The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost - June 30

For Freedom, Christ Has Set Us Free

Galatians 5:1, 13-25 
Luke 9:51-62 

Now that we are in the long summer season of green ordinary time, the propers for each Sunday are actually keyed to the regular calendar, rather than the church calendar. So regardless of which Sunday after Pentecost it may be, the Scripture readings and collect we are using today are those appointed for the Sunday closest to June 29. Which is to say that every third year, when we are in lectionary year C, we get Paul’s proclamation about freedom on the Sunday before July fourth. It is interesting to explore Paul’s words within the context of this time when we celebrate our freedom as citizens of this nation.

 This nation’s freedom was born, of course, through the American Revolution. At that time the people living in this land were eager to gain freedom from British rule. Freedom from the oppression of their foreign overlord. Freedom from. Freedom in this sense is an escape from something binding or oppressive. But others have pointed out that true freedom is more than just freedom from. Its purpose is more than just escape. Its purpose is to create opportunity for a new future. Freedom for. Freedom for growth. Freedom for self-determination. The early leaders of our country understood this two-stage quality of freedom. The Declaration of Independence talks a lot about freedom from. Freedom from British domination and rule. But think about, would you really want to live in a country where the Declaration of Independence was the only statement of identity and purpose? Where all we are as a people is “not British?” That is an adolescent or immature sort of freedom. One which seeks to be free of all control, but lacks any sort of purpose.

But the Constitution takes the next step, into a more mature freedom. Freedom for. “We the people of the United States of American, in order to form a more perfect union…”

Freedom. Not just freedom from bondage, although that is certainly a good thing and an essential first step. But also freedom for. Freedom for a future with the opportunity to become something more. For freedom, Christ has set us free. Paul makes it clear that our freedom as Christians is not just an adolescent freedom from the requirements of the law so that we may pursue all sorts of self-indulgence. It is a freedom for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ.

One way to look at today’s Gospel passage is within the context of freedom. This is one of those so-called “difficult sayings” of Jesus. Jesus’ words appear harsh. To people who want to follow him he says, “No, you cannot say goodbye to your family; no, you cannot bury your father no, you cannot first bring in the crops.” I am on my way, Jesus says, follow me. Come or stay. You can’t do both. It would not hurt us to consider these words, harsh as they are, at face value in our own lives. They are a call to place our commitment to follow Christ as the highest priority in our lives. Something none of us does.

Yet we can also consider Jesus’ words in another light. And from this perspective they are not just insensitive, autocratic commands, they are teachings… teachings about freedom. Jesus is teaching his followers that they are free. Free to follow him. Free to become Christians. Free from the bondage of family and social expectations. In Jesus’ day the family was the core unit of the social structure. Personal and social identity and authority and opportunity (or lack of opportunity) were inextricably bound up with family. The rules and expectations were clear, strict, and very limiting.

In one sense Jesus says to his followers, “If you wish to be my followers you must break these rules.” That’s the harsh reading of his words. But in another sense, Jesus says, “As my followers, you are free to break these rules.” Liberating words. And, Jesus says, you will not loose your identity or worth or status, because your true worth and identity are not granted by society, they are given as a gift by God. You are free to become more than a child of your culture, you are free to become a child of God. You are free to become more than so-and-so’s third son. You are free to become a Christian.

That was a mind-blowing message at the time. That they were free to leave behind the limited and limiting expectations others had of them. Free to become what God created them to be.

It’s a lesson Jesus teaches, at least implicitly, throughout this Gospel passage. When Jesus passes through Samaria, he is shunned… for whatever reason. James and John, who see themselves as Jesus’ right hand men, seek retribution. “Jesus, let us rain down fire upon those Samaritans!” Retribution was the cultural expectation, the law of the land. But Jesus points out that they are free—free from that social obligation. Just think you much our world today would be improved if people knew they were free from the culturally imposed expectation of retribution or retaliation. I think of the conflicts in the Middle East and northern Ireland to the gang warfare among youth on the streets of Chicago to the demand for retaliation in professional sports… baseball, football, hockey. If only people knew they were free from the need to retaliate. As Christians, we are free. As citizens of the kingdom of heaven we are governed by laws of mercy, love and forgiveness. Free to act, not as society expects us to, but as God desires us to. Free to forgive rather than retaliate.

Freedom from the bondage of social rules and expectations. Freedom also perhaps from our self-imposed bondage to material needs. Luke tells us that Jesus is on the road “to Jerusalem.” To walk that path meant giving up “a place to lay his head.” Giving up the basic shelter that even the foxes and birds would have. But was it for Jesus a giving up, or a freedom from, the need for creature comforts? Putting aside, perhaps, the basic need for shelter, think about how we are enslaved by our material needs. I have read that those nuns and monks who live the simplest, most ascetic of lives may begin that way of life with a great sense of struggle and deprivation. But for many of them, at least, it becomes a life of immense freedom, freedom from dependence upon creature comforts. It becomes a life grounded in the awareness that all of our true, deepest needs are richly fulfilled by God. What freedom!

For freedom Christ has set us free. Us. We, too, have been set free. Free from what binds us. Free for a life as Christians, beloved children of God.

 For example: We are free to put aside society’s expectation that our schedules be filled with “meaningful” activities. We are free from the social assumption that our fulfillment as human beings is measured by the fullness of our calendars. Many of the things we do bring enrichment and pleasure, but we need not be enslaved by our calendars because our human fulfillment does not come through out participation in any of these activities, it comes from our membership in the Body of Christ.

We are free to put aside the drive for material stuff as our main goal in life. Not everyone is called to live monastic lives of ascetic poverty, but we are free to put aside material ambition because our treasure lies in the Kingdom of God.

We are free to work for justice and dignity among all people even when that work may be culturally unpopular. We are free to work for the oppressed and marginalized even when that work is derided by our peers. We are free because our status, our citizenship is secure in God’s kingdom. No one can tarnish or diminish our status before God. We are free to live as Christians in the world.

For freedom, Christ as set us free.

The bondage of culture or the freedom to live as Christians. We are free to choose.