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Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
July 1, 2007 Sermon by The Rev. Bill Van Oss, Rector
Readings       

The 4th of July is this week – the celebration of Independence Day. We, Americans, love to think that we are free.

This week, we’ll celebrate our freedom by watching fireworks and eating hot dogs and gathering for picnics.

“We’re free” – free from foreign rule, free to govern ourselves – free to establish laws that protect the things we consider our inalienable “rights”. The right to privacy, the freedom to move and assemble, the freedom of speech and, of course, freedom of religion – to name a few.

Often, our celebrated freedom is cast in the attitude that I have the right to do anything and say anything I want, as long as I don’t harm someone else. Free to say and do as I please as long as that doesn’t hurt another – a kind of “unrestrained freedom”.

“We’re free” we proclaim – free from constraints and limitations – free from living selfish, self-centered lives. Now let’s set off some fireworks!

And then along comes St. Paul, writing to the community of the Galatians, and St. Paul says: “for freedom Christ has set us free” – but this is not freedom from constraints and limitations, because Paul knew that the Galatians idea of freedom had become “an opportunity for self-indulgence”. Ahhh, “an opportunity for self-indulgence”. Is that unrestrained freedom?

And Paul lists “the works of the flesh”, that self-indulgent, unrestrained freedom lead to – “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissentions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and things like these.”

“But I’m not hurting anyone,” the Galatians certainly argued. “I should be free to do as I please.”

But Paul says “no” – for now you know Christ, and Christ came to set you free, free from the desires of the flesh, free to enjoy the fruits of the spirit.

The freedom that Christ came to bring consists of this, Paul says. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Freedom does not mean living without constraint or limitations, doing as one pleases as long as it doesn’t appear to hurt someone else.

Freedom is constrained by love, by the command of Christ: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Human freedom is subject to love. Freedom is the servant of love and not pleasure.

A great saint once said: “Love God, love your neighbor and do anything you want.” That’s the freedom for which Christ has set us free. And the fruits of this freedom, the fruits of living as a person of the spirit are the wonderful list Paul spells out: I’ll say it again: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” – hallmarks of “kingdom living.”

We love to think that we are free, but the fact is that even though we live in a country where certain freedoms are protected, we can still be oppressed by the “Yoke of Slavery”.

We can be slaves to consumption, slaves to ambition and power, slaves to greed, anger, grudges, slaves to self-righteousness and superiority, slaves of the flesh, slaves to earthly pleasure: food, sex, alcohol. Unrestrained freedom leads to self-indulgence and selfishness. Freedom restrained by love leads to the fruit of the spirit.

Christ has come to set us free, to break the yoke of slavery, to lead us into the Kingdom of God and new life.

Christ invites us, today, to follow on the journey to the Kingdom, to let go of whatever holds us back and makes us unfree, so that we might know perfect and lasting freedom.

May we say “yes” to Christ’s offer of freedom and new life so that we might truly be free – this 4th of July and beyond.


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