Galatians 5:1, 13-25 and Luke 9:51-62
"For
freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again
to a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1)
(Sermon
preached by Rev. Larry A. Langer, First Presbyterian Church, Jasper, IN, June
30, 2013)
The
other evening, Peter and I were going someplace together, and he made some
little innocuous comment, to which I made some smart remark. Peter came back
with the phrase, "you should not judge" or "do not judge me"
or "my friends do not judge each other," or some such thing.
Of
course, I then took the opportunity to turn the conversation from bantering to
a serious consideration of the word "judging" along with the word
"discerning." What I said to Peter simply boil down to the necessity
of being able to discern things that are "right" from things that are
"wrong” and saying so, but not necessarily condemning someone-our friends,
for example-for their choices. At least Peter did not have a come back for that
one! Peter does discern right and wrong things and mostly tries to live
accordingly.
These
considerations, though, bring us to discerning-not judging-what our Scriptures
say to the actions of The United States Supreme Court decisions this past week,
and as we will celebrate Independence Day this coming Thursday.
This
next week we will be repeating the phrase, "One nation under God"
more than usual. This past week, we heard and saw headlines like, "The
Supreme Court "Guts” the Voting Rights Act," and "Court Hands Down
Nuanced Decision" and on the Affirmative Action Program that Colleges and
Universities have had to follow in their student enrollment policies, and the
big one, "Supreme court negates proposition eight in California and guts
the Definition of Marriage Act"
So,
the Supreme Court has issued its opinions that affect all of our lives. Do we
get the option with these opinions to follow them or not? Can we as individual
citizens decide that we disagree with one decision-or just a part of the
decision-and decide to live, that part on and in our own way? Would we agree
that, as citizens, we cannot decide on our own which laws and rulings we are
and are not going to obey? Do not we agree that, as citizens, we have the
obligation to obey the laws of the land, but the privilege to challenge them if
we feel they are unfair, but we may not disobey them, because to do so is a
crime and leads to anarchy and the failure of the country? We are only a
"free people" when we agree upon the bonds that hold us together as a
country. In the great hymn-prayer, "America the Beautiful," we can
sing,
Oh
beautiful for heroes proved.
In
liberating strife,
Who
more than self their country loved
And
mercy more than life!
America!
America! May God thy gold refine.
Till
all success be nobleness,
And
every gain divine.
The line
on-point is, "Who more than self their country loved." I believe more
and more that we are a country that now loves "self" more than
"country," my friends. I am seeing so much selfishness, so much more
seeking one's own "rights” and so much more civil disobedience these days
than ever before.
Whereas
we can remember this week the times our country has pulled together-in world
wars, and pretty much being against the Vietnam War, so much so that we did not
recognize our veterans well at all, to the Nixon Watergate debacle-to the times
now when we are seeing a noose tightening around the neck of freedom. We are a
citizenry that is once again "submitting to a yoke of slavery," to
quote our text for today.
Way
back to when our Scriptures were written, Paul said in Galatians 5:1, “For
freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again
to a yoke of slavery.” As we know, Paul is not speaking here of the personal
servitude, when the Israelites were physically slaves to the Egyptians,
although this image would be in the back of the minds of the ones to whom Paul
was speaking.
But
the slavery to which Paul is speaking is slavery to sin, only Paul uses the
word "self-indulgence," "Do not use your freedom as an
opportunity for self indulgence."
In
today's language we would say, "Do not use your freedom in the United
States to do your own thing… Do not use your freedom for self-indulgence."
Rather, says Paul, “Through love, voluntarily become slaves to one another,
living the Commandments, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself."”
Applied
on our national scale, President Kennedy said it best: "Ask not what your
country can do for you, but rather ask what you can do for your country."
We in this country, indeed in the world, are sorely lacking this principle. We
are asking, yea demanding, that our country "do for us," and in many
ways, we are getting or being given what we are asking for. The noose is
tightening around the neck of freedom.
Let us
be specific. First, the word of God says, "Live by the Spirit." This
is the Holy Spirit. Originally, many if not most of the laws of the land were
God-breathed. Our founding ancestors based our Constitution, how we live, how
we treat each other, how we help each other and what our personal
responsibilities are, on biblical principles, including not being a slave to
the state religion, because they had been slaves to the Church of England. So,
they wrote into the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the freedom to worship
whom and the way we wanted-or not to worship at all.
The
thing is, this principle has been taken to the extreme to say that if one
person objects to an expression of a religion on public property, no expression
of religion on public property can be allowed.
Someone
said to me once, "Well, if we allow Christians to put their symbols on
public property, then we would have to allow the Muslims, Hindus, new agers,
etc., to put up their symbolism, also, and we would not want that! My response?
And what would be wrong with that, under both laws-- the Constitution and the
Christian faith? We are free under the Constitution to pick and choose, and we
are free under God to pick and choose, so what is wrong with putting the
choices out there? I am confident enough in my Christian faith that I am not
worried about being polluted or swayed by any other; besides, my Christian
commandment says to "love my neighbor as I love myself." I try to
live by the Holy Spirit.
Second,
when we live by the Holy Spirit, there are certain things that demonstrate
whether we are not and certain things that demonstrate that we are. Here is
where the tightening noose gets tighter around the neck of freedom. Here is
where folks really have divergent opinions. Here is where people will say,
"You should not judge."
Almost
all of our arguments today are about the issues that the Bible says are not of
the Spirit of God, and are called, "works of the flesh." Not only
this, but of these things. Scripture says they are “obvious."
Paul
writes,
Now
the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, (this means sex outside of
marriage and marriage is defined as the union of one man and one woman-and as
far as Scripture is concerned, this is the way it has been and will be).
Now I
am going to use The Message
translation:
It is
obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the
time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex, a stinking accumulation of mental and
emotional garbage; frenzied, joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods;
magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cut throat competition;
all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied once; a brutal temper; an impotence to love
or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided
pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival;
uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could
go one, says Paul.
Yet,
the freedom we have where we live to do all of these things is part of what we
so value as a country. We consider ourselves free because we can choose to live
these things out. The Supreme Court has said we are free to live these things out;
I do not disagree with these freedoms as a human being.
But
these are not the things that will make me a healthy, wonderful, great person.
These are not the things that, with everybody living these things, will make
our country great. Oh, yes, living these things out will prove how free we have
it to do our own thing, but they will not provide for a strong, healthy future
that can sustain a nation. The noose is almost at a stranglehold now.
Our
only hope to survive the judgment of God upon ourselves and upon this country
is to repent of the works of the flesh and live according to the Holy Spirit.
The Revised Standard Version says, "By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness
and self-control." Paul even boldly and tersely asserts, "There is no
law against such things."
The Message
translation suggests this:
But
what happens when we live God's way? God brings gifts into our lives, much the
same way that fruit appears in an orchard-things like affection for others,
exuberance about life, serenity. We develop the willingness to stick with
things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and conviction that a basic
holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal
commitments, not needing to force our way of life, able to marshal and direct
our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets
in the way.
God
will not be mocked my friends. No amount of law-making or law-breaking will
change God's principles. No amount of independence gained from interpretation
will change God's principles based on dependence gained from Scripture.
I am
not encouraged about where we are faith-wise this Fourth of July. I could say
that I value my freedom so highly in these United States that I can appreciate
what the Supreme Court did and the way things are going--from the secular
perspective. We are free to make our own choices.
But
there are godly principles by which to live if we want to be healthy and strong
in mind, body, and spirit and as a country. The ways we are living are not
these.
What
can we do about it? As much as it depends on us, try to live by the fruits of
the Spirit and quit living by any work of the flesh, before we stand before the
judgment of God. None of us will escape this, either.
Nationally,
oh, my! About all that is left before the noose is fully tightened and the trap
door is sprung is to have an extended national time of repentance and prayer,
based on second Chronicles 7:14, "If my people who are called by my name
will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
(Now paraphrasing) Then my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the
prayer that is made in this country.”
Only
then will the noose loosened from around the neck of the freedoms we so enjoy.
Amen.
