This coming week, our country will celebrate another Fourth of July, complete with flags and bunting, parades and speeches, family gatherings and fireworks.  Many of us will get together with family and friends, watch fireworks, eat hamburgers and hot dogs, and drink lemonade.  And we may even give a passing thought to why we celebrate the Fourth of July in the first place – to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence and celebrate our national freedom. 

Freedom.  We hear a lot about it these days.  Freedom of speech, freedom to bear arms, freedom to choose, freedom of information, freedom of religion, freedom from religion.

And the bible has a lot to say about freedom, too.  We know the familiar story of the ancient Hebrews’ escape from Egyptian bondage and their journey into the freedom of the Promised Land.  Jesus tells us, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” [John 8:32].  And the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” [2 Cor 3:17].

But what is freedom?  To the founders of the United States, it was freedom from the tyranny of government; it was about the people telling the government what to do instead of the other way around.  It was about being free to worship or not worship God as they saw fit.  It was about being free from excessive taxation, about being able to say what was on your mind, without the fear of being thrown in jail.

Freedom.  What does the word mean to you?  How would you define it?  A lack of physical restraint, or exemption from external control, or power to determine your own actions and make your own choices?  Those of us of a certain age will remember Kris Kristofferson’s definition in his song, “Me and Bobby McGee” made famous by Janis Joplin: “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”

Our language has an endless number of synonyms for freedom: emancipation, liberty, independence, autonomy.  And the underlying essence of them all is an attitude of being free to be ourselves, free to do our own thing, free to do anything we please.  But this is not the kind of freedom the gospel envisions for any of us.  This is not Christian freedom. 

In this morning’s scripture lesson, Paul writes, “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another” [Galatians 5:13]. 

 

Paul’s epistle to the Galatians has been called the “Magna Carta of Christian liberty.”  And it is representative of the radical transformation Paul undergoes through the power of Christ.  Before his conversion, Paul was one of the best legalists around, and he tortured those who stepped outside Jewish tradition to follow Christ.  But in Galatians, which he wrote about 15 years after his conversion, Paul blasts the idea that we can earn God’s love. 

 

Early Christianity was considered an off-shoot of Judaism, and when he writes his letter to the Galatians, Paul has been fighting a battle with the religious traditionalists over keeping laws and observing rituals, specifically whether non-Jewish converts have to be circumcised before they can become Christian.  The argument is not that circumcision in itself is wrong, but that any act done to earn God’s love is wrong.

 

Paul stresses in Galatians that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more – or less.  We don’t have to “earn” God’s love by following rules; God gives love freely, graciously, and unconditionally -- no strings attached. 

 

But Paul doesn’t stop there.  “Why did Christ set us free?” he asks.  To make possible a life of orgies, drunkenness, and idolatry?  Of course not.  Christ freed us from worrying about whether we are “doing enough” to please God so that we can have the freedom to live a Spirit-filled life and to serve one another in love.

 

In our culture, the freedom we embrace is usually freedom from – from laws, from responsibilities, from anxieties, from hard work.  But Paul tell us there is no real freedom unless it is also freedom for – freedom for the work Christ calls us to, freedom for living out God’s purposes for our lives.  It is freedom from all the things that enslave us – like power, greed, material possessions, addictions -- and it is freedom for serving others – freely, willingly, voluntarily, just as Christ served us when he freely gave his life for us.

 

It’s a paradox, isn’t it?  That we are only truly free when we love and serve one another.  Through Christ, we are put in right relationship with God, and we are then freed up to be in right relationship with each other.  And when we let God’s Spirit work in us and through us, we will bear the fruit of the Spirit.  The first three are love, joy, and peace – all special qualities we receive from God.  The second three are relational: patience, kindness, generosity.  And the last three are personal qualities: faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  All of these “fruit of the Spirit” are so important to living out what Paul describes in this passage as “the whole law fulfilled in one word” -- Jesus’ commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

 

And so, here’s my question -- what’s keeping from you from being free?  What’s imprisoning you?  Are you enslaved by money and material possessions?  Are you shackled by guilt, handcuffed by hopelessness, jailed by jealousy, walled in by fear, held hostage by hate, incarcerated by addiction?

 

We are called to freedom from selfishness and for sharing God’s love with each other, and we can only be free when we give up the things that truly enslave us and instead seek to be a blessing to others. 

 

Freedom in Christian terms is freedom from the past and freedom for the future.  We can’t change the past, but through Christ, we don’t have to be bound by it, either, because we can be transformed.

 

And for Jesus’ commandment to “love our neighbor as ourselves” to work, we need to first love ourselves.  Loving ourselves doesn’t mean indulging every appetite, fulfilling every desire, yielding to every temptation.  Loving ourselves means being willing to free ourselves from those things which imprison us, so that we can then be free to love and serve others. 

 

Freedom!  It is what we celebrate this coming week.  In this country, we have freedoms that others only dream of -- the freedom to go where we want and do what we want and say what we want.  And in Christ, we have freedom, too.  What are you doing with your freedom?  Are you serving yourself or serving others?  Are you occupied by works of the flesh, or are you yielding fruit of the Spirit? 

 

If you believe in freedom, then seek to be truly free.  Break loose from that which holds you hostage.  Be willing to change, have the courage to be transformed.  Because God will be with you.  And when you have freedom through Christ, then you will be able to live out God’s purpose for your life – to love and serve others.  Amen.

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