True Freedom

"...."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. "

This is a weekend that we celebrate our freedom - our freedom as Americans - as we remember the 222nd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In spite of the SEPTA strike, Philadelphia has been a busy place this week and especially this weekend partying and remembering what went on in this great city back in 1776.

Here is a quiz for you. Can you answer the question that an American History teacher asked her class, "A distinguished foreigner was a big help to the American colonists during the Revolutionary War. Can anyone give me his narne?" Do you have an answer? Well, I doubt that your's was the same as a young student's in the class. This scholar responded confidently, "It was God." - Probably not the answer that the teacher was looking for, but I guess it could be considered correct, if we can think of God as being a "distinguished foreigner."

Another classroom story involving early American history comes from a Sunday School teacher who asked who the first man was. A class member answered, "George Washington." When the teacher informed the student that Adam was the first man, not George Washington, youngster responded, "Oh, well, if you are speaking of foreigners, maybe he was." - So much for American History ...

This weekend as we gather together in this sanctuary, I want for us to celebrate a greater freedom than what July 4th stands for - it is a freedom that we should celebrate at every worship service - the freedom that was given to us as a result of Easter ... the freedom to live as forgiven people, assured of the grace and protection of our Lord. That is true freedom! However it is probably not freedom as most of us would describe it.

One definition I have heard for freedom states, "Freedom is being able to do what you please without considering anyone except your spouse, your children, your parents, the police, your boss, your life-insurance company, your doctor, federal and state authorities, and your neighbors." What do you think?

What does it mean to you to be free? For some people it means the avoidance of all responsibility, the elimination of all constraints - to do one's own thing without any regard of its effect on others or society at large. It is this understanding that causes some to harass the new groom and say his freedom is about to come to an end. It is this freedom that stressed-out parents dream of, when the last chick has flown from the nest - or weary homeowners look forward to when they can retire to a condominium with no grass to mow or roofs to fix.

For others, freedom would be their's if they were not constrained by financial worries. "If I could only win the lottery, I could be free." This was what one family believed and finally their dream came true! For years they had struggled with a heavy debt load, financing a mortgage and continuously mounting credit card bills. Each member of the family had a job, and each one was expected to contribute toward paying off the loans. Now, suddenly, they were free all because they picked the winning numbers! They could buy any mansion they wanted, and lay down cash for it! They didn't need to work! They could purchase all the toys and the trinkets their hearts had ever craved! They had made it - Now, as often happens with lottery winners, a reporter decided to do a follow-up piece on this family, a couple years after their big win, exploring how- they had coped with their newfound freedom. --- Well, the father was dead of a heart attack. Too much liquor and food, the doctor said. The mother was living with one daughter somewhere else. They weren't on speaking terms with the rest of the family. The old house was boarded up and left as a dirty eyesore. Some of the children lived in a new home, a large house on a big estate, walls and fences surrounding it. They were afraid someone would steal their newly-acquired and well publicized wealth. And one son was in jail for murder. The folks in their old community shook their heads - "They used to be such nice people!" The reporter ended the story by asking, "What does it mean to be free?"

That is the question at the heart of the dialogue between Paul and the Christians in the churches of Galatia too. What does it really mean to be free? - The context for the passage I read from Galatians is Paul battling with persons within the early Christian community who want to impose Jewish law on new Christians. They want to encumber the new believer with such legalistic requirements as the rite of circumcision. Paul's position is that Christ has set us free from such requirements. He asks them, why should we turn back and submit ourselves to the very yoke of slavery from which Christ has delivered us?

But the thirst for freedom and dignity in the churches of Galatia had left a lot of people terrified. Many of them had grown up in Jewish homes. There was something comforting about the way that they had experienced religion in those homes. Everything was structured and orderly. Everything was tied to certain rules and regulations. There was something exact about it all, something controlled and safe. And the freedom of Christianity terrified these folks.

A modem day comparison can be made with prisoners awaiting their release. In 1992 Life magazine told that prison officials in Colorado were perplexed by the growing number of inmates who were choosing to serve out their whole prison sentences rather than bargaining for less time at parole hearings. According to the state prison director, the depressed economy on the outside made life on the inside look more comfortable.

Freedom, whether from prison, from financial burdens or from anything else that holds us back - including sin, from which Christ has set us ftee - involves responsibility and commitment. And that is more than some are worth giving.

As Christians, we believe that it is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that has given us freedom - for it is through Christ that we are forgiven and promised eternal life. That is true freedom! In Christ we are forgiven and given another chance.

The apostle Paul serves as a powerful example of this. He wrote to the Corinthian church, "For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am." - Even though Paul once persecuted the church, through the grace of God he was forgiven and given another chance. With his new life, Paul took on the yoke of Christ and set forth proclaiming the message of salvation to Jews and Gentiles alike!

That is the freedom that Christ offers to each of us - to set aside the yoke of whatever is enslaving you and put on his yoke: "Take my yoke upon you," says Jesus, "and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart."

A yoke, as you know, is a wooden frame used to harness oxen or horses. Two animals would be bound together. They would share the load equally as they plowed the fields. - Imagine what your life would be like if you were yoked to Christ. Maybe that doesn't sound much like being free - to be yoked to someone or something. And that's the paradox in our lesson today, because true freedom is yoked to responsibility and commitment. And the glorious part of being yoked to Christ is that we are not pulling the cart by ourselves.

True freedom for the Christian believer is being yoked with Christ, because when the going gets rough he is there with us encouraging us, sharing the load, helping us to make it through. "Take my yoke," Jesus told his followers, "for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." --- The reason his yoke is easy and his burden is light is that he bears the load of life with us. He guides our lives in the way they should go. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Understand though, this freedom that Christ offers us takes true commitment. - We have a lot of people in our society who believe in God, who believe in the divinity of Jesus, who believe in heaven. Every Gallup Poll indicates this. --- But, we have very few persons, who are truly committed enough to assume the responsibility that this freedom requires. When it comes down to it, there is only of fraction of those who say they are Christian who want to take up the cross and follow Christ - --------------

Some Americans who visited Germany had an opportunity to see the Passion Play at Oberammergau. Afterwards they went backstage to meet the actor who played Jesus. While they were talking, one of the tourists spied the cross that the actor carried in the play. Before the actor had a chance to stop him, the man handed a companion his camera and said, "Hey, take a picture of me carrying the cross." He bent over and tried in vain to hoist the huge cross to his shoulders. With sweat rolling down his face he turned in frustration to the actor and said, "I thought it would be hollow. Why is it so heavy?" - With a smile of compassion the actor answered, "if I didn't feel the weight of it, I could not play the part."

When we take on the yoke of Christ, and accept the freedom that comes with it, we also must be committed to take on the responsibility to walk with him and help to carry that heavy load. That can be a heavy price for freedom for some people, but I hope not for you!

Someone once asked the comedian Flip Wilson about his religion. He told the person, "I am a Jehovah's Bystander." "I never heard of Jehovah's Bystander," was the response. Flip explained, "Well, they asked me to be a witness but I didn't want to get involved."

The yoke of Christ requires commitment and assuming responsibility -- getting involved. It also requires making choices. As we walk down the many roads of life, we have to choose whether to walk the way that Christ is leading us, or to take another road.

Freedom allows us the right to choose and the choices we made can prove to be wonderful or miserable. What our freedom in Christ gives us is the opponunity to make an incorrect choice but to come back and learn from our mistake. It is called forgiveness - it is the grace of God. I know of a piano teacher who claims, "God invented mistakes so that we could learn more quickly --- ----

The choices that our freedom offers us also involves our attitudes. For example, Dietrich Bonhoeffer who, while a prisoner of Hitler, awaiting his own death, was free because he exercised his freedom to choose how he would deal with the realities of his imprisonment and death. While a prisoner he wrote inspiring words of gratitude and joy for what he experienced as a disciple of Christ - and he quoted the fighting words of Martin Luther: "Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also; The body they may kill; God's truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever." It was Bonhoeffer's - and Luther's - strong faith and commitment to taking on the yoke of Christ that gave them the freedom to choose not to feel defeated, but to serve at witnesses and examples to Christians for years to come - ---------

Another choice that comes with true freedom is choosing the right master. Ideally, of course, freedom would appear to be having no master. But actuality we all do have a master - even if that master is our own selfish desires -- and for many that is exactly who their masters are. Eventually, though, these persons learn that they can not find true happiness by living to satisfy their every want. --- St. Augustine taught, "Our hearts are restless until we find rest in him.

Our choice needs to be Jesus Christ - to accept his freedom - and put on his yoke - and take on a life of service. That is what Paul tells us in our text for today: "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."

The point is that we should use our freedom for making choices that lead to commitments that offer ourselves in service to God and to one another -- not to ourselves and our own desires. Ironically, the essence of the Christian faith is found in discovering that we gain our life by losing it, and it is then that we experience true freedom. -- We gain our life by losing it. -- A message that is often shared with young adults states: "Until you find a cause worth dying for you are not ready to live."

I want to close with the story of Harriet Tubman, a woman who knew how precious freedom is. Harriet's grandparents were members of the Ashanti people of Ghana. Her grandparents were kidnaped from their land in 1725 and sold into slavery. Harriet was the third generation in her family to live as slaves. But Harriet Tubman became a link to freedom, not just for her family, but for hundreds of other slave families as well. Harriet became the most famous conductor on what has come to be called the "Undergrourd Railroad." (Just last week, the Philadelphia Inquirer included an article about the local involvement with the Underground Railroad.)

Harriet's flight from slavery was sparked by rumors that there were plans to sell her and two of her brothers to a chain gang. As if the back-breaking labors of the chain gangs weren't enough, they would probably never see their family again. So Harriet decided to escape. She wandered by her parent's cottage that night, singing a gospel tune about being "bound for the Promised Land." It was a secret code many slaves used to signal that they were planning to leave.

Harriet Tubman's escape that she began that night was successful. She traveled mostly by night and hid in fields and barns during the day. There were designated stops along her multi- state trek at the homes of those sympathetic to the cause of freedom. Her destination was the Northern states, or even Canada, where many escaped slaves made their homes. Her life depended on her every step and she was determined to be free.

The fact that this woman successfully traveled to freedom is remarkable enough in itself The fact that she chose to return to slave-country hundreds of times to lead others on the Underground Railroad to freedom is astounding. She risked re-capture, beatings, jail, and even death to help others out of slavery. She and her charges must have suffered from hunger, fear, lack of sleep, extremes of weather, exhaustion - but they traveled on. Surely there were times when they all wanted to turn back. It was at these times that we are told Harriet counseled, "Children, if you are tired, keep going; if you are scared, keep going; if you are hungry, keep going." And Harriet Tubman herself kept going, risking her life to lead countless numbers of slaves to freedom. ---- This woman appreciated freedom - she understood that it required commitment and self denial - and she committed herself to helping others no longer be slaves, but to enjoy freedom. --- Harriet Tubman took Paul's words seriously: "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."

The cost of true freedom is high. There are easy avenues to take. For example, we may be tempted to try lesser gods, and we may choose self over service. But God gives us the freedom to choose the best. --- What does freedom mean to you? I hope it means a life of responsible and committed living, accepting the grace and forgiveness of God. I hope it means a life lived in service to God and to others, following where Christ leads us and ready to do what he calls us to do.

What we, as Americans, celebrate this weekend is our freedom. What we, as Christians, celebrate each time we gather for worship is our true freedom that was bought by Christ. Freedom is a precious gift - let us thank God for it and use it wisely! Amen.

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