Galatians 5: 1, 13-25 (links validated 6/7/22)
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Free Love
Roger Nichols writes about reading an article he came across on the internet called "Why and For What?” It said, “What are we fighting for? “We are fighting for our most valuable possession: our freedom. We are fighting for our land and our skies. We are fighting so that our children will not be slaves of foreign rulers. That is in no way an exaggeration or empty phrase.” Those may sound like reasonable and maybe even lofty goals until you realize that those words were written in Nazi Germany in 1939 to try to justify why German tanks were invading Poland, the act that began World War II in Europe. Once he realized that, Nichols says, “Suddenly, I’m not so impressed by these words about freedom! I mean, if even Nazis could write that they were fighting for freedom — yikes! I suddenly understand that when someone starts talking about freedom, I better try to understand what they mean.”Freedom and Patience
Three minutes had elapsed since I had taken my seat at the counter. Waitresses passed me by; two cooks and a busboy took no notice of my presence. My ego was soothed only because the truck driver seated next to me was ignored as well. “Maybe this counter is off limits,” I said to him. “Maybe they are short of help,” he responded. “Maybe they don’t want our business,” I said. “Maybe they are taking care of those at the tables,” was his reply. The hands on the clock continued to move. “Maybe they don’t like us,” I insisted. “The air conditioning feels so good, I don’t mind waiting,” he said. At this point a harried waitress stopped to tell us that the water had been cut off, and the dishwasher was not functioning. My nameless compatriot smiled and thanked the waitress and left. I did not like him. Three times I had sought his support for my obnoxious attitude, but he had let me down. Only later did I realize that he had chosen to practice what I preach...
Illustrated Resources from 2016 to 2021
Sermon Starters (Proper 8C)(2019)
Cornelius Plantinga notes how the themes of freedom and liberty run throughout Stephen Ambrose’s fine book, Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West. He points out that it shows how Virginia planters at the end of the 18th century were expected to live up to a code. They had to be skilled at riding, hiking, and dancing. They were expected to be adept at the small sword, cards, and fiddle playing. (Thomas Jefferson was pretty skillful on his violin.) Undaunted Courage shows that Virginia planters also had long political discussions about liberty, and about the combination of liberty and good order — the two treasures always in tension with each other. In it Ambrose writes, “A Virginia gentleman was expected to be hospitable and generous, courteous in his relations with his peers, chivalrous toward women, and kind to his inferiors. There was a high standard of politeness; . . . The unpardonable sins were lying and meanness of spirit.” Unfortunately, all of these lofty character virtues applied only to and between white men and women...Kris Kristofferson and the Apostle Paul Taught Me Freedom Matters More Than Nostalgia
In the beginning of the fifth chapter of Galatians, Paul makes a simple and yet profound statement that resonates across the centuries of time; to the Israelites and to us, to anyone addicted to back to Egypt nostalgia. Here’s what Paul says, “For freedom Christ set us free.” Those are six words you need to remember. For freedom, Christ set us free. For the sake of freedom itself, Christ releases us from the pitifully small, confined spaces of back to Egypt nostalgia which we hold on to and claim we won’t let go of-until we taste forgiveness, we savor grace, and see the dramatic possibilities of a life drenched in grace filled freedom.Freedom Now
All photographs are the remainder of a story, like shells or seaweed left on a beach. This week I saw a picture that struck me and I can’t escape. It was a little girl, standing on top of a toilet. The girl’s mother explained she thought it was cute and funny so she snapped the shot and posted it to Facebook. Then she discovered what was going on: the girl was practicing for what to do if there was a shooter in her school. She’d been taught this drill in response to the fear of violence. So, far from cute it was an emblem of our slavery to violence.Proper 8C (2016)
C.S. Lewis regularly looked for ways to keep Christians from confusing the fruit of their salvation with the root of grace that alone makes the Christian life possible. One of his better known such examples involves the 6-year-old little boy who comes to his father and says “Daddy, can I have $5 to buy you a present?” The father obliges the child and pulls a $5 bill out of his pocket. Later the child comes back to the father to give him the gift he bought. The father is, of course, thrilled with the gift and thanks and praises and kisses the child for his thoughtfulness and his generosity. But, Lewis notes, only a fool would conclude the father came out $5 ahead on the deal. We don’t bring to God anything he did not already give to us. But he is as thrilled as he can be when we bring to him the gifts of our spiritual fruit. And as loving children, it thrills us to offer these and to receive our Father’s beaming love over and over again.Holy Commitment
Viktor Frankl, in The Doctor and the Soul, wrote of the stakes involved when we face our true liberty: As soon as we lend our minds to the essence of human responsibility, we cannot forbear to shudder: there is something fearful about human responsibility. But at the same time something glorious. ... It is glorious to know that the future of the things and the people around us is dependent—even if only to a tiny extent—upon our decision at any given moment. What we actualize by that decision, what we thereby bring into the word, is saved; we have conferred reality upon it and preserved it from passing.”...Live as Free People
Keith Parkins offers an extraordinary example of what must have been a Holy Spirit-guided moment that happened in South Africa in the days following the release of Nelson Mandela and the ending of the governmentally-sanctioned discrimination of Apartheid. He writes: “As Apartheid drew to an end in South Africa and Mandela was released from Robben Island. Mandela could have called upon the Blacks to rise up and seek vengeance on the Whites. He did not, he showed grace, (he invited his jailer to stand on the platform with him when he was sworn in as president;) he appointed Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu to head what was called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. “There was an understandable desire for justice, retribution, [but] instead the path of forgiveness and reconciliation was chosen. The rules were simple: the perpetrators had to tell the truth, the whole truth, and their victims were given the opportunity to forgive. “Many of the atrocities were truly horrific. A policeman called van de Broek told of how he and his fellow officers shot an 18-year-old youth, then burnt the body. “Eight years later they went back, took the father, and forced his wife to watch as he was incinerated. She was in court to hear this confession and was asked by the judge what she wanted. She said she wanted van de Broek to go to the place where they burned her husband’s body and gather up the dust so she could give him a decent burial, van de Broek agreed. “She then added a further request, ‘Mr. van de Broek took all my family away from me, and I still have a lot of love to give. Twice a month, I would like for him to come to the ghetto and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him. And I would like Mr. van de Broek to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I forgive him too. I would like to embrace him so he can know my forgiveness is real.’ “Spontaneously, some in the courtroom began singing Amazing Grace as the elderly woman made her way to the witness stand, but van de Broek did not hear the hymn, [because] he had fainted, overwhelmed.”...Who Am I to Judge?
How often, for instance, do we hear this criticism: if God is all-good, all-loving, and all-merciful, how can God condemn someone to hell for all eternity? A valid question, though not a particularly reflective one. Why? Because God judges no one; God punishes no one. God condemns no one to hell. We do these things to ourselves: we judge ourselves, we punish ourselves, and we put ourselves in various forms of hell whenever we do choose not to live in the light, the truth, and inside God’s Spirit. And that judgment is self-inflicted, that punishment is self-inflicted, and those fires of hell are self-inflicted. There are a number of lessons in this. First, as we have just seen, the fact that God judges no one, helps clarify our theodicy. That is, it helps deflate all those misunderstandings surrounding God’s mercy and the accusation that an all-merciful God could condemn someone to eternal hellfire. Beyond this, it is a strong challenge to us to be less judgmental in our lives, to let the wheat and the darnel sort themselves out over time, to let light itself judge darkness, to let truth itself judge falsehood, and to, like Pope Francis, be less quick to offer judgments in God’s name and more prone to say: “Who am I to judge?”.
Illustrated Resources from the Archives
Fully Free
Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence. Their convictions resulted in untold sufferings for themselves and their families. Of the men, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died, and had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war. Carter Braxton, of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died a pauper. At the battle of Yorktown, the British General Cornwallis had taken Thomas Nelson's home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on the Nelson home. The house was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. Over a year he lived in forest and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion. Was it worth it, such death in the name of an idea, an ideal of a free people?...Bearing the Fruits of the Spirit
("When I was much younger, I was privileged to know and work with Martin Luther King, Jr...")Freedom!
Bahram Dehquani-Tafti was the son of Hassan. And Hassan was the bishop of the Episcopal Church in Iran. As the Islamic Revolution took hold of that country, Hassan’s family was forced to flee. But on May 6, 1980, before they could escape to Lebanon, Bahram, who was publicly known to be a Christian, was stopped by members of the Revolutionary Guard, dragged from his car and shot to death. In response to his son’s death his father, Hassan, the bishop, the disciple of Jesus wrote a prayer. Please listen closely to the words of Hassan’s prayer. “O God, we remember not only our son but also his murderers – not because they killed him in the prime of his youth and made our hearts bleed and our tears flow – but because through their crime we now follow your footsteps more closely in the way of sacrifice. The terrible fire of this calamity burns up all selfishness and possessiveness in us. Its flame reveals the depth of depravity, meanness and suspicion – the dimension of hatred and the measure of sinfulness in human nature. It makes obvious as never before our need to trust in God’s love as shown in the cross of Jesus and his resurrection – love that makes us free from hate toward our persecutors – love that brings patience and greatness of heart – love that more than ever deepens our trust in God’s final victory and his eternal designs for the church and for the world – love that teaches us how to prepare ourselves to face our own day of death. O God, our son Bahram’s blood has multiplied the fruit of the Spirit in the soil of our souls. So when his murderers stand before you on the day of judgment, remember the fruit of the Spirit by which they have enriched our lives – and forgive.”...Rewriting The Code: Spirit-Shaped Patience
("In his book The Strengths Of A Christian, Robert Roberts tells us about an encounter he had with his son, Pookey. Pookey was 4 - and had four year old determined mind. It was raining. Roberts had to be somewhere to run an errand in the next 45 minutes. Pookey decided he HAD to come along. Period...")Golf and the Spirit
Now I am going to have to ask you to trust me on this declaration. I learned more about spirituality on this course than the numerous courses I have taken on prayer. A couple of those learnings about spirituality and golf. First, golf teaches humility. Scott Peck says that there is another word for what golfers go through that is even stronger than humiliation—it is mortification. That is a word derived from mors, Latin for ‘death’, as is the term mortician for ‘undertaker.’ To be mortified is to feel so humiliated that you would rather bury yourself deep in the nearest sand trap than to ever show your face on a golf course again...Proper 8C (2013)
("The beautiful orchards that grace the landscape of western and northern Michigan help me think about the fruit of the Spirit. In the dead of winter, there is no sign of fruit, though those are most assuredly fruit trees. In the spring, there is still no actual fruit, but there are now little buds and then lovely blossoms...")The Strange Case of the Spirit and the Flesh
("In 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde...")Slow Food Diet
The fruit of the Spirit, though, is slow food, not fast food; the fruits take time to cultivate and develop. We are called to slowly cultivate and nurture spiritual virtues. These fruits won’t sprout up quickly, and they won’t be ripe and ready overnight. In fact, converting to a fruit-full lifestyle means that we’ve taken over what Carlo Petrini of the Slow Food Movement originating in Italy calls “the rhythms of our life.”...Free at Last!
("The great church historian Roland Bainton wrote a classic book called The Travail of Religious Liberty.")Quitting Smoking
How faith helped one person kick the habit. Submitted by Ron Springer. (Comments to Ron at ronspringer@juno.com.)The Freedom Trail
("There was a "Freedom Trail" for African Americans. It was also called the "Underground Railroad""...)