For freedom Christ has set us free
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Proper 8C, July 1, 2007
A Sermon by Fr. James Haney V
This is the week on our national calendar we remember and celebrate our freedom. Bands will play. Fireworks will explode. Picnics will be eaten. All in the name of celebrating our freedom.
But what kind of freedom will we be celebrating? What is our freedom all about? Is freedom about doing whatever we want whenever we want it? Or is there something more to freedom?
Well, it just so happens that our epistle lesson this week is about freedom. And this morning, we heard from St. Paul about the nature of true freedom in Gal ch5 p1062.
For a while in Galatians, Paul has been talking about freedom. And it's been freedom from. Freedom from having to earn salvation, freedom from having to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, freedom from being on a never ending spiritual hamster wheel where you run and run but make no forward progress.
Which brings us to chapter ch5 v1 "For freedom, Christ has set us free."
And because we're free from that hamster wheel, he says, don't backslide. Middle of v1 "Don't submit again to a yoke of slavery." In other words, live in the freedom God gives you.
Okay. That's all well and good. But what does it really mean? What is this freedom? The answer comes in v13:
"Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self indulgence."
Ding ding ding. Message to America 2007. You've got new mail straight from Paul:
"Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self indulgence."
Freedom does not mean doing whatever you want. True freedom is not a license to do anything and everything. Jesus didn't die to bring you that type of freedom.
And yet, we Americans often miss that message. Often times, we use our freedom for nothing else but self-indulgence. In fact, as Americans, we've turned self-indulgence into an art form, a national past-time.
We buy more and more and more. We have to have the latest, the biggest, the fastest, the most expensive. The one who dies with the most toys wins.
Yet Paul says, "Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self indulgence."
Instead, "Through love become slaves (become servants) to one another."
You want to really be free? Then put aside your own selfishness and love and serve each other.
Paul says it a different in v16:
"Live by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh."
Paul uses that term, "the flesh" in a very specific way. We often make a mistake when we read "the flesh" in the NT. We think of our bodies. We often think of it in sexual terms, "sins of the flesh."
But the term is much broader than that. "The flesh" in Paul's terms refers to everything that in us that is opposed to God. Everything that is rebellious is our "flesh."
The flesh can include our minds, our wills, and our emotions, anything that is in opposition to God's will.
So when Paul refers to the flesh versus the Spirit, he's not talking about our bodies versus our souls. Instead he's talking about the things we want to do our way, "the flesh," versus the things God calls us to do, "the Spirit."
"Live by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh," means "Live in obedience to God, not in rebellion." That's what freedom is: living as God intends for us to be.
Freedom is not just freedom from, it's also freedom for. We've been freed by God, but we've been freed so that we can do what God wants. It's not a freedom from responsibility. It's a freedom to live God's way. It's a freedom to love others as God loves us.
And that's the real dilemma of our American society. At our best, often in times of crisis, we rise to the occasion. We pitch in. We volunteer. We give. We help each other. We go the extra mile.
But at our worst, it's everyone for themselves. I've got mine. You get yours. We clutch. We hoard. We're more interested in our own comforts than the needs of other.
At our best, we follow the Spirit. We love and support each other. At our worst, we let our flesh get in the way. And we bite and chew on each other.
So how do we know if we're living "in the flesh" or "in the Spirit"? How do we know if we're living according to God's desires or according to our own rebellious and sinful nature?
To answer that question, Paul gives us a couple of lists. These lists are not meant to become an all inclusive checklist. But like the yellow line down the middle of the highway, they can be helpful markers for the Christian pilgrimage.
First, these are the characteristics of a fleshly life. Paul gives 15 examples beginning in v19: "The works of the flesh are obvious: Those first 3 are sexual sins: "fornication, impurity, licentiousness." Sex for the primary purpose of lust rather than the primary purpose of love.
v20 Paul adds two religious sins: Idolatry--putting something in the place of God. Then sorcery--trying to use the powers of evil to control people.
v21 The last 2 things on the list are about what we would call substance abuse: drunkenness and carousing.
But there are 8 other works of the flesh Paul lists. 8 out of 15, the majority. Middle of v20 Paul lists: "Enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy."
What are those things? They're all things that get in the way of being part of a loving community. They're all things that drive wedges between people.
"Enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy."
There's a real trap here. There were members of the Galatian church who were very self righteous. They were opposed to sexual sins, and they were opposed to idolatry. And thus they banded together to fight sin.
But Paul is saying, the ends don't justify the means. If you oppose those sins using sinful tactics--quarrels, dissensions, factions--then it does you no good. Then you're falling prey to your own flesh instead of being obedient to God's Spirit.
So often in society and in the church we get caught up in strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions.
At the national level, the political debate on both sides has gotten uglier. It is now often more important to put down and to sling mud at your opponent than it is to really grapple with the issues.
And in the Episcopal Church, like many other denominations, we're in a strained period in our common life over disagreements about issues of human sexuality.
Thus we need to listen very carefully to Paul. Enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, and envy are works of the flesh, and are not from God's Spirit.
The warning is strong for us. If you're trying to protect righteousness but use unrighteous tactics to do it, it does you no good.
Instead Paul contrasts these works of the flesh with 9 fruits of the spirit, v22: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control."
And it's significant that Paul talks about works of the flesh but fruits of the Spirit. Where does fruit come from? Forget about the produce aisle. That's just a phase. Where does fruit really come from? It comes from God. It grows slowly. It is nurtured slowly but surely by God, until it ripens and comes into its fullness.
It's the same with spiritual fruit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Those are gifts from God. Those are fruits we have to allow him to nurture in us.
Works of the flesh come from us. But these fruits of the Spirit come from God. Those are fruits we have to allow God to nurture in us.
We live in a time of self indulgence. We live in a time of factions and dissensions and strife.
But God offers us another way.
Live by the Spirit. Be guided by the Spirit.
Love one another. Serve one another.
In that way, we can find true freedom.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Rev. James P. Haney V
Good Shepherd, Wichita
July 1, 2007
