This
4th of July weekend we think about our nation
and what it stands for.
We
like to think America stands for freedom.
When
most of the world looks at us,
they say we are a place of freedom
and opportunity
– which
is another way of saying freedom.
We
may think of freedom as a political value.
And
it is.
But
it is also a Biblical value.
Judaism
was born in the Exodus,
in God’s liberation of an enslaved and
oppressed people.
The
Passover celebrates God as the first Great Emancipator.
Christians
take that story to the spiritual level.
We
call Holy Communion our Passover,
celebrating Christ’s liberating us
from the power of sin and
death.
So
I invite you to think this morning
about freedom in Christ.
Jesus
said, “The truth shall set you free.”
And
he said, “I am the truth.”
Jesus
came to set us free.
Paul
said, “For freedom, Christ has set us free.”
Elsewhere
he said, “If the Lord has set us free,
then we shall be free indeed.”
When
a nation declares its independence
or when the law protects our liberty,
we understand that is about freedom.
But
what does it mean to say
Jesus has set us free?
How
does that work?
It works in a deeper and better way
than
any government or political movement
ever could.
I
am all for political freedom,
but without spiritual freedom,
it doesn’t do us very much
good.
Spiritual
freedom is what makes political freedom possible.
Without
spiritual freedom,
political freedom is impossible to
maintain.
Political
freedom just protects our right to do
whatever our passions or inclinations
dictate.
The
problem with that is:
our passions and our inclinations
don’t always line up with our
souls.
In
Romans, Paul says,
“I do not understand my own actions.
I do not do the thing I want,
but I
do the very thing I hate.”
A
young salesmen was peddling books
on the most advanced new agricultural
methods.
He
gave his best sales pitch to an old farmer,
but the farmer was having none of it.
The
exasperated salesmen said,
“Sir this book can show you how to farm
30% better than you are
today.”
The
farmer replied,
“Son, I ain’t farming half as good as I
know how already.”
A
lot of us can relate to that.
We
know better than we act.
I
can’t think how many times,
in both church and family life,
the same people have done the same
things,
to push my buttons in the same
way
over
and over again.
And I have known better than to respond the
way I did,
but I just keep making the same mistake
like Charley Brown trusting Lucy
to hold
that football for a place kick.
Psychologists
call that compulsion.
And
compulsion is the opposite of freedom.
Our
actions are almost never completely free.
There
may be 5 different brands of laundry detergent
for us to choose from.
But
that means 5 companies have competed to see
which one can do a better job of
manipulating our choice.
We
call that the “free market” and it is free – in a sense.
In
what we like to think is the freest country in the world,
we lock up in prisons a higher
percentage of our people
than any other developed nation.
It
takes spiritual freedom to make political freedom work.
And
that’s what Jesus offers.
That’s
what Jesus shows us how to do.
That’s
what the gospel is about.
You
see as long as we think freedom
is about getting our own way in this world,
the part of us in the driver’s seat is our ego.
Now
the ego isn’t evil.
It’s
just easily manipulated.
It
can be manipulated by advertisements,
addictions, natural human squirrel
-iness,
and the power of sin itself.
All
these things latch on the our ego
-- the pitiful part of us that gets batted
back
and forth like a ping pong ball
between
moments of pride and moments of shame.
As
long as we are living by the natural order,
trying to secure our own well-being,
we are not free.
We
are at the mercy of all the powers that can affect
our well-being or bluff us into
thinking they do.
Freedom
does not come when the world lets us go.
It
happens when we let go of the world,
when we say “Come what may, I am the
Lord’s.”
When
we say, rich or poor, sick or well,
in good moods or bad, it’s all ok.
I
am not here to feather my own nest.
I
belong to Jesus.
My
soul belongs to Jesus,
and in him, I will be alright.
Let
me tell you a powerful kind of prayer.
You
place your hand on your heart,
and let all our fears and anxieties
come to mind,
one at a time, and with each one,
you say silently or aloud,
“Even
if – then fill in the blank –
I belong to Jesus and it is well with
my soul.”
“Even
if I lose my job,
I belong to Jesus and it is well with
my soul.”
“Even
if this sickness I have is a terminal cancer,
I belong to Jesus and it is well with
my soul.”
Whatever
is on your heart, let it come
and greet it boldly with that prayer.
It
won’t guarantee you a calm feeling.
You
don’t have to have a calm feeling.
Whether
you are calm or afraid,
it’s all the same.
Even
if you feel anxious,
you belong to Jesus and it is well with your
soul.
He
shed his blood to buy that soul of yours,
to set it free from the powers
that
would dominate you.
“Take
my yoke upon you,” he says,
“for my yoke is easy and my burden is
light. . . .
Take
my yoke upon you . . . .
and you will find rest for your souls.”
I
won’t deceive you about the price.
This
freedom costs us everything.
But
it gives us more than we had ever dreamed possible.
God
is good, brothers and sisters.
God
is good all the time,
and it is well with our souls
