Sermon: Christian American Freedom (June 29, 2014)

Pentecost 3A

Romans 6:12-23

            I got a call this week from the Barna Research Group. Barna is a group that does research on the Church and her ministry, following trends in various areas of ministry and how it intersects with culture. This was a call asking if I, as a clergy person, would participate in a survey about religious liberty in America. The questions ranged from what I see as my role as a clergy person regarding

religious freedom, to how I see various hot button issues as affecting religious liberty, to where I think my congregation stands on those issues, to how all this affects my preaching… It was quite comprehensive. Of course it is difficult to participate in a survey like this, because you have to offer yes or no answers to questions about a topic that is so very gray. The very first question was, “Would you say we are living in a post-Christian world?” Unwilling to answer yes or no, I started asking questions. “Well what do you mean by post-Christian? Do you mean post-Christiandom? Because in that case, yes. But if you’re asking if I still think that Christian values, or at least what people call Christian values, shape our government and the behaviors of our citizens, well then that’s a different question.” He paused, and simply repeated the question as before. And that’s sort of how the whole survey went!

            Maybe the reason I struggled so much with the black-and-white-ness of the survey is that “freedom” means so many different things to me, and maybe, to all of us. I think the survey was coming from the direction of the religious freedom articulated in the First Amendment of our Constitution – an oft-cited but also frequently misunderstood and even misused ideal. Generally in America, we value our freedom pretty deeply – especially at this time of year, as we prepare to celebrate those freedoms on Independence Day this Friday. For Americans, freedom comes to be something meaning, “We can do what we want, say what we want, believe what we want, and we don’t need to be obedient to anyone or anything we don’t want to.” And we prickle at anything that threatens what we perceive as our freedom.

            Of course, this can have disastrous consequences when we let it go to our heads. Think of the very public political figures who have been brought down by their power and perceived ability to do whatever they want and get away with it, whether that is sexual misconduct, or lying, or causing any number of other scandals. While this is extreme, I think all of us are susceptible to letting our perceived freedom go to our heads, especially when it causes us to focus primarily on ourselves, and not on the needs of others.

            So then there is Christian freedom, and that is something altogether different. It’s what Paul talks about in our second lesson today – though I know that may not have been entirely clear. Paul’s letter to the Romans, while important and wonderful, is not really light, easy summer reading! So let’s break it down. Paul writes, “Do not let sin have dominion over your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions…” In other words, don’t just do whatever you want, whenever and however you want, just because that is what you want. Don’t be slaves to your various passions. Because, he goes on, “You have been set free from sin, having instead become slaves of righteousness.”

But wait – I thought we were talking about Christian freedom here? What is this “slaves of righteousness” business? How can you be free but still be a slave to anything? Ah, you see there’s the rub. Paul’s point is that we are never entirely free; we are always slaves to something. Don’t believe me? How many of you feel naked if you don’t have your cell phone within reach? How many of you feel “off” all day if you don’t practice some version of your morning routine? How many of you love a certain food so much that you cannot curb the craving? How many of you care a little more about money than you probably really ought to?

You see, it’s not a matter of whether you will follow a certain master, but rather, which master you will follow. And Paul urges, when we are deciding which master to be a slave to, choose to be a slave to righteousness. Goodness. Service. Love.

As Michael and I near our one year anniversary, I have been reading a lot of essays and articles about “how to make your marriage last.” It’s never too early, I figure! One included the wonderful piece of advice to always outdo each other in showing kindness. That’s actually pretty similar to what Paul says at the end of his letter to the Romans (which, incidentally, was the passage read at our wedding). He says: “Love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.” It’s a good rule to live by, a competition I can get on board with (who can be the most genuinely kind, more of the time?) – but it is, still, a rule, a mantra to which we need be obedient. It is one we can choose to follow, but it is, no matter how you spin it, something to which to be obedient.

So there is freedom here. There is the freedom to choose righteousness and loving service over

things that would cause destruction – either of ourselves or of the people and the world around us. What we need, then, is the power to choose, with that freedom, obedience to righteousness, rather than obedience to our earthly whims and desires. The source of this power, of course, is the promise inherent in the resurrection – that our sins were nailed to that cross and were buried and forgiven and no longer hold us captive thanks to the work of God through Jesus Christ.

But that’s a lot of church talk that doesn’t always make sense to us on a day-to-day basis. So we have these other ways that this power is apparent to us.

First of all, there is our baptism. We will have the chance to witness this wonderful event in a moment: it is the moment when God reaches down to bless a child, claim her as His own, and forgive her all her sins not because of what she has done or achieved, but because of who God is, and what God has done. The Holy Spirit will come into her and stay there, and she will be sealed with the cross of Christ and the promise of forgiveness forever. So when it comes time to make a decision to obey righteousness or to obey sinful desires, we can remember, “Hey, I’m baptized! God thinks I’m good enough to love and claim as His own, so I’m going to do what I can to live into that identity and that hope.”

Second, we have the Christian community. When Cecelia is baptized today, a part of the rite is that I will ask the congregation if they will pray for her and uphold her in her Christian life. That is a promise we make not only to the newly baptized, but to every member of the Christian community – indeed to every neighbor in need of love. Within the Christian community, we do that through prayer, through hearing and digesting the Word of God, through practicing the sacraments together, and through every act of service, whether that is as grand as building someone a house, or as small as giving someone a glass of water.

And finally, we have prayer in the Holy Spirit. A couple weeks ago we celebrated Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit came down like a rush of violent wind and rested on the church. Through that Holy Spirit, we pray: for ourselves, for each other, through difficult decisions, through challenges and joys, through all things in our lives as individuals and together. In the Holy Spirit, we are given the freedom to pray, and that is what we do.

The freedom to choose obedience to righteousness is still not always easy, brothers and sisters in Christ. The power of the many other things that would demand our allegiance and attention can certainly get the better of us. But thanks be to God that we do have one another, and the promise of a God who is Emmanuel, God with us, in every decision that we make.

            Let us prayer… Boundless God, you have given us a most wonderful gift in our freedom from sin and death, and our freedom for the service of others. Be with us in the many decisions we face every day, that we would always choose what is right. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.