Freedom

David Orendorff · Galatians 5:1, 13-15 · July 1, 2007

The fourth of July is coming and with it we remember that brothers, sisters, parents and grandparents have suffered and died that we might have "freedom".  Generally, as Webster’s indicates in its first definition we define freedom as a lack of confinement or restraint. 1 Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 1989  Complete freedom would be to live in a country in which there are no laws.  You may drive as fast as you like.  You may take whatever you desire without having to pay for it.  You choose where to live, what to eat, when to go to work and when to play, who to date or marry or divorce.

In such a state of freedom you are the slave to no law, you are restrained by no force and no fear.  Regardless of what you do, there are no prisons. It sounds like true freedom, but in truth it would be a hellish anarchy.

And then there is Bob who sought freedom from the problems of his life with a geographical cure.  "Unfortunately", Bob says, "When I got to a new town, Bob still lived with me."  No matter what town Bob chose as home, Bob lived there and so Bob's problems lived there also.  We may escape from the law, but we cannot escape from ourselves.

Another friend of mine moves from woman to woman in the same way Bob changed towns, always taking himself with himself and then wondering why every relationship ends up the same.  I know some who seek freedom in a change of jobs and too soon discover the same old problems haunt them in each new job.

Most us of us, and I include myself in this, at sometime in our lives have considered solving our problems, finding our freedom, by changing something outwardly, only to discover that we are slaves none the less. 

I am the me I am
I jump the fence
  and run for cover
I started for to pick a raspberry
  but then I got caught by guilt
  and I was shot by arrogance
  and my lover found me…compromised.
Oh, how I would hide away
And so save the world. 2 I wrote this for this sermon.

I am not saying that sometimes in order to be free, to escape confinement and restraint that we don't change towns, change friends or change jobs.  I am saying that none of these external changes will set us free or solve the inner problems of our lives.  Changing our external existence cannot in itself make us free. But this I know also, when we are free inwardly then no external slavery can truly bind us.

Paul offers a definition of freedom that sets us free from not only the law, but from ourselves.  Paul saw that the greatest threats to our freedom come from within us; that it is things inside us that most enslave us. And as Paul notes, the things that bind us, things Paul calls the “flesh,” lead us to fear.  Paul names the results of a fear based life to be the "works of the flesh" such as fornication, impurity, lying, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like." 3 Galatians 5:19-21 It is a life enslaved to the flesh. 

But, Paul taught the Galatians (and lived) that when they live from the forgiveness of Jesus and the grace of God they are set free from outward and inward restraints.  They are free from their past failures and free to do whatever they truly wanted to do.  In Christ they were set free to enjoy the fruits of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 4 Galatians 5:22-23

Paul knows this because he had been a faithful slave to the law which led him to persecute Christians and Gentiles but was then set free by Christ.  Paul spent considerable time in prison and was free by Christ even there.  Paul writes that having true freedom is "having the faith Jesus had." 5 I am indebted to David J. Lull, The Spirit in Galatia (Scholar's Press: Chico, CA) 1980 and Hans Dieter Betz, Galatians (Fortress Press: Philadelphia) 1979 for this understanding. Paul radically trusts God with the whole of his life and death in the same way Jesus trusted God.  Paul calls God "Abba", daddy and mommy, just as Jesus called God "Abba".

Olin Stockwell writes of this freedom.  Stockwell was a Methodist missionary in China at the opening of the communist revolution.  He was imprisoned for two years by the People's Government of China.  For two years he had no apparent freedom. 

One day Stockwell summed up his feelings in this little poem:

They give you shots for cholera
And typhus from Manchuria
But there is no cure,
You just have to endure
The pain of claustrophobia. 6 ibid., 82.

For a full year Olin Stockwell lived in solitary confinement.  He didn't know what was happening to the world or to his family.  Yet though they had imprisoned his body, they had not imprisoned his soul.  In Christ he was free.  He spent his time praying for his family, his church and his captors. He wrote of his faith and freedom in the margins of a book of poetry, two bad novels and a New Testament.  These writings miraculously escaped notice and became his book "With God in Red China".

Stockwell wrote:

I can assure you that nothing became more real to me in prison than the certainty I was not alone.  Day after day when I should have been planning suicide or going crazy with loneliness, I would feel the sustaining power of God.  Talks, poetry, and articles flowed from my pen [over 500,000 words] as God led me step by step over those months.  What was true of me was true of the others.  The Catholic, Father Petain, kept his hours of prayer and song, even though he did not have his prayer book with him, and his pleasant, laughing face each day on the exercise court testified to his inner strength.  The same was true of Dr. Stewart Allen...You cannot isolate a Christian. 7 ibid.

When we know that we are not alone, that God is with us, has forgiven us our failures and gives us power to do good then no prison of stone, and no chains of the heart, can contain us.

Paul invites the Galatians to a freedom that will truly set them free.  Paul invites us to this same freedom by an unconditionally surrender of ourselves to God.

It is a paradox.  We want freedom in our lives and Paul says freedom only comes when we make ourselves servants of God.  We want safety in our lives and Paul says we are safe only when we trust not ourselves or any other, but God alone.  We want to assert our will in life and Paul says that we are best served when our will is given to God's will and we pray with sincerity, "Thy will be done."

As we celebrate the 4^th of July, I am grateful for this nation and its many rights and privileges.  I thank those who brought and have kept the freedom I enjoy.  But I also remember that it is not this country, its constitution, its laws or its martyrs that truly set me free.  It is God who makes freedom and only a paradoxical surrender to God will bring the fruits of the spirit, which are the true reasons to be free.  As Paul writes:

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.  For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Brothers and sisters, Jesus offers us freedom. Be grateful to God for your life, accept the forgiveness and power God offers in Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and surrender your life, its hopes and fears, to the mercy of God and to a life of servant love and this will be your freedom.

Amen and Shalom.