The Scripture Reading this week is Galatians 5:1-26
The Sermon title is Freedom!!
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Early Thoughts:"...tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom" It has become one of the most well-known scenes in movie lore, the Scottish rebel/hero William Wallace spurring the Scots on to battle by reminding them that the path to freedom lies in defeating the English army of Edward I. Later, as the movie draws to a close, as he is being hanged, drawn, and quartered, the last work that Wallace speaks is "freedom".
Or another image from an earlier show...
In the Star Trek (Original Series) episode The Omega Glory (which I learned this morning was one of the first episodes Gene Roddenberry wrote for the series) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy find themselves on a planet locked in a violent conflict between the Yangs and the Kohms, being held prisoner by the Kohms. Kirk uses the word freedom and one of the Yang prisoners is both surprised and offended because the stranger has used one of their sacred words -- "that is a worship word". Yes the episode goes on to glorify the US ideals and understanding of freedom and independence but that line has always stuck with me --freedom is a worship word.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The work of Jesus is to bring freedom, to set people free. Many of the miracles we see Jesus performing, particularly the exorcisms, are about setting people free. One of my favourite healing stories in the Gospels is also found in Luke (chapter 13) where Jesus heals a woman who has been crippled, unable to stand up, for 18 years. As she is healed Jesus tells her she is set free from her ailment. A few verses later Jesus says "..ought not this woman...whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage..."
Freedom is a worship word for us too. We are set free from those things that bind us, that keep us from being who God created us to be.
How can we best use that freedom? How might we misuse that freedom?
The answer to the second question is Legion. to try to explicate all of them would take far too long. Let it suffice to say that we just need to look around the world to see the consequences of freedom misused and abused.
The first question is a bit more nuanced. And for that I turn to Paul, who seems to be reminding the Galatians (and us) that freedom doesn't mean everything is good. In his 1st Letter to the Corinthians Paul says (twice) that all things are permitted [in the freedom we have in Christ] but not all things are beneficial. For Paul the question of how we live out our freedom is essential. If we are no longer bound by the Law (in a religious sense that is) then how do we guide our behaviour? In 1st Corinthians Paul raises the ethic of those things that build up the community and the members thereof. Here in Galatians Paul phrases it in terms of the commandment to love your neighbour as you love yourself. Paul repeatedly tells us not to let ourselves be enslaved or dominated by some external yoke but here suggests that we should be enslaved to each other through the commandment to love.
This Sunday is the Sunday before both Canada Day and Independence Day with Bastille Day just a couple of weeks away. All three are national days that celebrate the coming of a new way of being, sometimes peacefully through law and sometimes through rebellion or riot. It is also 10 days after Juneteenth, as day when the news of the Emancipation Proclamation finally spread through all the Southern States at the end of the Civil War. These are days when freedom is talked about a LOT. What do we mean by freedom on those days? Is it the same as the freedom offered to us by God through Jesus Christ?
We are free. We are free to make choices. We are free to act. We are also subject to the consequences of our actions -- freedom never means that there are not consequences. We can use this freedom to build our own little empires, to do things that benefit us at the cost to our neighbours. OR we can use this freedom to build up the community, to bring hope instead of despair, to seek liberty and Good News for those at the margins, to spread love and justice around. We can use our freedom to, as Paul might put it, live by the flesh. Or we can use our freedom to live by the Spirit, to seek to have the fruit of the Spirit flow through us.
Freedom is a worship word for us too. We are set free from those things that bind us, that keep us from being who God created us to be.
How can we best use that freedom? How might we misuse that freedom?
The answer to the second question is Legion. to try to explicate all of them would take far too long. Let it suffice to say that we just need to look around the world to see the consequences of freedom misused and abused.
The first question is a bit more nuanced. And for that I turn to Paul, who seems to be reminding the Galatians (and us) that freedom doesn't mean everything is good. In his 1st Letter to the Corinthians Paul says (twice) that all things are permitted [in the freedom we have in Christ] but not all things are beneficial. For Paul the question of how we live out our freedom is essential. If we are no longer bound by the Law (in a religious sense that is) then how do we guide our behaviour? In 1st Corinthians Paul raises the ethic of those things that build up the community and the members thereof. Here in Galatians Paul phrases it in terms of the commandment to love your neighbour as you love yourself. Paul repeatedly tells us not to let ourselves be enslaved or dominated by some external yoke but here suggests that we should be enslaved to each other through the commandment to love.
This Sunday is the Sunday before both Canada Day and Independence Day with Bastille Day just a couple of weeks away. All three are national days that celebrate the coming of a new way of being, sometimes peacefully through law and sometimes through rebellion or riot. It is also 10 days after Juneteenth, as day when the news of the Emancipation Proclamation finally spread through all the Southern States at the end of the Civil War. These are days when freedom is talked about a LOT. What do we mean by freedom on those days? Is it the same as the freedom offered to us by God through Jesus Christ?
We are free. We are free to make choices. We are free to act. We are also subject to the consequences of our actions -- freedom never means that there are not consequences. We can use this freedom to build our own little empires, to do things that benefit us at the cost to our neighbours. OR we can use this freedom to build up the community, to bring hope instead of despair, to seek liberty and Good News for those at the margins, to spread love and justice around. We can use our freedom to, as Paul might put it, live by the flesh. Or we can use our freedom to live by the Spirit, to seek to have the fruit of the Spirit flow through us.
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| From ChatGPT |
Our freedom is limited because while all things are permitted not all things are beneficial. May God help us use our freedom wisely, profitably, lovingly and justly.
--Gord
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