On the Sunday before our national celebration of what we call Independence Day, the lectionary takes us to the Apostle Paul's great exposition on Christian freedom. His Letter to the Galatians is something every Christian would benefit from reading carefully. It had a strong influence on Saint Augustine in the fourth and fifth centuries of the Common Era, and it was fundamental in re-shaping Martin Luther's understanding of the Christian faith in the sixteenth century. It is amazingly relevant today.
A couple of years ago a commercial ran on television making the claim that "Freedom is being able to go wherever you want whenever you want." The focus of the advertising was, of course, an automobile, the quintessential symbol of freedom to most Americans, except those living in New York City and a few other metropolitan areas. Many Americans, as well as many people in other parts of the world, would probably expand the concept of the television commercial I cited to say, "Freedom is being able to do whatever I want whenever I want however I want. And if my freedom interferes with your freedom, get out of my way." If you think that's an exaggeration, just stand at any intersection in the Upper West Side (or elsewhere in the city) and watch what happens as pedestrians cross streets against traffic signals and cars double park at will for hours at a time. You can all give illustrations of the point I'm making. It's difficult for many people to limit their freedom so that the freedom of other people is not seriously impaired.
It would be easy to digress in this sermon and talk about the way our national conduct in world affairs recently mimics New Yorkers crossing the streets. But that would be telling you what you already know—unless, of course, you get all your news from the Fox Network or the New York Post. Suffice it to say that the present administration in Washington seems to believe that freedom in world affairs means doing whatever America wants whenever America wants however America wants. The Apostle Paul points to another way of understanding freedom.
It's helpful to remember that the Apostle Paul was born and raised as a devout Jew. He was an expert in Jewish religion and Jewish law—a Pharisee of the Pharisees as he described himself. He persecuted the first generation of Christians, almost all of whom were also Jewish. After encountering the risen Christ in a dramatic conversion experience, he underwent a transformation, becoming an ardent Christian and traveling all around the Mediterranean Sea establishing new congregations as part of the new faith community.
Very quickly questions arose, "Are these Christians a new development within Judaism, or are they something totally new, neither Jewish nor pagan?" And when that question was answered and it was established that Christianity was a new thing, "Do Gentiles who become Christians have to become Jewish first? Do male Gentiles who become Christians have to become circumcised as well as baptized?" The questions broadened out to become "Are Christians, whether originally Jewish or Gentile, bound to observe the Law, which meant the first five books of Jewish Scripture?" (Some contemporary Christians, the Presbyterian variety, are saying they want certain parts of the law to be binding but not other parts, and the parts they designate should be in the Book of Order and binding on all Presbyterians.)
Paul in founding the congregations in the Roman province of Galatia did not teach them to feel bound by the Law. He told them about God's love revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and he invited them to respond to that love by trusting the God who self-disclosed in Jesus. When he felt the new congregations were doing well, Paul moved on to establish churches in other parts of the Mediterranean world.
After his departure other missionaries went to the churches Paul had started in Galatia and told the people there that Paul had mis-led them, that they needed to be circumcised if they were male, and that they needed to observe the Jewish Law whether they were male or female. Paul learned what those later missionaries had done, and he fired off what we know as his Letter to the Galatians. It is not a dispassionate document. It is fervent; it is polemic, it is emotional. It is also profound and vital to understanding Christian faith.
Paul writes, "You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?" "For all who rely on the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.'" "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us...." "And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Paul's message to the Galatians is a message the Christian Church needs to hear today. "Those who respond to the God who self-disclosed in the love of Christ, those who trust in such a God, are not subject to the demands of obeying the Law, however noble parts of that law may be. They have been set free from slavery to law, and are free to live as inheritors of God's grace."
The climax of Paul's message is this: "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." What does that mean? We can explore the complexities of what it means, but in essence it means we are free as Christians to live by the guidance of God's living Spirit, guided by what we know as Scripture, and accountable to one another, especially to those we designate as guides and leaders. We are not free to do whatever we want whenever we want however we want. We are constrained by the law of love. We always ask the question, "What is the loving thing to do or say—the really loving thing?"
I think it's important to acknowledge that almost all Christians find it easy to revert to some kind of legalism—that is, giving power to something out there as opposed to something in here and avoid the hard work of living by one's own internal authority. The Apostle Paul himself fell into that trap and had his own list of rules and regulations in spite of what he wrote in his Letter to the Galatians. He too was human.
Balancing Christian freedom and personal responsibility requires effort. Asking the question "What is the loving thing to do?" works best when the person asking it has a healthy sense of self-worth and knows how to practice self-care in order to care for others without experiencing resentment or burnout. Many people in this congregation are teachers of love, teachers of love in action through disciplined, often demanding action.
Two pieces of news from this past week speak to me about the freedom to love. The person of the week on ABC Television's evening news was actually two people, a father and son. The son is a young soldier seriously wounded in Iraq. His father fought long and hard to see that his son received the best medical care available in the country in whose army the son had fought. It wasn't an easy fight. It would appear that cost factors play a large role in determining the care available to Iraq war veterans. The son is leaving the hospital to return to his family, still seriously impaired but making progress. The father has expanded his efforts to fight for high quality care for all wounded veterans of the present conflict with cost not being the ultimate determinant of care quality. The love of a parent has become a greater love that seeks the good of a broader community.
The second illustration of the freedom to love was in Friday's New York Times. It is about two young men in Syracuse, NY, who have been friends since childhood. They are now 25 and 26. One is in good health; the other has had thirty operations because of a congenital eye problem. He is going blind in spite of the surgeries. Both men have been long-time Yankee fans.
Alden, the healthy one, went to extraordinary lengths to provide Michael, the challenged one, with a day at Yankee Stadium he will never forget. He persuaded the Yankees to give them seats behind home plate for Friday night's game and to let Michael watch batting practice on the field and meet Don Mattingly in person. He got JetBlue Airways to provide free roundtrip tickets between Syracuse and New York. He got the Peninsula Hotel on Fifth avenue to provide a room for the night. He convinced a uniform company to make a Yankee uniform for Michael with Don Mattingly's number on it. He got the manufacturer of Louisville Sluggers to make a custom baseball bat for Michael. Michael's parents expressed amazement at what Alden had done for their son. The Louisville Slugger manufacturers agreed. They sent a second bat inscribed "In Recognition of Alden J. McGuire, One Awesome Friend."
Freedom to love that way grows out of an awakened heart, not out of dutiful adherence to rules or laws. Freedom to love that way is very different from asserting your rights over and above the rights and needs of others. But people who have known such caring love, as receivers and as givers, know it is truly awesome—and deeply satisfying.
Thanks be to God.