The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
July 1, 2007

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

Friends, we are on the eve on another election year. The presidential candidates will be out in force this Fourth of July weekend. And here’s the question that I am asking myself, and would love to hear on the lips of those who want to lead our country: Am I more free than I was four years ago?

I remember not so long ago another Presidential candidate asked a variation on that question and got a lot of mileage out of it, but please, don’t worry, I’m not going to get partisan this morning. In fact, I dare say none of the current crop of candidates will asking my question any time soon.

So let us ask ourselves this question: Are we more free than you were 4 years ago? And by freedom, I don’t mean all the one-dimensional, ideologically slanted, cheap substitutes we throw around when talking about it. Am I more free because I an choose between 37 different kinds of personal deodorants when shopping at WalMart? Am I more free because I can fill up my gas guzzler with $3.00 gasoline, and pour as much emissions into the air as I darn well please? Am I more free because I can burn an American flag without impunity? Am I more free because I can pack a handgun with proper registration? Am I more free because I can supersize my belly on fast food and watch TV to my heart’s content?

We say, ad nauseum, it’s a free country we live in, but I am not talking this morning about all the vacuous connotations we take for freedom in our present culture. I am talking about another kind of freedom. Are you and I free in the way the Psalmist speaks of freedom where “our boundaries enclose a pleasant land and a goodly heritage, where our spirit rejoices and our bodies rest in hope; where we are shown the path of life, and where we experience the fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore.” ? Are you and I free in the way that Jesus spoke about freedom: free like the lilies of the fields, or the birds of the air, where there is no burden in our hearts but to proclaim the love of God? Are we free at the deepest level of our being, free of distraction and anxiety, free to live completely in the moment, free to live in complete possession of our souls?

The great irony to me in today’s readings is that I believe the ancients knew more about this kind of freedom than we do. And they knew it without ever experiencing the kind of political, social, and economic freedom we enjoy.

It is hard for us to imagine what life was like in the Mediterranean world of 2000 years ago. The Roman Empire was as great as the world has ever known, and its hegemony extended to the farthest reaches of the known world. But all of this was achieved through the power of the sword. The vast majority of men and women in that age lived in daily terror, under the weight of Rome’s relentless oppressive rule. Concepts like due process, liberty, equality? It would not be for another 17 centuries before these became the lightning rods for the revolutionary movements of our modern era.

Two milllenia ago, even to talk about freedom was treasonous. And to live as if one were really free was beyond imagining. And yet, these words we have heard from the Apostle Paul belong to that very era, and because they do, they are incendiary.

Faith may have been the kindling from which the early church was built, and love may have been the oil that fueled it, but freedom was the match that ignited the greatest social movement the world has ever known. Think about it. The first Christians did not come from privileged stock, from the elites of the ancient world. Christianity as a religion offered no appeal to those already satisfied with comfort and power and prestige. No, not at all. In fact, if we trace the growth of Christianity in its first few centuries, it flourished among the downtrodden and outcast, the poor and the pariah.

It was here that the Church was born. It was here, in the hearts and minds of the wretched of the earth, that Christianity took root. And why, we may ask? Because it preached freedom. Because its Gospel proclaimed that all were equal in the eyes of God, and all were one in Christ. Because it declared that in Christ there is no longer slave or free, Greek or Gentile, male or female.

For freedom, Christ has set us free, Paul wrote. And his letter was to the first Christians in a little, backwater province in Asia Minor called Galatia. And in that remote place long ago, freedom, like it has in our time and place, had taken on the character of liscentiousness. Everyone had rights but no responsibility. Everyone had freedom but no sense of the welfare and protection of others. Freedom had devolved into a state of doing anything, anything at all, simply because you could. Freedom had become radically individualistic, and so it did not matter who you hurt, or who you harm, or what you do to impair the world and those living in it, on one’s way to success and personal well-being.

In this kind of world, it doesn’t matter how much we consume, or how unilateral we become about setting our own agendas, or how blinded we are to how our actions directly and indirectly infringe on the rights of others, just as long as our personal pursuit life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is unimpeded. That’s what the Galatians thought, anyway.

And here is what Paul tells them: If you practice your freedom in this way, without regard to loving your neighbor as yourself, you have no place in the Kingdom of God. For if you practice freedom individualistically, you are devouring and consuming each other. True freedom, writes Paul, true freedom consists of these things: love, joy, peace, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

And this morning, these are the attributed that come to mind and rise from my heart when I think about freedom. And what about you? What does your heart say? Are you free in this way, are we free in this way? And isn’t this, when all is said and done, isn’t this what our hearts truly desire?

Friends, in a few moments, we will baptize Brennan Avery Sullivan. Brennan is now the ripe old age of eleven, so Brennan, I want to speak to you now as an adult. By your good fortune, you have been born in America, a free country, a place where you can practice your freedom, embrace your freedom, cherish your freedom, honor your freedom. My hope and prayer for your Brennan, on this day of your baptism, is you will never forget these words: For freedom, Christ has set you free. Your freedom is a gift. It is your most important gift. Use your freedom well. Always measure it in your capacity to love others. Always measure it in your capacity to set others free. Never settle for anything less than your freedom. Stand firm, and never submit to any yoke of slavery. We are free, Brennan, Christ has set us free. May you, and all of us, live fully into our freedom, and thereby claim our true destiny and purpose.