Tasting the Gruel of Love

Freedom

Dr. Larry Thorson*
July 5, 2009

Galatians 5:13-18

13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

I hope you were free to have a wonderful Fourth of July Celebration yesterday. The Fourth of July, Independence Day, besides being in what may be considered the freest time of year, summer, is all about freedom. We celebrate being free from the control of England and any other people who would try to control us. Freedom is a big thing for us as it should be.

As human beings, American or otherwise, God created humans to be free and even gave us dominion over the world. In fact the first two chapters of the Bible in Genesis are as if God says “Be free! Go for it! Enjoy! I created all this for you.” Yet, ever since that first creation of the world, there has always been a force that tries to take that freedom from us and return us to some form of bondage.

A good example of that is our text today where the apostle Paul wrote to his church in Galatia that they were called to be free. He had to write that because false teachers had moved in who were telling them that in addition to believing in Jesus they also had to legalistically obey their interpretation of the Old Testament laws. If they messed up on even one point like not washing their hands, these teachers told them there were grave consequences. It seems like there is always someone who wants to put us in bondage.

Paul knew what bondage was like because he’d been one of those legalistic type teachers who put people in bondage by enforcing every Jew he met to follow every dot and tittle of the law. Then when he met Jesus in the blinding experience on the road to Damascus he was set free from that theology. But eventually he was thrown in prison several times for preaching Jesus.

One of the big lessons Paul learned about freedom was that to escape from prison didn’t necessarily require a metal key to open the doors of the cell. You could escape from prison even while remaining in jail. The key to freedom was much larger and more powerful than any piece of metal.

When I think of deep, inward, freedom I think of the young family in ancient Rome who was taken out of their home and set before an image of Caesar. A father, mother, young girl and infant baby who refused, even at the threat of the sword, to bow down before that image and burn incense while claiming Caesar as Lord. I think of their imprisonment, their fear in the prison cell, then the long walk into the Coliseum where the blood-thirsty crowds would cheer as the wild animals and beasts were released to destroy them. I think of their courage when they stood before a crowd that thought that the young family was imprisoned as criminals. Little did they know that the family was freer than they could ever be.

Those early Christians didn’t cry out; “Hey, I don’t deserve to be here. I am Roman citizen. I have my rights!” They said, instead, “You can do to us what you will…but while you’re in bondage to your miserable condition, we are free and we are going to God’s Kingdom; the fullness of eternal life.” Their testimony proved the real sense of the term “freedom”; a freedom from idolatry because their spirits were free in Jesus Christ and no one could take that freedom from them.

That’s the meaning of true freedom; escaping emotionally from the things that keep us down and make us less than the free people God created us to be. For us it might be things like statements that you’re no good, that you’re a hypocrite. It might be someone treating you like you’re too old or too washed up. Think of all the guilt trips that keep us up at night. We should have done this… We should have called so and so. We shouldn’t have bought that. If only I had… Many of the cathedrals in Europe and America were built on guilt. Guilt is a form of bondage.

Maybe life feels for you like standing in the gondola attached to a hot air balloon at the San Diego Wild Animal Park that I saw a few years ago. For twelve dollars at that time you could get on the gondola and it would lift you up a number of stories so you could look around. Then it would bring you down. Life for us may be as if we’re trying to lift off with the ropes still tied firmly to the ground. We know we could be free to see and experience so much more if only those ropes could be cut. That would cost more than $12.

Maybe those ropes are not just ropes, maybe they’re vines that are living and growing, ready to take control of your life. My next door neighbor has ivy vines growing on the front and side of his house. They’re beautiful but if they’re left to grow too long and too big his siding will be permanently damaged.

Maybe you have living, growing vines holding you down. Before long, whether we’re the ones who plant them or not, the things of this world, the worries and cares grow over us and soon we’re consumed to the part of being choked. That’s why Paul declares “You were called to freedom!”

Last week I got a call from Donna Regrut that she was in her words, a mess. Her health had deteriorated to the point where she felt trapped in her own body. She has incurable pulmonary fibrosis which ultimately will cause her lungs to no longer pump oxygen through her system and she’ll suffocate. That in addition to her heart starting to fail again.

She has just as many vines holding her down as is possible to hold a person down. When she called me on Tuesday from the hospital in ??? she wanted to know what I thought about hospice and her going on it so she could go home from the hospital and die in the comforts of her home. I told her if she was ready for that I would stand behind her decision. She then made the decision that afternoon to go on hospice and one could almost see the vines that had been holding her down snapping off. Now she was free to prepare to see her savior, Jesus Christ, face to face.

Freedom is a state of mind not a state of condition. It’s not dependent on your health or your finances or your marital status. Freedom is a gift given to us by our Savior, but it’s not something owed to us. I’ve heard people say “Look, I live in a free country and I was born here (as if being born here entitled them to more freedom). “I deserve to be happy and do what I please.” I am owed this.” Too many have a sense of entitlement without seeing the sacrifice freedom takes.

Freedom is a gift that was bought with a sacrifice. National freedom came on the backs of soldiers who left the comforts of home to obtain or maintain it. Spiritual freedom came on the back of Jesus who left all the beauty that is in eternity to come to earth. Jesus, who was true freedom, bound Himself to earth so that those bound to Him could receive His freedom.

Jesus took His life and offered it upon the cross so that in His suffering and death we could be made one with Him. We, who are in bondage to all things, are now joined in His freedom -- the freedom of all eternity. There is nothing, not pulmonary fibrosis, not prostate cancer, not landlord eviction, not the economy, not thoughtless statement, nothing can keep us in bondage because freedom is a state of mind and Jesus died to make our minds free from those bondages.

This morning I’m going to invite you to take a walk of freedom. You may come by your own legs. You may come by wheelchair. For some of you for whom walking down the aisle is too risky or difficult you can come mentally and we’ll come to you. But for all of us regardless of our condition, from the healthiest among us to our shut-ins at home, we can take the walk of freedom to receive the grace of God in Jesus Christ represented by the bread and juice, the body and the blood of our savior.

As you take that walk of faith allow God to cut those vines of worry and anger and fear that are holding you down this morning. By faith break off a piece of bread and dip it in the cup of our Lord and receive the freedom that God called you to.