Sermon #2 @ St. Paris UMC

Pastor Dave Kepple

Text: Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Title: “Sweet Freedom”

Date: July 5, 2009 (5th Sunday after Pentecost)


Internet Link for primary scripture texts used in this sermon:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%205:1,%2013-25&version=31



Freedom is on our minds and in our hearts this weekend, as we mark the 233rd anniversary of our nation’s birth.
It doesn’t seem all that long ago that Janet and I and our baby girl, Judy, were sitting on a blanket in Lake County, Ohio, and watching the fireworks on that Bicentennial Fourth of July – in 1976.
Well, Judy’s 34 now and has a baby girl of her own – Cora Rose. In fact, Judy and Cora were in St. Paris on Wednesday for a brief visit. It’s hard to believe how time flies.
(Just as an aside, during their visit we took Judy and Cora and our son, Scott, out for lunch at Castle’s restaurant, east of town. I have a feeling we’ll be going back there again!)
To be honest, I’m not sure I fully appreciated the freedom we enjoy as American citizens back in 1976. In fact, I don’t think I really knew just how much I love this country until it came under attack on Sept. 11, 2001 – when it seemed it might all be slipping away from us, right before our eyes.
I had a few minutes that Tuesday morning, on 9/11, before making the short walk to our former church, so I flipped on a cable news channel. It was a little before 9:00 o’clock
To my stunned amazement, I saw one of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center ablaze. They were saying an airplane had crashed into it. I decided to take a portable radio with me to the church, so I could keep up with the news.
As I listened to the radio, shock turned into horror when another airliner smashed into the Trade Center’s other tower, setting it on fire, too. And when word came that yet another hijacked plane hit the Pentagon, and that at least one other hijacked plane was unaccounted for, I felt deeply afraid – and not only for our nation.
You see at that time, our daughter, Judy, was living and working in downtown Washington, D.C.. Not knowing the extent of the assault, I feared she could be in mortal danger.
I literally ran home – across an open field -- to be with my wife. We tried reaching Judy by telephone at work, but all the circuits were busy. We sent her an e-mail. No response.
Not long after that, thankfully, Judy called to let us know she was all right. She also said she could look out her window at work and see smoke in the distance . . . coming from the Pentagon.
What a harrowing day – Sept. 11, 2001 – a life-changing day for all of us, and for our country.
More recently, as we’ve watched the struggle for freedom in Iran – or at least for a fair election process – I’ve been impressed by the courage of those Iranian citizens who have risked their very lives to challenge a fraudulent and corrupt government. The scenes of demonstrations in the streets over there have been a strong reminder for all of us -- we dare not take the blessings of freedom for granted.
At the same time, we also are reminded to live in deep gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy – not the least of which is the freedom to worship as we please. We can also give thanks for a political system that – for all its many flaws – still is the best form of government ever devised.
I think it’s safe to say we can all join together in asking God’s blessing on our beloved country today, and in the days to come. May we always be one nation under God.
But there’s another kind of freedom we need to consider this morning. It is the freedom which the Apostle Paul speaks of in his letter to the Galatian Church. As much as we value – indeed, cherish – the freedoms we are blessed with as Americans, there is this other kind of freedom which is of far greater value, or – like the TV commercials used to say – “priceless.”
This is the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. It is a freedom that brings blessings as nothing else can.
Paul comes right out and tells us that this freedom is the way of life intended for those who know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. As a matter of fact, he says in Galatians 5:13 that we are called to be free – every one of us who follows Christ.
Paul is telling the Galatians that – among other things – they are free from the yoke of the Law. Because that Law of Moses cannot save them – even the strictest adherence to the Law cannot save them. For the Galatian Christians – as for all others – there is only one thing that can bring salvation, and that is the grace of God through Jesus Christ.
When we place our faith in Jesus as the Son of God, when we turn our lives over to him and trust in the transforming power of Resurrection, then and only then can we experience true freedom. As is stated in John’s Gospel, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36, NIV)
But as the Rev. Dr. Timothy Downs has noted, this is a different kind of freedom that Paul speaks of in his letter.
“It’s a freedom that is not just, ‘OK, I can do anything I please.’ . . . Our freedom is framed by a love of God. Freedom is not license. It is freedom to act within the context of a relationship with God, a relationship of love.” (1)
Paul makes it clear that with this wonderful freedom comes responsibility. In verse 13 he tells us not to use this freedom to “indulge” our sinful nature. Rather, he says, the very best way to use this freedom is to love our neighbor as ourself. Though Paul doesn’t state it here, this freedom also is a calling to love God with all our being. Truth is, there’s little chance we will love either our neighbors or ourselves, if we don’t first experience a passionate love for God.
So we’ve been given tremendous freedom in Christ, but Paul warns we must handle this freedom with care.
Paul says the best way to handle this freedom is to love, and to do this we – as he states in v. 16 – must “live by the Spirit.” It is the Spirit of God dwelling within our hearts that gives us the supernatural ability to love – even as God loves. When we tap into this Spirit, which flows into us by faith, we receive power to reject the desires of our sinful human nature. Christ sets us free from the law of sin and death. It is this amazing grace which can make every day “Independence Day” for followers of Christ.
If we’re not careful with this freedom, Paul says, we can dig a deep, dark hole for ourselves in a hurry by yielding to our sinful nature. Paul gives a laundry list of ugly outcomes. Here’s how Eugene Peterson translates it in The Message:

“It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.”

I’m kind of glad he doesn’t! There are something like 15 things that Paul catalogues for us there – outcroppings of the sinful nature. Paul warns that using our new-found freedom in this manner will lead to disaster.
But if we tap into that Spirit which God makes available to us, then we will find out just how sweet true freedom can be. For there is a whole other list of things that Paul says we will experience through life in the Spirit. He calls them fruit, and he names nine of them: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Paul says that when we live by the Spirit -- with that focus on loving God and loving our neighbor as ourself – all these things are readily available to us.
Which way would you rather live?

I like how Bible scholar William Barclay sums it up in his commentary on Galatians 5, where he writes:
“Christian freedom is not license, for the simple but tremendous reason that the Christian is not a person who has become free to sin, but a person, who, by the grace of God, has become free not to sin.” (2)

I want to close with a story shared by Rev. George Antonakos, a Presbyterian pastor in Baltimore, Md. He writes of an occasion when Abraham Lincoln went to a slave auction one day.
Lincoln “was appalled at the sights and sounds of people buying and selling other human beings . . . His heart was especially drawn to one young woman on the block whose story was told in her eyes. She looked with hatred and contempt on everyone around her. She had been used and abused all of her life – the trading block was just one more humiliation.”
The bidding began, and Lincoln decided to take part. “As the bidding went up, he just bid a little higher.” A man kept trying to top his bid, “but Lincoln wouldn’t be topped. Finally, he won and paid the auctioneer for the slave woman.”
“What are you going to do with me?” she asked Lincoln.
“I am going to set you free,” Lincoln replied.
“Free?” she asked. “Free for what? Free to do whatever I want?”
“Yes,” Lincoln said. “Free to do whatever you want.”
“Free to go wherever I want?” the woman asked.
“Yes,” Lincoln answered, “free to go wherever you want.”
“Well,” the woman said with a smile. “I’m going with you.”
To this marvelous story, Rev. Antonakos adds: “That’s the way our Lord Jesus is. When He comes into our lives, He sets us free from all those things that we chase after to find security. But when we put Him in the center of our life, we are free and we grow and we become and we achieve and we succeed – because we follow Him.” (3)

Friends, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Let us stand firm, then, and not let ourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Let us live free or -- as Paul warns us – we just might die hard.
Amen.
______________________________

1. The Rev. Dr. Timothy Downs, “Jesus Means Freedom,” Nov. 14, 2004.
2. William Barclay, The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians, Revised Edition, p. 45, 1976, The Westminster Press: Philadelphia.
“Free to Follow Christ,” Rev. George Antonakos, Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, Md., as quoted on “Sound Bites” blog, 7.2.09, http://www.soundbitesministry.blogspot.com/