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You Have Been Set FreeJuly 01, 2007 Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
So Paul says Christ has set us free. And not long after he writes those words, he provides a long list of that from which Christians are restricted. Rather odd. Paul says Christ has set us free, and we stand to sing a hymn that begins with the words, “Make me a captive Lord.” One might think that the person responsible for planning worship this week wasn’t especially clear on the point of the day. There is tension in our liturgy this morning, and this tension is something worth paying attention to. I’d like for you to set us aside momentarily those words of Paul (we will return to them intermittently), and consider with me the story told in our gospel lesson. Luke tells us that Jesus has set his sights on Jerusalem. He has determined and made peace with the direction and purpose of his life. Now he is singularly focused on getting to Jerusalem where the events of his life will culminate. He begins the journey from his home region of Galilee, and along the way he wanders into the “foreign” territory of the Samaritans. While on this journey he and his disciples find themselves in need of food and rest so a few disciples are sent ahead in order to prepare for Jesus’ arrival. But when Jesus’ party arrives, they are informed that they will not be received. Depending on the version of scripture you read, the word can be translated as “rejected.” In our version today, the Samaritans do not “receive” Jesus and his followers. The immediate response of James and John, two of Jesus’ principal disciples, is anger and rage at this great insult. “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” In other words, do you want us to teach these Samaritans a lesson? Do you want us to show these Samaritans the price they will pay for not receiving you? Lord, do you want us to exact revenge for this insult? Interestingly, Luke tells us that Jesus reserves his wrath and anger not for the Samaritans who would not receive them, but for his own disciples James and John. He “rebukes” them, Luke tells us. How could they not know at this point that to pray that fire from heaven would come down and consume the Samaritans was the last thing that Jesus would want? How is at this point in their journey, when they are nearing the culminating days of Jesus’ ministry, that they still don’t know that the way of Jesus is not the way of retaliation and vengeance, but the way of peace and reconciliation? How is it possible that at this late date James and John still do not know that what Jesus would desire is that they would respond as God would respond—with mercy and compassion? Those last two are particularly poignant. Instead of raining down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans, what Jesus has freed James and John for is to exercise gentleness and self-control. And yet, at this point they still don’t get it. They still don’t understand that the last thing Jesus would do is exact punishment on those who believe differently than he. I imagine that this response of James and John made Jesus quite nervous or even anxious. You can almost feel his anxiety growing: his final days are approaching and his disciples still don’t get it. So what does Jesus do? He begins to call more disciples. It is as if he thought to himself, “We’ve got to add more people to this mix.” He says to one, “Follow me.” And the response is, “Lord I will follow you wherever you go.” But we don’t know if, in fact, that was ever the case. To still another he says, “Follow me.” And that person replies, “Well Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” To which Jesus replies, “Let the dead bury their own dead. But as for you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.” Still looking for more followers who just might get it, who just might understand his mission, he says to yet another “Follow me.” And again the response is “I will follow you Lord, but first let me go and bid farewell to everyone back home.” At this point, realizing that these excuses are nothing more than stalling tactics, Jesus says “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Now these might seem like harsh responses, but what biblical scholars tell us is that in all likelihood the man who claimed he needed to bury his father was making excuses. We have no indication whatsoever that the man’s father had already died. What he was likely asking for was permission to return home so that he might be present at that future time when his father would die and thus fulfill his obligation as a son. Therefore, his response is more accurately something like, “Sure Jesus, I’ll follow you, but right now I have serious responsibilities. I have people who count on me and depend on me. I’ll follow you, but first let me have some time to fulfill these responsibilities and at a more convenient date I will come and be your faithful servant.” The same was true of the other person Jesus invited. “Of course, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go, but first let me go home and say good-bye to everyone.” In essence, he’s saying, “I still have other priorities.” They knew, they understood that the discipleship Jesus was calling them to, the life Jesus was modeling for them was a difficult life. It would require everything of them, in the same way that when Jesus reaches Jerusalem everything will be required of him. This made the new prospects take pause. Perhaps they weren’t certain they were up to the task. Maybe they were just being polite, saying to Jesus what they thought he wanted to hear. We don’t know. But what we do know was that Jesus required them to be faithful - now - and to follow him - now - but they were unwilling or unable. What a difference that makes. It is no longer an obligation. It’s freedom! I know some of you think “Why is the church always asking me to be generous?” But what Jesus says is that we’re free to be generous. We’re free to be kind to the person who has insulted us. We’re free to be kind and to exercise self-control. Imagine what would happen in your own life, and each of your relationships, if you exercised this freedom. Friends, it was as a radical a message in his day as it is today. Just think about the impact in our own world that people who exercise their freedom to be peaceful and loving and generous and kind could have right here and now. We’ve seen and known well on our own island home what happens when religion and violence mix. It’s toxic. All around the world people are looking to exact revenge, looking to respond to violence in their lives, and what Jesus is saying to them and to us today is that the appropriate response is the Godly response - the response of love, the response of self-control. What a radical concept in our world today! What Jesus says to us is that if we are going to be his disciples, if Christ Church is to be a community claimed by Christ, then this is precisely who we must be. But it’s not a must, it’s a gift to be that, for that is what we have been set free to do. Paul says you have been set free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery; the yoke that binds you to your anger, to your hurt, to a need to retaliate, or a need to believe that “the other” is somehow less than you, the need to believe that those who believe differently somehow have it wrong. You have been set free to be bigger than that. You have been set free to exercise an expansive love and to exercise a life in the manner of the One who breathed you into being. Remember friends, the very God who breathed us into being, who knit us in our mother’s womb, created us in God’s own image. And here’s the truth I want you to take with you today: note that Paul says “you have been set free.” He doesn’t say you will be set free, but already have been. This capacity isn’t something that you have to struggle to bring out in you, it is knit into the very fabric of your being, and it is in your DNA, because you and I are created in the image of God— the God of love, the God of joy, the God of peace and gentleness and self-control. It’s within you friends. Paul says we have been set free. What do you say we live today, and from this moment on, as if he’s right? Previous sermon: Edgy Friends • Next sermon: Abounding Opportunities All past sermons |
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