Sermon - Freedom

Sermon preached at First Congregational Church of Tallmadge on July 1, 2007

Galatians 5:1, 13-24
Luke 9:51-62

Dedicated to Isabella Christina Campi on the day of her baptism;
and always to the glory of God.

Freedom is what Paul proclaimed in the letter to the Galatians and freedom is what we are celebrating this week on our national holiday. Freedom is what this country is about. As Samuel Smith wrote in 1832: “My Country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrims’ pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!”

And as Thomas Jefferson wrote: “We…declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.”

And seventeen centuries earlier, the apostle Paul wrote: “for freedom Christ has set us free, stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Freedom comes to us in two forms this week, and we rightfully celebrate both of them. The question that I want to put before us is this: “what does the freedom that we celebrate on the fourth of July have to do with the freedom that Paul proclaimed in Jesus Christ?” I think it’s worth our consideration.

The declaration of independence, signed on July 4, 1776, proclaims that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is a philosophical claim, and a theological point as well. To be human is to be at liberty to choose one’s own actions. Our freedom to do good or evil is witnessed to in the book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve, who stand for all of humanity, eat – not from an apple tree – but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is often understood as the first sin and the fall of humanity, but many theologians interpret the tree as a way of describing what it means to be human. To be human is to know good and evil and to be able to choose, and the tree is a symbolic way of telling this basic truth. We are free to choose, and God will not force us one way or the other. God will not guide our lives like pulling strings on a puppet, or controlling a robot. God gives us freedom, “for freedom Christ has set you free.” But while God gives it to us as humans, sometimes humans will take it away, and it is up to us to stand up to Pharaoh, or to King George. It was up to our ancestors to form a new government to secure our freedom because being free is what it means to be human.

The freedom secured by this nation, the freedom we celebrate this week, is the freedom that God grants to all people. But, of course, the story is a bit more complex.

When our children are young we teach them about the declaration of independence and the writing of the Constitution in Philadelphia, and we celebrate Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams and all the wise and brave people who were there. And then, as they grow older and are able to think about complexity, we teach them that we have not always lived up the ideal that all men are created equal. We teach them, for instance that this didn’t apply to slaves, for whom there was no freedom, no right to liberty, the pursuit of happiness, or even life. In fact, the constitution considered them to equal 3/5ths a white man, which was a compromise intended to give their southern slave owners greater representation in congress.

Women had a higher status, but no more rights under the constitution. Women couldn’t even vote until 1920. There are some of you who remember that. Not all were equally free at the dawn of this nation, and this is not to criticize the founding fathers, for we are right to celebrate them. It is rather to give credit along the way to many others as well.[1] It is to give credit to those who spoke out in the name of freedom for all, those who received severe injuries and even died on the hallowed protest ground. Freedom has been an expanding project, building on the progress of those who have come before. Our closing hymn is an example of the ongoing project. “America, The Beautiful” is a greatly loved hymn, and rightly so, and as our understanding grows of freedom, and of freedom in Christ, people in recent years have added verses to recognize how we are growing. To compare the freedom celebrated on July 4th to the freedom in Christ, we find that our nation often looks to the ideal of freedom in Christ and finds that we are not yet there. God’s freedom calls us to change.

And there is more. Paul writes that for freedom Christ has set us free. But it’s important to keep reading, because we know that people must be free, but free for what? Paul continues: “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.’”[2]

“Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence.” I wonder about the dark side of freedom, when we push freedom to unhealthy extremes. Do we celebrate the freedom to say anything we want, no matter how crude, untrue, or damaging? Do we celebrate the freedom to amass more wealth than we could ever need while others are in want? Do we celebrate the freedom for corporations to do business without regard for their employees health or where their waste ends up as long as the bottom line is good? If we take seriously the freedom in Christ, then July 4th cannot be a day to celebrate just how far our freedom can go without any restriction or limit. It is not a question of what restrictions we are free from; it is a question of what we are free for.

Fred Craddock, who is one of the great preachers in this country, told the story about a little town in west Oklahoma where he pastored one of the four churches in town. Each church got about the same number in worship, but the most consistent attendance on Sunday mornings was the café, where many of the men set and talked about cattle and the weather, and would we get a good crop this year? The patron saint of this group was Frank, seventy-seven years old and set in his ways. He used to say “I work hard, I take care of my family, and I mind my own business. Far as I’m concerned, everything else is fluff.” He would say this to Fred when he saw him around town, and that was fine with Fred, he wasn’t trying to convert people in the post office line. Everyone in town and especially the guys at the café said that Frank would never step into a church. Well, it’s a free country, isn’t it?

Then one day, Frank showed up at Fred’s church, said that he wanted to be baptized. Well, the rumors started: “Frank must be sick, maybe it’s his heart, he must be scared to meet his maker.” But it wasn’t any of those. The day after his baptism, Fred said to him “Frank, you remember that little saying you used to give me so much: ‘I work hard, I take care of my family, and I mind my own business’?”
Frank said, “Yeah, I remember. I said it a lot.”
Fred asked “well, do you still say that?”
“Yeah”
“Then what’s the difference?”
Frank said, “I didn’t know then what my business was.” He had discovered his business: to serve human need.[3]

It’s a free country.

Jesus said it. Paul said it. Frank discovered it. The whole of God’s word can be summed up in one line: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And we remember from what Jesus said and did that our neighbors are both friends and enemies, next door or around the world. Love them as yourself. That’s why you’ve been set free. That’s’ what freedom is about. We are free from acting out of fear or hate. We are free from having to return evil for evil, an eye for an eye. We are free from being enslaved to our own comfort because we are free to make ourselves uncomfortable in the service of others.

Celebrate this week. Celebrate this nation in which we are blessed to live. This is a land of incredible gifts and goodness. But celebrate also that different kind of freedom, the freedom for which Christ has set us free.

[1] Peter J. Gomes, from the sermon “Patriotism” in Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living, 1998.
[2] Galatians 5:13-14
[3] Adapted from Fred B. Craddock, from Craddock Stories, ed. Graves & Ward, 2001, pg. 67.