Let Freedom Ring

Sermon preached at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Birmingham, AL on Sunday, July 8. 

Proper 9, Year B.

Let Freedom Ring.

                I spent most of last week with 4^th and 5^th graders at Camp McDowell for the Elementary II session.  The program that my staff put on was entitled “Let Freedom Ring” in light of our nation’s Independence Day.   The campers considered both the gifts and dangers of freedom. 

After hearing the story of the Prodigal Son, I asked the campers, “If you had the freedom to do whatever you wanted with your parent’s money what would you do?”  Hoping for some really outrageous responses, I promised the campers that none of the information shared would be used against them in any way.

                Most of the kids gave really nice answers—many said they would give the money to the poor, others said they would put it in a savings account, and a few said they would give the money the church.  And finally I got an answer that I could use as a teaching point.  One 11-year-old said, “I would buy a limo, take my friends to Vegas, win a bunch of money, and then give it to the church.”  My response, “that kind of sums it all up.” 

We spent the next few minutes talking about the consequences of misusing freedom.  In particular, we talked about how the misuse of freedom damaged our relationships with others, God, and ourselves.  Glenn Feldman, a parishioner here at All Saints’, helped the kids consider how freedom can be abused in a contemporary adaptation of Adam and Eve—as you might imagine, it was a hit.

We learn in scripture that God responds to humanity’s mistreatment of freedom through the gift of covenant relationships.  The gift of a covenant relationship can be summed up in the collect of the day that we prayed this morning, “O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor.”  God teaches us that these two commandments will set us free from a selfish response to freedom.  But as we know very well, we are not perfect and we often fall short of these commands.

 The good news:  as Christians we believe that Christ perfected this covenant in his flesh and blood, in his life, death, and resurrection.  In Christ, we believe that our heavenly Father is always ready to welcome us back to the community even when we mess up.  As Christians we believe that only in Christ are we too able to live into this type of covenant. 

We learn from the Apostle Paul that if we live according to the desires of our flesh we are dead but if we live a life according to the promises of God in Christ we are alive.  In other words, a life in Christ frees us from the flesh; a life in Christ frees us from the pain of separation from God that happens with the selfish use of freedom. 

The Apostle Paul isn’t saying that we won’t sin anymore or misuse our freedom anymore if we have faith in Christ, rather he is saying that in Christ we are no longer bound to death instead we are bound to the freedom that Christ gives through his life, death, and resurrection.  We are bound to the type of freedom that happens when we hand to God all that burdens us and holds us back from joy.  This is the mystery of faith. 

Every Sunday we proclaim the mystery of faith in the Eucharistic prayer where we are called back into covenant relationship with God and neighbor, when we are called back into the type of freedom that God envisioned for us in creation, a freedom that is experienced when we love God and each other, a freedom where all of creation is celebrated and remembered as beloved children of God.

As you can imagine, trying to get 4^th and 5^th graders to make the connection between freedom and the mystery of faith was no easy task.  If I am honest, making the connection between freedom and the mystery of faith isn’t always easy for me either.  The proclamation of this truth is a difficult assignment.  In the Gospel lesson for today, we learn that even Jesus had a difficult time sharing the truth about God’s freedom.  Not only did the people in today’s lesson not understand Jesus but the crowd flat out rejected his truth claim-“they took offense at him.”

How can we, Christ’s Church, proclaim the power of freedom found in Jesus Christ when so many take offense?  While the south might be somewhat insulated from the declining church, it is no secret that the church is losing numbers in the United States.  How can we make the freedom of Jesus ring?  How is God the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth calling us to respond?  For starters, let’s see how God makes freedom ring.  Keep in mind that there is no magic formula.

In the beginning of creation we know that God gave us a choice.  God gave Adam and Eve the power to choose.  In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the Father gave his sons the power to choose.  God always gives us a choice.  I don’t mean to say that God give us a choice to sin or not sin.  Rather, God gives us a choice to choose life in Christ or life without Christ.  Nonetheless, we are given a choice. 

Our God is not a micromanager.  We have a God who loves us so much that He gave us the freedom to choose.  Our God does not try to manipulate or coerce us rather our God hopes that we choose abundant life in Jesus.

A part of the problem with modern day evangelism is that too much of the time do Christians believe that they can make someone believe, so many Christians think that it is their responsibility to make someone come to faith in Christ.  Not even God has the power to make someone believe because in the beginning God gave humanity the freedom to choose. 

God wants us to experience what it is like to choose, what it is like to find joy in a loving community.  While God doesn’t make us choose, God does help us by showing us what happens when we choose life in God.  God gives us glimpses of what it is like to live free, what it is like to live on earth as in heaven, what it is like to love as Christ loves.  In the Gospels, God reveals these glimpses through stories, through parables.  

Parables do not wrap a neat and tidy bow around answers to our questions.  Instead, parables invite us to experience the joy of discovery as we seek answers to our questions.  Jesus’ parables invite us to live more fully into the mystery and wonder of God and creation.  In short, God calls us into conversation about the beauty of God’s kingdom, into conversation about what the world can and should look like.  This is the way evangelism is meant to happen.

Evangelism calls us into conversation with God and each other about the mystery and wonder of creation as made fully known in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.  Evangelism doesn’t always have to end in the conversion of thousands of people at one moment; it doesn’t always have to end in conversion, period. 

Evangelism can be as simple as living into our prayers; our prayers remind us to love God and neighbor.  Evangelism can be as simple as taking care of your little part of the world-loving your family, loving your co-workers, loving the stranger you see every day at the coffee shop.  The expression of that love may be as modest as sharing a smile or simply asking someone, “How are you?”

When we show others that we care, that we are genuinely interested in them, people open up, they ask questions in return.  Relationships begin.  Conversations about life begin.  Conversations about God and creation begin.  And suddenly making the connection between freedom and the mystery of faith isn’t so difficult.  Suddenly making freedom ring isn’t so difficult.  God’s freedom starts with mutual, loving relationships and those relationships are made known to us through the model of Christ’s relationship as seen clearly in his life, death, and resurrection. 

Take for example the story about the woman at the well in Luke’s Gospel.  Jesus doesn’t judge the woman for not being ritually pure or for being from the wrong side of the tracks.  Jesus doesn’t tell her she is going to hell.  Instead, Jesus takes a genuine interest in her and asks her questions about her life.  Jesus gets to know her and in turn she gets to know the truth about Jesus.

The truth about God’s freedom shouldn’t be that difficult to understand but for some reason it is.  The truth about God’s freedom is as simple as taking genuine interest in someone, as simple as loving your neighbor.  We complicate God’s freedom when we take away the power to choose, when we take away other’s ability to choose.  We complicate God’s freedom when we think that God’s hope for humanity through the risen Christ is too difficult to communicate.  And when we think that others will take offense at the name of Jesus, we sometimes resort to talking around the name of Christ.  The truth of God’s freedom is simple: love God and love your neighbor through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ who perfected God’s covenant in his flesh and blood. 

To be honest some of the most faithful people I know aren’t smart, they never went to seminary, but they get it, they get what it means to love in both word and deed, they get what it means to return to the Lord’s Table for pardon, solace, strength, and renewal in the covenant of God.

Freedom rings when we choose to delight in the goodness of God and creation.

Freedom rings when someone who is lonely or forgotten is remembered.

Freedom rings when conversations about how the world can look take place.

Freedom rings when the mercy of God in Christ is granted to all who return to Christ in faith. Amen.