“For
Freedom Christ has set us free.”
This
is one of the most powerful statements in all of the New Testament. It has been shouted, proclaimed, prayed, and
declared across time. It has been the
cry of those fighting for inherent human rights, for civil liberties, and for
freedom. In a world which is crying out
for justice, in a world where we see freedoms being restored to many, while
being taken away from others, we seek to understand on the deepest level what
Paul’s message means for us. Many in America have found this week to be one
where freedom and justice rang true, a week of finally being set free. Others are not there, feeling alienated, upset,
confused, and worried. Yet that is not
the sermon for this Sunday.
But
I can tell you what this freedom is not about. It is not about unlimited
choices. So often our culture tells us that freedom is the ability to choose
what we want in life. Freedom does not
equates with options.
And
freedom is not about believing that we can act or say anything without
restraint. News articles, and op-ed
pieces this week have shown Paula Dean confused, unabashed (until she was
dropped by all of her employers) by her blind arrogance and lack of sensitivity
around race, stereotypes, and prejudice. Frank Bruni of the New York Times
said, “Her manner may be as sugary as her cooking,
her smile as big as the hams she hawked for Smithfield. But she doesn't pause
when she should. Doesn't question herself when she must. There’s a dearth of reflection, a deficit of
introspection.”[1] Freedom is not being able to say what one
wishes when it strips another person of their dignity and humanity. Freedom is not unlimited choices, or the
driving force of free-will.
Then
what is this kind of freedom that Paul says we receive in Christ. His words so inviting, offering to change our
entire outlook on life.
Paul’s
first step in his exposition on freedom is to link being called into freedom
with the law. This is the first step in
our understanding of what freedom can look like. Freedom is a feature of human relationships
which is understood as a result of our relationship with Christ. We understand liberation through our
relationships with one another. This
leads to many possibilities – first and foremost, our care for one another, the
relationships we build with each other - this is a deeply spiritual exercise. (I am going to pause because this is pretty
cool.) The relationships we maintain with each person
in this room are intended to be a spiritual discipline.
The
conversation you have with the person sitting next to you has the potential to
be a spiritual exercise. It has the
potential of being a deep and faithful prayer.
The way you look into in the eyes of another, the way you care for each
person you encounter is a prayer, a spiritual practice, a discipline. Maybe this is why it is so frustrating and
dehumanizing when we have a conversation with someone who is staring at their
Iphone.
Next
Paul gives us two possibilities. We have
relationships that are rooted in the desires of the flesh and relationships
that are fruit of the Spirit. These are
competing possibilities that exist in all relationships. While we are called into the spiritual
exercise of loving our neighbor – this law of love is tricky. Where we know we are called to love the
neighbor, we battle between faithfulness and self-indulgence. We struggle with impurity, in light of
patience. We become tempted with
jealously and anger, knowing that we are to respond with gentleness and
self-control. We have the capacity for
both the flesh and the Spirit. Both
exist in the material and spiritual realm, and both are a reality with in our
human capacity.
What
Paul is implying is that it is not wrong to desire, but it is when our desires become
disordered that we get into trouble. This spiritual exercise of building
relationships with others is dependent on our ability to discern the gifts of
the Spirit from the desires of the flesh. Desires of the flesh not only take
control of us, but they destroy community.
Anger does not just affect us, it affects our entire corporate body. Strife,
jealousy, drunkenness, and envy – all though these are individual attributes,
their result is the impact that is felt by the entire community at large. We are called to desire rightly. This is why we take our prayer list home each
week. We pray for the members of our
community, the family or person of the week, because we desire love. Or we pray for ourselves, for patience with
dealing with those people we find difficult to deal with, because we want to
order our desires properly.
I
need to make a little theological jump.
Although we haven’t gotten to what this freedom truly means, we do know
it exists because is a gift of
Christ’s redeeming love. I know this
language is a little tricky. Yet we use
it all the time…even on our own church website, our mission statements, and our
vision. This redeeming love of God in
Christ shapes the way we care for another.
God’s gifts to us shapes and leads the way we care for each other. God’s sacrifice on the cross is contrary to
human conceptions of love. It changes
the way that we understand friendship, family love, and discipline. Love looks different through the lens of
God’s love on the cross.
At
Annunciation, we talk about loving all of God’s children. I want you all to look around the room. I
want you to look at the person sitting next to you. I know you all can be friendly, because I
have been here the last two weeks, and watched the way we interact during the
peace. It is important for us to
understand that God’s action on the cross was individually for each person in
this room. God’s action on the cross was
for every single person who has ever lived, whoever will live. It is in our discernment of God in Christ
sacrificial love that enables us to love one another. It is through this love
for one another, that we can begin to understand how Christ has set us
free. When we are led by fruit of the
Spirit into love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control, we open up the possibility for our neighbor to be
set completely free. We open up the possibility
for us to be free. Imagine, the person across from you. We find true freedom in
God’s sacrificial love for us through our care, through ordering of our desires
for one another, and that changes every relationship in this room.
To
think and believe that God’s love reaches every part of every person, from the
jerk down the street, to the apologetic Paul Dean, the difficult boss, to
people on death row, to the worst of the worst. And if we acknowledge that to
be true, than we can acknowledge that God’s love reaches the depths of own
selves that we want no person on earth to see, that only God knows about. This is a Freedom that is grace from God that
we can come to believe through our deep and loving relationships with each
other. And that my friends is true
liberation.
Sermon preached at Church of the Annunciation
June 30, 2013
[1]Bruni,
Frank., “Paula’s Worst Ingredients” The
New York Times, June 25, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/opinion/bruni-paulas-worst-ingredients.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
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