Excerpts from: Free For All
7/2/2006
Galatians 5:1, 13-25     

We Americans love to celebrate Independence Day, to display our freedom before the whole world. Thomas Jefferson's bold assertion that each individual has an "inalienable right" to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" still sounds sweet to our freedom-loving ears. Despite the imperfections and foibles of our political system, we still enjoy tremendous economic freedom, political freedom, religious freedom, personal freedom and communal freedom. But we must be careful that we don't define the freedoms we enjoy so much solely as "freedom from" -- forgetting that the real test of freedom's value is how we use our "freedom to."

Paul's caution to the Galatians in this morning's epistle text likewise reminds us that sometimes our greatest liberation can be found in our commitments; in our freedoms to. There is our freedom to gather together for the benefit of others, our freedom to love and serve each other and our freedom to express our feelings, concerns, hopes and aspirations for our community, neighbors and friends. Remember that the same philosophers and statesmen who boldly announced this country's "Declaration of Independence" were also the ones who worked long and hard to craft our Constitution -- a document that sculpts our freedom along the prescribed guidelines and responsibilities necessary to make freedom work -- our freedom to govern, to serve, to defend, to protect, to honor and to be loyal.

The Fourth of July is a good time to celebrate the paradox at the center of the Christian faith: We are most free when we are most bonded . Through Jesus Christ's supreme example of freedom in service, we all become the most free when we bind ourselves to Christ. That is why Jesus has been called "omnipotence in bonds." He freely divested himself of his divinity so that he could make the ultimate sacrifice for our sake and for our freedom. Not only are we most free when we are bonded to Christ, but we are free when we are bonded by Christ to others.

We must take care not to confuse this freely offered liberty for license . The long list of what Paul calls in Galatians "works of flesh" is what results when we let our freedom to ... become freedom from.

In the flesh:

Freedom to love becomes ... fornication.
Freedom to worship becomes ... idolatry.
Freedom to serve becomes ... factions.
Freedom to inquire becomes ... enmity.
Freedom to discuss becomes ... quarrels.
Freedom to disagree becomes ... dissension.
Freedom to thrive becomes ... envy.

The political and personal freedoms we celebrate every Independence Day always remind us that with freedom comes responsibility. For our freedom to "work" we must be good citizens -- we must vote, pay taxes, obey the laws, respect property, be loyal and keep the peace.

The freedom we enjoy every day of our lives as Christians demands of us only two things -- faithfulness and love . Despite the list of fleshly "works" versus spiritual "fruits" Paul enumerates, he takes care to preface these itemizations with a single reminder: " For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself " (Galatians 5:14).

When Thomas Jefferson listed the "pursuit of happiness" as one of humanity's "inalienable rights," perhaps he should have called it more accurately an "unattainable reach." Christ's mandate of freedom through service reveals that the only way to achieve happiness is to love and serve others.

Pursuing happiness, focusing solely on the self and its personal pleasures, will never bring genuine joy or the fulfilling happiness of peace. When we pursue happiness for the self, it is like looking for the ending point of a rainbow -- as soon as you think you've reached its touch-down point, your perspective changes, and the rainbow's end has moved again.

On the contrary, when we live as Paul describes in the 22 v. "God's way-we see the freedom to-at work. God brings gifts into our lives: things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

Loving ourselves was not the goal Jesus had in mind for us when he freely gave his life for our salvation. We can't hold out a hand to our neighbor when our arms are wrapped around ourselves. The love Christ calls us to is agape love, a sacrificial love bonded to Christ, and therefore cannot be self-directed. Only when offering ourselves in sacrificial service for others will we run headlong into the "happiness" we thought we had to pursue. The movement of the Christian life is from self-centeredness to centeredness in self to centeredness in God.

Try this test . When do you feel better about yourself? Do you feel better about yourself after a long, admittedly restful afternoon as a "couch potato" watching football games or after a long, admittedly exhausting afternoon coaching a Little League game? Do you feel better about yourself after whipping up one of your favorite desserts in the kitchen or after delivering it to a shut-in member of your church? Do you feel better about yourself after a special "night on the town" or after an evening ladling out soup at a homeless shelter?

G.K Chesterton, found himself listening to one of those infamous "self-made men" tell the story of how he became a "self-made man" and all of his achievements. After his presentation was over, he remarked to Chesterton, "What did you think of my story?" To which Chesterton replied, "My dear man, you have just relieved Almighty God of an enormous responsibility."

He then goes on to observe: "Self-made persons are a truly powerful argument against the use of unskilled labor. Self-serving is an oxymoron! We are neither human enough, nor divine enough, to serve ourselves, and in the end, if that is what we use our gifts for, we will come up empty"
A nine-year-old girl observed a friend at school shivering in the play yard during an especially cruel cold snap. Realizing that her friend didn't have the money to spend on a warmer coat, this little girl promptly promised to buy a coat for her. But when the little girl showed up at the local Goodwill outlet to make her purchase, she was surprised that the cost was more than she had anticipated. Nevertheless, she was determined to keep her word to her friend even though the coat ended up costing her every single coin she had saved up in her piggy bank.

This splurge of her carefully saved funds caught her parents by surprise and caused them some concern. But when they questioned the wisdom of their daughter's actions, she defended herself by simply stating, "But I promised her , and she needed it!"

Her parents were silenced and impressed by their daughter's free spirit with her money which had been driven by her bonded, sacrificial love for her friend, her "neighbor."

In the words of the great George Matheson poem, "Make Me a Captive, Lord, and Then I Shall Be Free."

In v.16 Paul's counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness.