Sermon –July 1, 2007

“For freedom Christ has set us free”

It's very hard for me to find something to do for recreation which has nothing to do with my vocation since, after all, faith connects with everything and we can be aware of God everywhere. I thought I had come close, however, one evening when I sat down to watch a PBS documentary on Borneo. This is something that will never become a sermon anecdote, I thought.

Wrong.

The documentary reporter was interviewing a man who lived deep in the jungles of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. The man described the traditional beliefs he had grown up with, beliefs that the world is over-run with dangerous evil spirits and demons that would hurt him badly any chance they got.

For example, he had been taught that if he came out of his hut and turned left on Tuesdays, this demon would get him, if he came out of his hut and turned right on Thursdays, that demon would get him, and so on. He felt trapped and terrified by all the evil powers at large around him, he felt defenseless, and he felt how hard it was to remember all the rules and when to do what.

“But then,” he said, brightening noticeably, “When I took Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, I wasn't afraid anymore! I could go any which way, knowing that Christ was more powerful than anything else.”

I sat watching the TV with my mouth open – at first astonished that this wonderful speech got by the “Politically Correct” attitude of PBS and got on the air, and then thinking, “How can we get this guy to New Jersey and set up a speaking tour?”

Our friend in Borneo knew exactly what St. Paul meant in his letter to the Galatians, Chapter Five, Verse One, when he says “For freedom Christ has set us free.” The man had been enslaved by his belief in evil spirits and by his belief that only a complex and otherwise meaningless pattern of behavior could preserve his health and safety in even a precarious way.

For St. Paul, Christian freedom is first of all liberation from some sort of slavery. Paul would certainly have understood the man from Borneo's situation; there were people like him in the First Century Mediterranean world, living fearfully by crippling customs. Sadly, there still are people living fearfully by crippling customs – and some of them are technically Christians, like the superstitious people who don't want parents to take their newborn child out of the house before the child is baptized. (The fact is, God can admit an unbaptized child to heaven, and baptism does not prevent accidents.)

People today are enslaved by superstitions and prejudices: Christ can liberate us to live life unchained by superstitions and uncrippled by prejudices, free to be free, if we accept the faith, live the faith and let the Spirit liberate us. Prejudices which seemed impossible to overcome a generation ago can yield to spiritual power, freeing everyone who was enslaved by prejudices to live life unfettered. This Christian freedom empowers us to have friendships and relationships with a far wider spectrum of people than old prejudicial chains would permit. “For freedom Christ has set us free.”

There are other types of slavery, too. I heard of a man who had a tattoo on his ankle of a broken chain and right next to the chain was a date – the date of his first day without alcohol or drugs. He knew what slavery was like, and he knew what freedom is like. His Higher Power liberated him to live a life which was not crazy and disastrous. The Higher Power, God, makes that same offer every day to everyone so enslaved. “For freedom Christ has set us free.”

There are people who are enslaved because they believe that all their meaning in life and value comes from their jobs or from other people – fragile repositories of identity. In my last church's town, there was a very popular neighborhood cop whose community honored him with a gala retirement dinner. He was celebrated, he retired – and three days later he was dead. He didn't know how to live without being the beloved neighborhood cop.” His identity – and ours – is not just a job: we are all children of God, adopted by grace, loved forever, and no layoff or retirement will change that.

Nor does our status as children of God change if a crucial family member dies or departs: our identities are not limited to being spouses of – parents of – children of – and so on. Important as such relationships are, if we can't imagine ourselves existing without those relationships, we are very vulnerable. So the foundation of all our relationships is our indestructible relationship with God. Remembering this can reduce anxiety and depression and foster well-being. “For freedom Christ has set us free.”

People can feel enslaved by the “ought-to’s” (from within themselves or from someone else). Paul himself experienced liberation from the burden of having to obey the 613 Commandments in the Old Testament and from feeling that his standing with God stemmed only from·his ultra-meticulousness. Paul also preached to people who lived life at the opposite extreme, people who's motto was “if it feels good, do it.” Christ can liberate people both from legalism and endless duties and from compulsive spontaneous risk-taking. “For freedom Christ has set us free.”

Paul offers a list (which is explicitly not exhaustive) of the “works of the flesh,” grouped into three categories: sexual offenses, specifically religious offenses, and inter-personal offenses. In the first category, I'd say that “fornication, impurity and licentiousness” are as popular now as they were in the First Century – and as destructive. Idolatry usually takes the form of treating “the almighty dollar” as an idol to be worshipped, but there are those who worship other idols, and sorcery (like voodoo, tarot cards and astrology) has never gone away. The long list of other evils basically amounts to chaos – which people can become addicted to and assume there is no other way to live. There is. “For freedom Christ has set us free.”

The nine qualities which Paul lists as “fruits of the Spirit” (which you could underline on the back of our service bulletin when you take it home) should not be seen as “new laws.” After all, telling yourself or someone else, “You must be joyful or else” is probably not going to work. Likewise, “required generosity” would lose the voluntary self-giving which is at the heart of generosity, so that while we lift up tithing as a model, for example, we do not require that level of giving as a condition of membership.

These nine qualities are fruits of the Spirit: if we let ourselves be liberated by Christ from what Paul calls the works of the flesh – and from anything else that enslaves us – then if we are free in Christ our freedom will manifest itself in these behaviors. “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,” says Paul – as dangerous an enslavement now as then.

Rather, let us celebrate being liberated by Christ from all enslavements by letting the Spirit's fruits appear abundantly in our lives: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

If we bear these fruits in our lives, our lives – and those of the people we touch – will be better than any laws or rules could make them.

Therefore, let us be free in Christ, liberated from all enslavements, and freely bestow on others the blessings the Holy Spirit can fill us with

The Rev. Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church
Monmouth Junction, NJ