yet, Paul was talking about a different kind of slavery. It is not forced submission. One person or group does not forcefully take
control of another. It means that we willingly submit to God, and to one
another. It was and is a completely
different way of thinking.
In
talking about freedom, Paul reminded these new Christians of Galatia that
freedom was not supposed to be license for self indulgence. Freedom in Christ doesn’t mean that you can
just do whatever you want. It means that
you are free from sin, free from laws that tell you how to be holy. However there is one law that Jesus wanted us
to follow: "You shall love your neighbor as
yourself." In accepting this freedom in Christ, we also accept
responsibility for one another. It is a
communal freedom rather than an individual freedom.
I
believe that our nation would be living more authentically as a free nation if
we were free for one another, rather than in spite of one another---if we felt
some obligation to serve the common good rather than serve our own self
interests. You might say, well that is not what American freedom is supposed
to be. That’s Christian freedom which is a totally different thing. I would
have agreed with you before I wrote this sermon. While preparing for this sermon, I read the
Declaration of Independence, all of it, not just that first part that is always
quoted. The last line reads: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives,
our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
“We mutually pledge to each other…” Huh, sounds a
bit like Paul, doesn’t it? Now, I am no scholar of the Declaration of Independence,
but it seems to me that the founders of this country, understood what would
make our country truly free, and that is pledging ourselves to one
another. We were declaring independence
from Britain, not from one another. And
even if I am wrong about that, I think we can all agree that when we truly see
great things in our county, it is when we see people serving one another. There is a reason why the military, the
police, and the firefighters are often associated with patriotism….it’s because
they serve. It’s because they risk their lives to help other people. One of my most vivid memories from the days
after 9-11 was trying to give blood at the local blood bank. The line was
around the block. People wanted to give
something, do something. At the heart of
this nation is not just patriotism, but the kind of freedom that Paul
described.
Paul
wrote, “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.”
Right now in our nation, we are biting and devouring one another. And you know what, Paul was right. It feels
as though we are consumed by one another---despite our desperate attempts to distinguish
ourselves and separate ourselves, we are consumed. We are not free. We think that the might of our nation depends
on our ability to protect ourselves and separate ourselves, but our might is
determined by our willingness to serve one another, or in the words of the
great document we celebrate this week, to “mutually pledge to each
other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” It
is indeed a sacred honor to serve God’s children. But let us never forget that God’s children
are all the children of the world. Love
your neighbor as yourself was never meant to be literal. Love every person as
yourself. That was what Jesus meant. Let us be free for one another, not in spite
of one another.
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